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I'm going to clean install Windows 8 because I've been having numerous problems with it and I'm concerned about my HDD.
I have an ssd with the OS etc installed on it and a hard drive with several programs and all my documents stored on it.
Can I leave my hdd untouched and just format and reinstall on the ssd or will issues develop if I don't do the same on the hdd?
Thanks
Basically, Windows won't know about any of the apps installed on the separate HDD, so all their files will be there but none of the settings, shortcuts, or registry information - so you'll pretty much have to reinstall everything. Some of those programs might recognise that the files are already installed and so only perform the tasks necessary to let Windows know they exist; some might well overwrite the old install folder completely as part of the install process.
I thought as much. I assume all my data, pictures, videos etc can just be left the way they are.
I also have 500gb worth of games installed, looks like I'll have to reinstall all of them too..
This is going to be more work than I anticipated..
Thanks for the help
Yeah, the data will be fine :) I know Steam can be reinstalled then just pointed at the appropriate directories to pick up the games, so if the games are downloady ones you might well find that you don't need to download all the files again. But you're pretty much going to have to just try it out with each game and see what happens.
Alright makes sense. Going to have to set aside a decent amount of time to do this.
Thanks for clearing it up.
Quick update:
The whole process went fine and all problems have been resolved, however... now when I boot it takes a good 10-15 seconds to boot to desktop with my ssd when before I reinstalled it never took for than 5 seconds and usually took about 2 seconds after the BIOS splash screens. I know this is kind of petty, but I would love my uber quick boot times back.
Anyone have any idea why this is?
5 seconds seems awfully fast for that, never mind 2 seconds. Was it actually booting before, or just coming out of hibernation?
It was booting. Win8 is known for it's super quick boot times even with HDDs let alone SDDs. It would always take between 0-5 seconds and 10-15 seconds seems like an age now...Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
Fair enough. I have Win 8, on SSD, but I rarely watch any system boot, and don't use Win 8 by choice. Only when I need to. Normally, I power it up at start of day, and go make a coffee. By the time I get back it's done, but could have taken 2 seconds or 5 minutes.Quote:
Originally Posted by RDGnome
Don't forget to enable fast boot from bios and/or motherboard software that came. I am using a MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC and it came with MSI fast boot as well as the option for fast boot in the Bios.Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
Takes about 3 secs from turning on PC to reaching the desktop, much improved from my Windows 7 and 40 long seconds and thats on a SSD
Good point, and I *think* I did ... but, as I'm off making the coffee, I'm really not bothered how long it takes to boot, as long as it's not as long as it takes me to make my coffee. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by csgohan4
Rather interestingly I enabled fast boot and voila, it took its normal 2 seconds to boot.. This is odd however as I didn't have it enabled before and it would boot that quickly anyway, and BIOS settings are untouched when reinstalling Windows...Quote:
Originally Posted by csgohan4
So, really, what you need is a faster coffee production process ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
Bean to pot coffee machine with timer. Coffee starts grinding at 7am, full pot ready by the time I'm out of the shower ;) Also doubles as an alarm clock, 'cause LORDY is the grinder loud when it gets going ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by jim