Set up Windows help for two drives
Set up Windows help for two drives
I’m setting up Windows 10 again after swapping out my CPU and don’t want to wipe everything from the old boot disk. I have a second M.2 drive ready for installation, but I’m unsure if I should format just that drive or the entire third one.
I'd remove the drive that already has Windows installed and just connect the new drive. Windows may enter the boot loader on the previous drive, easiest way to avoid it is to just not connect it. There's already some data on the new drive? If you don't mind losing that data just delete the partition on it and install it on the Unused space that pops up after.
I'm not sure if I improved anything. My disk0 has a system partition, a recovery partition, and a D drive partition with about 600GB of data (previously my C drive). Disk1 has a partition that now holds my C drive. Can I reset Windows installation so it uses my old drive again? Would I be able to move everything from the D drive to the same spot on the current C drive? Or can I drag and drop all files from the D drive into the C drive?
It seems odd that disk 1 contains only one partition despite having a Windows installation. Would it help to verify if it boots without using disk 0? Yes, you can access disk 0 from the boot menu in BIOS. Simply drag and drop the necessary files there. Remember to reinstall programs properly.
Disk 1 hasn't been formatted yet, so it hasn't had windows installed on it yet. To OP: if you have "data" on your old drive that you want to save, you can easily save things like documents, music, pictures, videos etc... but transferring installed software is going to be a nightmare to try and accomplish. Personally, I'd first unplug your current (old) drive. Format and install windows on your new drive. Plug the old drive back in and copy the data over to the new drive, all the data that you can safely copy at least. (Like the music/pics/documents etc/ web browser favorites and shortcuts) Then reformat the old drive and use it as another storage device without a boot loader on it. You could "clone" the old drive to the new drive but I personally wouldn't do that and would rather start from scratch on the new drive.