Separating OS and Programs

[rofo]

Need a little help, I am building a system now and was thinking about using an m.2 pcie drive for my os and a ssd for my programs. That part is simple enough and Linus has done a video showing how to (which was very helpful), but my question is how do you handle a reinstall or clean install of a new os later with the software being on a separate drive? Is there an easy way to do this? What is the proper procedure for this? Any help would be appreciated.

[smjpl]

 but my question is how do you handle a reinstall or clean install of a new os later with the software being on a separate drive? Is there an easy way to do this? What is the proper procedure for this? Any help would be appreciated.

 

You wipe that drive and reinstall your programs. You can't just plug the SSD back in and expect all your originally installed programs to be there and work with the new OS.

 

 

Although if you have downloaded steam games to a separate location, you can reinstall stream and then point steam to that location. The games will need to be reinstalled but they will go from 0% download to 100% download and install automatically.

[Aruxx]

I'm not really clear on what you're asking, but to my understanding you want to know how hard it is to put Windows on a system with two drives (whether it's a reinstall or a first install).  When you load into the Windows disk or whatever mode of installation you are using, there will be a section talking about your drives and you will be able to format the drive that the OS was previously on, and choose the SSD for your OS drive.  Mine was already selected to be the OS when I reinstalled but that was probably because it was on SATA1.  

 

You could leave the hard drive unplugged and only have the m.2 plugged in while you put on your OS, then plug in the hard drive and format it from the OS after it's installed.  You should be able to tell the two disks apart based upon their storage size though.

 

Good luck!

 

EDIT ~ Should probably follow your own topics 

[rofo]

That is what I thought would be the answer, but my knowledge of this stuff is fair (meaning just enough to get myself in trouble), and I was hoping I just didn't know enough and there was a simpler fix. 

[rofo]

I must say though, the people in this forum are prompt and very helpful without being condescending and intimidating, that is refreshing and nice thank you. 

[Naeaes]

Let me get this straight. You wan to install windows, drivers and other essentials on one drive, say C:\ and all your programs on another, like E:\. And then be able to format and reinstall the windows on C:\ without touching anything on the E:\ -drive and be able to use the programs without having to reinstall them or go through much hassle otherwise? 

 

The trouble with this is that most programs aren't installed entirely where you install them. Some portions of them, like log files and stuff Windows need to know about them are actually installed on C:\

You can type %appdata% in the folder address field of File Manager to find the exact location. That's just how Windows needs to have it done to keep track of stuff. Windows makes the connection between those two locations and to other things like default programs and so on through it's registry. So, when you format your C:\ drive, you lose both the appdata and the registry, rendering the rest of your program usually unusable. 

 

Some programs can circumvent this. They're called "stand alone". They're usually very simple little programs and nowhere near all programs have the option. 

 

The only way I know how to achieve what you're looking for is keeping an auto-updated backup of your C:\ -drive. Either as a clone of the entire drive or a basic Windows recovery backup. And instead of reinstalling Windows, you'd just revert back to that backup version of it.