Need to clean install, but OS installed to SSD & programs to HDD

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NathanP2007

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So i have always had everything installed on one HDD with my previous PC's. So when i needed to clean install everything got wiped and so it was pretty straight forward when it came to re-installing stuff.

However, right now i have my OS installed to my SSD, and most of my programs and steam and games and files (etc) installed on a HDD. Will i be screwed and have tons of complications if i just clean install the SSD?

(The reason i set it up that way was so i wasnt filling the 120Gb SSD full of stuff like the games and music files and programs, but considering i have no experience with this, im not sure what to expect if i clean install Win 7 on the SSD and how to deal with all the stuff i have on the HDD.)

To clarify: I have had this PC up and running for about a year. It has just now in the past few days had this corruption of Windows Update. So the PC has all the stuff you would expect: Programs, Music, Pictures, Video, Games, Save files, etc. However all i installed on the SSD (OS Boot drive) is the OS and drivers and a few programs. Whenever prompted i always chose to install programs on the HDD, and music for iTunes is on the HDD, and games are installed on the HDD, and Steam is on the HDD, etc. So how does it work, when i want to clean install the OS on the SSD, considering i have all that on the HDD?

New Question in most recent reply
 
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How your OS is installed is the same way I have windows installed on all my systems. I like to keep the OS SSD nice and clean. I normally only put drivers and windows nessities on it. Everything else is either on another SSD or normal HDD. Are you worried about your games and apps being slow to load? If not I see no problem on leaving it the way you have it.
 
Banshee763 said:
How your OS is installed is the same way I have windows installed on all my systems. I like to keep the OS SSD nice and clean. I normally only put drivers and windows nessities on it. Everything else is either on another SSD or normal HDD. Are you worried about your games and apps being slow to load? If not I see no problem on leaving it the way you have it.
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Let me clarify, i HAVE to clean install the SSD because of a corruption with Windows Update. Thats exactly how mine is setup as well, and no the load times are fine, i am asking when i clean install/wipe my Windows 7 that i have been using for the past year, and install a fresh Windows on the SSD, how will it work with the HDD and everything installed there?

And how certain are we that EVERYTHING required is on the HDD? Specifically for Steam game saves and stuff. I have steam installed on the HDD, and all the games install there and id assume the game saves are there too...are they? Or are certain files on the SSD, and when i wipe it, the games (or saves) will be corrupted and not work?
 
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So windows won't boot right now at all? Can't restore from a save point? Try using install disks and letting windows try to repair itself?
 
Banshee763 said:
So windows won't boot right now at all? Can't restore from a save point? Try using install disks and letting windows try to repair itself?
Click to expand...

No its fine, just Windows Update (s) fail instantly because of a corruption, and the manual way to repair it would take really long, so im going with clean installing my OS. There arent any save points before a few days ago that i can find. I dont believe repairing will do anything in this case.
 
All of my steam save games are in the "documents/my games folder" which is on my SSD. So if your setup is anything like mine... You should back up all your game saves before wiping the drive. I had the same update fail when I installed windows 8. Happened about a week after install. I tried to repair from disks with no aval, windows wouldnt even boot. Just kept restarting trying to install updated. I got fed up and powered down. All of a sudden 2 day later when i boot it up to fix it, the updates were working fine. Not that this is your situation, but just my experience.
 
Your steam apps should be fine. I had to wipe my OS and my steam apps were sitting on a HDD. Opening a game would basically re-install the game. No problems so far. Don't forget to backup your game saves in your user document folder before re-installing Windows.

As for programs, most likely you will have to re-install them. Some may work. YMMV.

I install all programs to my OS SSD and then create a system backup to quickly recover. This beats having to re-install Windows and it many updates. If you didn't create a system backup welcome to the joy of re-installing Windows with a hundred updates. :D
 
Your Steam games should work, but other programs such as Office, Photoshop, etc will have to be re-installed as the registry entries would be wiped out by the clean installation of Windows.

In the future, it's best to do what KENNYB suggested. Install the OS and all of your applications and updates, let everything run for a few days to make sure it's all working, and then create a system backup using Clonezilla or some other utility. This way, if something happens, you can just restore the system backup without having to go through all of the rigamorolle of installing everything again.
 
I typically do this type of installation on my home systems. So all of my apps and such are on the hdd while the OS is on the SSD. It makes installation very easy and pretty quick, because once windows is installed, when I go to run the install apps, like steam and office and such, they recognize they were already installed, so it happens pretty quick. I can generally do a fresh formatted installation with all of my app installs, including games, in about 30 to 40 minutes, (installing off of usb key).
 
OK heres a problem i might have run into. Just fresh re-installed Windows 7, then upgraded it (so my Key would work). And i notice in My Computer my drives are not in the same order. Im betting that isnt a good thing. Considering like Ob1, i have (for example) steam installed on a non OS hard drive, and it used to be one letter and now its another.

I know theres the Drive Management and i can change the lettering, but i've never done that before. Will it be easy to change the lettering?
 
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Yep.

Search "Computer Management" in the start menu.

Go to "Storage" then "Disk Management"

You can reassign drive letters there. You can't do drive letter swaps in one click though.

So if you want to swap D:\ and E:\, you will need to make E:\, F:\ (or any random letter) before you can re-assign drive letter E:\ to (what was originally) D:\, then F:\ to D:\
 
mda said:
Yep.

Search "Computer Management" in the start menu.

Go to "Storage" then "Disk Management"

You can reassign drive letters there. You can't do drive letter swaps in one click though.

So if you want to swap D:\ and E:\, you will need to make E:\, F:\ (or any random letter) before you can re-assign drive letter E:\ to (what was originally) D:\, then F:\ to D:\
Click to expand...

Ok good, thats what i was wondering if i would have to do. :) thank you.

Is there a way to change the DVD and Bluray drive assigned letters?
 
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In all honesty, i think its way easier to have everything on one hard drive and wipe it all and start fresh and install everything again than this half way crap cause i have a bunch of stuff installed on a HDD while my OS is on my SSD.

Ok what im experiencing now. All my stuff (non-OS) is on the HDD, programs and games installed on it. I found steam installed on it, double clicked the exe and steam loaded...but when i click any of my games, they basically start installing from scratch...when on that HDD the games are fully installed. Whats going on? Im tempted to say fuck it and just delete it all from the HDD and DL steam from steam.com and install it again. This whole "everything but OS is installed on separate HDD, its so convent!" isnt panning out. Is what i described what you guys have experienced or not?

Do you guys just not care, let the stuff install, and then put a shortcut on your desktop?

And if i do want to remove them, theres no "uninstall" way, i just delete the folder right?
 
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NathanP2007 said:
OK heres a problem i might have run into. Just fresh re-installed Windows 7, then upgraded it (so my Key would work). And i notice in My Computer my drives are not in the same order. Im betting that isnt a good thing. Considering like Ob1, i have (for example) steam installed on a non OS hard drive, and it used to be one letter and now its another.

I know theres the Drive Management and i can change the lettering, but i've never done that before. Will it be easy to change the lettering?
Click to expand...

When you install windows to an SSD you should disable all the other hard drives, not sure why but I have heard that. Anyway if you are like me and need to have all the drives in the order you want them in without the sloppy hack of changing drive letters, just rearrange the SATA cables so they are hooked up in the order you want them to be initialized. You can use your phone to record the POST screens to see what order they are currently installed in, I say use phone because that screen goes by too fast, record it and you can pause the video to see.
 
FYMbyIce said:
When you install windows to an SSD you should disable all the other hard drives, not sure why but I have heard that. Anyway if you are like me and need to have all the drives in the order you want them in without the sloppy hack of changing drive letters, just rearrange the SATA cables so they are hooked up in the order you want them to be initialized. You can use your phone to record the POST screens to see what order they are currently installed in, I say use phone because that screen goes by too fast, record it and you can pause the video to see.
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Well im already a bit past that. I have figured out how to change them like can be read in the past few posts. Right now its a matter of the stuff installed on the HDD...im not sure if i should just go along with doing whats happening or delete it all and start fresh.

When i for example open Steam which is installed on the HDD, and click to play Skyrim, and it says it needs to start installing it (yet theres a Skyrim folder thats full, aka its installed on the HDD) should i just let it install? Will it be installed twice now on the HDD?

And i think im noticing back when things were a tiny bit connected to the OS SSD...they ran faster. Now when i open Steam which is completely on the HDD, it takes a minute and even the visuals load slow.
 
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This is so annoying. I would be done and everything would be perfect and setup smoothly if it had been all on a HDD (OS and programs) like i had pre-SSD.

What happens and what do you do when you guys install windows 8 or re-install 7? Cause basically everyone now has their OS on a SSD and games on a HDD so what do you guys do?
 
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NathanP2007 said:
What happens and what do you do when you guys install windows 8 or re-install 7? Cause basically everyone now has their OS on a SSD and games on a HDD so what do you guys do?
Click to expand...

the answer is in the thread already for reinstalling

KENNYB said:
I install all programs to my OS SSD and then create a system backup to quickly recover. This beats having to re-install Windows and it many updates.
Click to expand...

Lord Nassirbannipal said:
In the future, it's best to do what KENNYB suggested. Install the OS and all of your applications and updates, let everything run for a few days to make sure it's all working, and then create a system backup using Clonezilla or some other utility. This way, if something happens, you can just restore the system backup without having to go through all of the rigamorolle of installing everything again.
Click to expand...
 
Im past that point J-sta...thats a good idea and i should do that, but im not talking about that anymore. Im am talking about getting my programs to work that are on the HDD. How do you guys connect them from the HDD back to the OS?

To be clear the issue i am having. Normally with everything on a HDD (OS and programs and games) i would reinstall Win 7, and then start installing fresh everything, Steam, Origin, etc. And start redownloading and installing my games, and put the save game files back where they belong so my saves are there. Now with the SSD being freshly installed with Win 7, but i have the separate HDD that has my programs and games and steam on it. But when i open say steam, and try to start a game, it says it needs to download it and install it. Yet when i look in my HDD's programs folder, i clearly see the games are installed onto it. So should i go with the motions of what Steam wants? or should i just delete basically everything on the HDD (programs , games) and reinstall them the old fashion way (download steam installer, install it) and then it shows up in Start>Programs cause it was installed through C onto my HDD.
 
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For your new installation to recognize your Steam folder and games its a fairly simple procedure. Delete everything in the steam folder except steam.exe and the steamapps folder, then run steam.

Moving A Steam Installation
 
Tark said:
For your new installation to recognize your Steam folder and games its a fairly simple procedure. Delete everything in the steam folder except steam.exe and the steamapps folder, then run steam.

Moving A Steam Installation
Click to expand...

That link doesnt work. Can you get one that does im very interested to see what it says. Im inclined to take this opportunity to move my steam to my 256Gb SSD that i bought specifically to be a steam drive...
 
NathanP2007 said:
Im past that point J-sta...thats a good idea and i should do that, but im not talking about that anymore.
Click to expand...

your post that asked the question, which was just prior to mine, was the question I answered. And it was only 40 minutes after you posted that question.

I'm sorry if you were "past that point" 40 minutes after asking the question.
 
So i guess im kinda screwed if my SteamApps folder is 260Gb and the "Steam SSD" i have is 256Gb? Its hard for my to believe i have 260Gb worth of games on Steam i dont have that many...hmm.
 
Moving a Steam Installation and Games
How do I install my games to a different location?
How can I move Steam to a different location?


Steam installs to the following folder by default:

C:\Program Files\Steam

Files for games installed on Steam are stored in the following folder:

C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\

During the installation of Steam, you have the option to install Steam to a location other than the default. Since Steam relies on the game files residing in the SteamApps folder, your game files cannot be moved outside of this folder. The game files must be in the SteamApps folder in order to function.

If Steam is already installed, you may move the installation to another location, such as a different hard drive using the following process.



Moving Your Steam Installation


Important:

Please ensure that you have your Steam account name and password before following this procedure. Also ensure that your account is linked to your current email address so that you can reset your password if necessary.

It is not recommended that you install Steam to an external hard drive due to potential performance issues.


Warning:

It is highly recommended that you create a backup of your SteamApps folder before attempting this process. If there is a problem in this process and you do not have a backup of your games or the SteamApps folder, it will be necessary to reinstall the games individually. Please see the Using the Steam Backup Feature topic.

The following instructions are a simple way to move your Steam installation along with your games:
1.Exit the Steam client application.
2.Browse to the Steam installation folder for the Steam installation you would like to move (C:\Program Files\Steam by default).
3.Delete all of the files and folders except the SteamApps folder and Steam.exe
4.Cut and paste the whole Steam folder to the new location, for example: D:\Games\Steam\
5.Launch Steam and log into your account.

Steam will briefly update and then you will be logged into your account. For installed games, verify your game cache files and you will be ready to play. All future game content will be downloaded to the new folder (D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\ in this example)



If you encounter any errors during the move process or when Steam is launched from the new location, it may be necessary to perform a more thorough process:
1.Exit the Steam client application.
2.Browse to the Steam installation folder for the Steam installation (continuing the from the last section example, this would be the new location of D:\Games\Steam\.
3.Move the SteamApps folder from the Steam installation folder to your desktop.
4.Review the Uninstalling Steam topic for instructions to uninstall Steam (this must be done to remove your old Steam installation settings from the Windows Registry).
5.Review the Installing Steam topic for instructions to re-install Steam to the desired location.
6.Move the SteamApps folder into the new Steam installation folder to copy all of your downloaded game content, settings, and saved games to the new location.
7.Start Steam and log in to your existing Steam account to confirm that the move was successful.
8.For installed games, verify your game cache files and you will be ready to play.




Important:

If you are moving your Steam installation to a new hard drive and want to keep game saves/profiles for third party games that are not saved on Steam Cloud most of these can be found in your Documents folder: ~\Documents\[username]\My Games\. Moving this folder to the same location on your new hard drive will maintain your saves/profiles.
 
I have 2 SSD's in Raid-0 that gives me 480GB of space. I keep my OS, games and windows application on the main drive.

I keep the "My Documents" folder and other storage stuff on my 1TB HDD, works like a charm. If I am going to wipe my drive and install 8 fresh, I just copy my steam directory over to the HDD and copy it back once my install is over.
 
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