thinking of formatting

D1craig

D1craig

D1craig

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seeing as windows 10 is coming out soon (im thinking i have many missed updates that include things for this) i am thinking of formatting my computer if i dont have any other oiptions.

i have just bought another SSD. its only a 120gb so i was going to put my OS on it anyway.

do i have to format my SSD to get rid of the windows on it? its a 250gb so i want to have my games on it and stuff.

i am actually having problems with windows updates, i have not been able to do any since before xmas. i have googled it and gone through lots and lots of ways to fix it and none of it worked. this isnt something i am after fixing, i am just informing you about it.

also can i move my games from the current ssd into my hdd and they will still be playable? im sure the last time i did this i needed to download one of my bigger games again.
 
D1craig said:
also can i move my games from the current ssd into my hdd and they will still be playable? im sure the last time i did this i needed to download one of my bigger games again.
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Yes I did the same thing when I upgraded to 2TB hard drive years ago and moved all games folders from 1TB hard drive to 2TB hard drive then ran games installers like Steam, Origin etc to detect I already had all files in folders then verify all files and after that I can play games. :) You don't really need to redownload all your games again.
 
I have2 ssds in my system and I have my steam games on the second and os my OS on the other so you can move your games library.

once you have formatted install steam and add a library, point it to where your games are now stored nd should be fine as I do this all the time
 
As a point of note:

If you install Steam to the none-OS drive, you don't have to reinstall it after a format, just run the Steam.exe as an admin the first time and you're done.

No SteamGuard lockouts, timers, redownloading, lost games nothing.

Been doing this for years.
 
GDL said:
As a point of note:

If you install Steam to the none-OS drive, you don't have to reinstall it after a format, just run the Steam.exe as an admin the first time and you're done.

No SteamGuard lockouts, timers, redownloading, lost games nothing.

Been doing this for years.
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thats just what i wanted to see..all my games inc steam is on my d: drive :D
 
Just make sure that the OS is fully updated with all patches, C++ ect.

If you find a game, and I haven't yet, that does have issues, rerun the prerequisites for that game from the Steam game installer folder.
 
GDL said:
As a point of note:

If you install Steam to the none-OS drive, you don't have to reinstall it after a format, just run the Steam.exe as an admin the first time and you're done.

No SteamGuard lockouts, timers, redownloading, lost games nothing.

Been doing this for years.
Click to expand...

does this work if the games where installed on the OSdrive? i have a new one now and am going to use that as the OSdrive.

so my question is/was - to get rid of windows from my OSdrive that i am going to be using for games do i need to format that drive?
 
Use something like Steam mover to move the games to a none-os drive first or you will lose them when you format that drive.

My setup is this.
C = OS
D = Steam installed path and games in default location. (No other Valve libraries)

If I want to get a larger drive, I can just move everything to the new drive and give the new drive the same drive letter, or I can format the OS drive at will and just run Steam as an admin the first time.
 
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GDL said:
Use something like Steam mover to move the games to a none-os drive first or you will lose them when you format that drive.

My setup is this.
C = OS
D = Steam installed path and games in default location. (No other Valve libraries)

If I want to get a larger drive, I can just move everything to the new drive and give the new drive the same drive letter, or I can format the OS drive at will and just run Steam as an admin the first time.
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ok thank you for the help so far.

i actually had this SSD as just a programs and OS drive but as time went on and it was even close to half full i decided to put some of my more performance needing games ie. WoW, Ark (some are steam games) etc etc. this meant that i had split my steam into two, some games on my SSD and some on my HDD. can i move this stuff on the SSD to the HDD even though they both have steam on them?
 
can you help me a bit more? i have gone past all that we have talked about.

now i put windows on my F drive (the new SSD) and want to format the C drive (the old SSD) anyway you can help me do this? i cant do it from the disk management program.

then i will want to change the F to the C drive just letters wise so it cant be that difficult can it?

it also makes me pick a windows 7 to boot from when i turn the computer on :S removes the need for a fast SSD boot drive if this is happening.
 
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Swapping the boot volume driver letter will be tricky. I'm afraid I don't know of a way of doing that.
You might want to just unplug the other drives, then reinstall windows to the new SSD so it's C. but others might be able to help you swap the letter.

*** Edit, Did some Google'in and you can't do it within Windows, you can do it.. but it's not pretty or easy.. Personally, I'd remove the other drives physically and reinstall windows to the right SSD, but that's me. ***

For the old SSD:
If you can't do it from the disk management.. Do you get an error?

Try using 'Diskpart' from a command prompt. (if you have an old USB memory stick, try the commands on that first :) )

Start, run, type in CMD and press enter.
Type Diskpart (press enter) - When I type this () it means press enter from here.

Type:
List disk ()
Select disk <Enter the disk number here that's your old SSD> ()
Clean Disk ()

You can then use the disk management to give it a volume and partition.
 
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ok so it sounds like i have just made it a lot more difficult lol. spent like 3-4 hours doing it this afternoon lmao.

so i will do it all again sometime this week and do it properly.

i always make a mess when i rush stuff lmao.
 
I'd wait for Windows 10 to launch. You'll need a qualifying product installed anyway to get it Windows 10 to activate. Backup your files and install the Windows 10 upgrade then do the reset procedure from within Windows 10 to get a lovely clean install.
 
That's why I'm doing this mate. My windows update is screwed. Hasn't done any updating since December and I can't for the life of me find a fix that works. And from reading up windows 10 is going to be done through windows update feature so I don't want to miss the Opportunity for a hugely expensive peice of software like windows for free.
 
D1craig said:
can you help me a bit more? i have gone past all that we have talked about.

now i put windows on my F drive (the new SSD) and want to format the C drive (the old SSD) anyway you can help me do this? i cant do it from the disk management program.

then i will want to change the F to the C drive just letters wise so it cant be that difficult can it?

it also makes me pick a windows 7 to boot from when i turn the computer on :S removes the need for a fast SSD boot drive if this is happening.
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Yes you can change OS drive letter easy. I done it before, it really very easy and not that difficult. :p

Follow Microsoft guide below how to change OS drive letter using regedit.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/223188

Remember to backup your registry settings first before change drive letters!!!

In case things gone wrong, follow guide below you can restore registry to old settings.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/wi...-prompt-to-edit-the-registry-or-recover-data/
 
When installing Windows, remove all other disks from the system (physically disconnect the sata cables)

Now install Windows, this will ensure that your boot files don't end up on another drive and your windows drive letter will be C.

If you haven't done this, start over and do it again. There's no clean way to change the drive letter without running into problems.
 
D1craig said:
That's why I'm doing this mate. My windows update is screwed. Hasn't done any updating since December and I can't for the life of me find a fix that works. And from reading up windows 10 is going to be done through windows update feature so I don't want to miss the Opportunity for a hugely expensive peice of software like windows for free.
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Last time my Windows 8.1 update screwed up was back in 2014 on dad laptop, I manually repaired and reinstalled Windows Update to get it worked again, been done it about 5 times years ago with Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.

Follow guides below to repair Windows Update:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/971058
https://www.winhelp.us/reinstall-windows-update.html

Noticed Microsoft now has Fixit tool to automatically repair and reinstall Windows Update.
 
Thanx for all the help guys. I am just going to start a fresh and do it the right way. Unplugging some drives etc.

I have files on my HDD which doesn't need anything so I can just leave that one. But the other two need to be formatted I think.
 
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