F5F Stay Refreshed Hardware Notebooks Can I get some advice on how to organize my disk drives?

Can I get some advice on how to organize my disk drives?

Can I get some advice on how to organize my disk drives?

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UniversalAngel
Junior Member
7
05-04-2026, 10:52 PM
#1
I am going to wipe all partitions again. This was the first time I did it, and there were three options for me. I do not know which partition goes where or what each one represents. I just guessed, but I think I got it wrong when I formatted them. All I know is that my laptop is much slower than molasses, even though I have a 500GB SSD and a lot of RAM, like 1TB. It takes forever to load the computer up, and it was never this slow before. It used to be SO fast. Anyway, can anyone tell me how to do this correctly please? I am a complete newbie when it comes to these things. My laptop is an ASUS ROG Strix GL702VS-DS74
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UniversalAngel
05-04-2026, 10:52 PM #1

I am going to wipe all partitions again. This was the first time I did it, and there were three options for me. I do not know which partition goes where or what each one represents. I just guessed, but I think I got it wrong when I formatted them. All I know is that my laptop is much slower than molasses, even though I have a 500GB SSD and a lot of RAM, like 1TB. It takes forever to load the computer up, and it was never this slow before. It used to be SO fast. Anyway, can anyone tell me how to do this correctly please? I am a complete newbie when it comes to these things. My laptop is an ASUS ROG Strix GL702VS-DS74

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StylishGamer44
Junior Member
5
05-05-2026, 01:48 AM
#2
So, what are you doing after you've already formatted? Do you want to start fresh with a new Windows installation? Or maybe something else? Honestly, we don't know much here. It's really hard to tell if reformatting or reinstalling is the best idea for your situation.
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StylishGamer44
05-05-2026, 01:48 AM #2

So, what are you doing after you've already formatted? Do you want to start fresh with a new Windows installation? Or maybe something else? Honestly, we don't know much here. It's really hard to tell if reformatting or reinstalling is the best idea for your situation.

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Halfblooded97
Junior Member
42
05-06-2026, 04:44 AM
#3
You start by using Windows setup discs, then run the Clean Disk command in DiskPart to wipe everything.
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Halfblooded97
05-06-2026, 04:44 AM #3

You start by using Windows setup discs, then run the Clean Disk command in DiskPart to wipe everything.

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Jujuspinx
Member
53
05-06-2026, 01:35 PM
#4
And there are no laptops with that much RAM. Most of us only have less than 16GB. A terabyte is usually a hard drive, not fast like an SSD. I think you put Windows on the old hard drive, right? That would make sense if your computer felt slow compared to molasses.
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Jujuspinx
05-06-2026, 01:35 PM #4

And there are no laptops with that much RAM. Most of us only have less than 16GB. A terabyte is usually a hard drive, not fast like an SSD. I think you put Windows on the old hard drive, right? That would make sense if your computer felt slow compared to molasses.

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feriSVK
Member
71
05-06-2026, 05:08 PM
#5
I'm sorry. Yes, my next step is to reinstall Windows using a USB key. My plan is to wipe everything so it's faster and stop any viruses from spying on me. You can let me make some mistakes; I don't really know how computers work well. You're right that I probably installed Windows on the hard drive instead of the solid state drive, but the labels are confusing because they just say Partition 1, Partition 2, etc., without telling you which is what. I'll have to try this again and honestly forget all the old steps. When I see those three partitions listed up there, how do I know which one is for the data and which is for the system? Thinking about it makes my memory fuzzy a bit. I'm sure that menu was for where I wanted to put Windows back. It's been over a year since then, and now my PC acts very buggy, deleting files by itself or not loading Google Maps. I need to wipe this thing clean and start fresh so I don't make the same mistake before again and prefer doing it correctly this time.
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feriSVK
05-06-2026, 05:08 PM #5

I'm sorry. Yes, my next step is to reinstall Windows using a USB key. My plan is to wipe everything so it's faster and stop any viruses from spying on me. You can let me make some mistakes; I don't really know how computers work well. You're right that I probably installed Windows on the hard drive instead of the solid state drive, but the labels are confusing because they just say Partition 1, Partition 2, etc., without telling you which is what. I'll have to try this again and honestly forget all the old steps. When I see those three partitions listed up there, how do I know which one is for the data and which is for the system? Thinking about it makes my memory fuzzy a bit. I'm sure that menu was for where I wanted to put Windows back. It's been over a year since then, and now my PC acts very buggy, deleting files by itself or not loading Google Maps. I need to wipe this thing clean and start fresh so I don't make the same mistake before again and prefer doing it correctly this time.

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Satazix
Junior Member
15
05-13-2026, 10:22 PM
#6
This feature shows both drives and how big they are in gigabytes. You can use this to spot a solid state drive (SSD) from an old hard disk drive (HDD), since the SSD will usually be much smaller.
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Satazix
05-13-2026, 10:22 PM #6

This feature shows both drives and how big they are in gigabytes. You can use this to spot a solid state drive (SSD) from an old hard disk drive (HDD), since the SSD will usually be much smaller.

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KanayOne
Member
212
05-14-2026, 12:17 AM
#7
The safest move is to turn off every drive except one that's meant for the Windows setup. If you have anything important on a drive, copy it to another place before doing this. You don't need to format the drive first, even though you can if you want. The USB stick you use to install Windows will handle all of that for you. When you plug it in and start up your computer, it should show you what partitions are there and let you delete them right then and there. Do exactly that. Your drive becomes completely empty space. Then, put the Windows installer on top of that empty area. You'll get a few new partitions created as part of the process.
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KanayOne
05-14-2026, 12:17 AM #7

The safest move is to turn off every drive except one that's meant for the Windows setup. If you have anything important on a drive, copy it to another place before doing this. You don't need to format the drive first, even though you can if you want. The USB stick you use to install Windows will handle all of that for you. When you plug it in and start up your computer, it should show you what partitions are there and let you delete them right then and there. Do exactly that. Your drive becomes completely empty space. Then, put the Windows installer on top of that empty area. You'll get a few new partitions created as part of the process.