Installing Windows without Formatting HDD?

[TheTechyBrit]

Not sure if this is posted in the right place... sorry!

 

Okay so, I'll try and word this out as best I can...

For  while now, I have been using a Raspberry Pi with an exteral hard drive and Samba as a cheap form of network attached storage but I would like to make use of some of the features of WHS such as the "Add-ins" and it's backup utility. I just found an old PC and I wanted to make a NAS/WHS out of that. In my main PC I currently have an 80GB 7200RPM WD hard drive for my OS and also a 500GB 7200.10RPM drive which I use for storing my small media collection and all of my games.

The problem is, I would like to use the 80GB drive as the boot drive in my WHS (I realise you need atleast a 160GB but I found a workaround with the config.ini file in the .ISO) that means I'll need to install Windows 8.1 onto my Seagate 500GB drive but I don't want to have to re-install all of my Steam/Origin games again as my broadband is pretty damn slow where I am in this part of the UK

 

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas. Thanks. 

 

[P3rad0X]

You can install windows without formatting.

 

It will create a windows.old file with all the files from the previous install

[MrBucket101]

@TheTechyBrit If it were me, I would partition the drive first.

 

run a defrag on it (speeds up the shrink/resize time), then resize/shrink the current partition, then create another partition with the new free space.

 

Install windows onto the new partition.

[TheTechyBrit]

@TheTechyBrit If it were me, I would partition the drive first.

 

run a defrag on it (speeds up the shrink/resize time), then resize/shrink the current partition, then create another partition with the new free space.

 

Install windows onto the new partition.

Thanks for helping out. I'll try that, sounds like it will work

[TheTechyBrit]

You can install windows without formatting.

 

It will create a windows.old file with all the files from the previous install

Unfortunately I don't think that would work since I'll be installing on a different drive. Thanks for your help though

[MrBucket101]

Thanks for helping out. I'll try that, sounds like it will work

It should, I beleive you'll also need to remove the boot flag on the old partition, and add it to the new one

[TheTechyBrit]

It should, I beleive you'll also need to remove the boot flag on the old partition, and add it to the new one

Yeah I can do that. I'll be putting the drive in the NAS in about a week when I have the time so I should have enough time to get everything ready for the boot drive change. Thanks once again.