Any way to delete windows and keep files on a HDD?

[Cyberspirit]

Hey i installed an SSD as a boot drive and i'd like to remove the old windows from my HDD. Is that possible?

[Beskamir]

ummm as far as I know I think the only solution is to manually go through and remove OS specific files while keeping "data" specific files. It'd be nice to know if there some automatic solution.

[Cyberspirit]

@ElfFriend Well i really hope that there is a solution because i have a LOT of stuff on that Hard drive and copying everything from that to my backup drive would take a while for sure.

[Beskamir]

You could probably just go through and delete windows specific stuff (after copying whatever settings you want in your new windows install)

[Cyberspirit]

@ElfFriend I can try that i guess but it might be a tedious process.

[Tech_Dreamer]

Finally , this is the day you've been waiting for , You can delete System 32 folder

 

Afaik , You have to manually go through the old "C" drive folders & pick & delete stuff , i would recommend moving necessary files over to another partition & just format the  old system drive & just move the files back in use it as a regular partition.

[BestPCBuilder2017]

3 hours ago, Cyberspirit said:

Hey i installed an SSD as a boot drive

ok

3 hours ago, Cyberspirit said:

and i'd like to remove the old windows from my HDD. Is that possible?

What do you mean by "remove"? 

Are you planning on making it a mass storage device for things like audio, pictures, videos, etc...?

[Cyberspirit]

2 minutes ago, NCIX Lampy said:

Are you planning on making it a mass storage device for things like audio, pictures, videos, etc...?

Yes.

Games and just general stuff.

[BestPCBuilder2017]

3 hours ago, Cyberspirit said:

Yes.

Games and just general stuff.

I mean personally that's not the way I would go about doing things but if you must insist, 

 

I would move all of the files you want to keep to a folder and appropriate sub folders then delete everything other than the files you want to keep on the drive. 

 

Example: 

Let's say your HDD is assigned the letter B, that would be the B drive. I would go to the B drive in Windows, then make a folder and sub folders, then move everything you want to keep to those folders, then delete everything other than those folders on the drive. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

All of your personal data and program settings are in C:\Users. Though rarely program settings reside in C:\ProgramData.

 

You can delete everything but those. However I would imagine your new install will throw a fit about file permissions.

[beanhubbleday]

8 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

All of your personal data and program settings are in C:\Users. Though rarely program settings reside in C:\ProgramData.

 

You can delete everything but those. However I would imagine your new install will throw a fit about file permissions.

Move all of your data to a USB drive/SSD (If you have enough storgae) format the HDD and place data abck on it.

 

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