Remove an OS installation without removing files?

[lyndonguitar]

Its been a while since I did this sort of thing and I need help, I bought an 120gb SSD(Crucial M500) and will install windows 8 on it to be my boot OS/Drive later,

however I still have my very old Windows 7 installed on my 1TB drive(still currently my boot drive). I plan to keep most of the files in that Drive, but not the actual OS itself.. and I don't plan on dual booting, how can I remove the windows 7 on the 1TB Drive but still keep the non-OS files in there for backup purposes while I'm still setting up my new OS?

 

[Drone]

There's no way to keep files and delete OS without installing a new OS. You can create a new partition on that drive, drop your files there and format partition with OS.

 

[Ja.KooLit]

pls somebody will correct me.

I dont think there is like a "windows" uninstaller. As far as I know what you can do is,

install win 8 on your SSD, plug in your 1TB HDD, copy files to somewhere, external HDD, then format that 1TB HDD.

Thats the best I could think of.

if not, what you can do is if there is enough space in your 1TB HDD, you could make another partition, copy over the files in that new partition. and then format the OLD windows installation partition.

 

[lyndonguitar]

Okay, I guess I'll just use both OS'es for now, with Windows 8.1 being the default one. When I don't need the Windows 7(and the files) anymore I will just reformat it

 

[ne6togadno]

if you used win7 default folders for your files (my docs, my pics etc.) you can find those files in [put correct drive letter for hdd here]:\users
you can keep this folder and delete from hdd
[put correct drive letter for hdd here]:\windows,
[put correct drive letter for hdd here]:\program files (x86 too),
[put correct drive letter for hdd here]:\program data

this will clear most of the old win7 from hdd.

 

[brandonwh64]

MBR will still show a windows install on it. What I would do is just copy those files over and format that drive

 

[ne6togadno]

MBR will still show a windows install on it. What I would do is just copy those files over and format that drive

if win8 is intalled on sdd and answer no when win intaller ask you if you want to make dual os boot it wont matter.
pc will boot with boot record of ssd and hdd boot wont be even read. also most likely win7 is intalled in sata mod while on ssd win8 will be installed on achi mode. you cant boot from win installed in sata mod when controler is set to achi (checked and proven). this makes dual boot impossible even it you make dual boot mbr on win8 install. win7 simply wont boot.
i have xp install on hdd and win7 on ssd and dont have any problems.

 

[brandonwh64]

if win8 is intalled on sdd and answer no when win intaller ask you if you want to make dual os boot it wont wont matter.
pc will boot with boot record of ssd and hdd boot wont be even read. also most likely win7 is intalled in sata mod while on ssd win8 will be installed on achi mode. you cant boot from win installed in sata mod when controler is set to achi (checked and proven)
i have xp install on hdd and win7 on ssd and dont have any problems.

And you also are loosing some data not much but still of the system reserve partition. I dunno it may work well for some people but I have had issues with that in the past.

 

[ne6togadno]

there isnt user data on system reserve partition you shoudl worry about.
this partition holds mbr and win boot data.
when i think about it now i have also win7 on ssd+ win7 on hdd in my pc with no issues. however when i have installed win7 on ssd, hdd was disconnected so there wasnt any interaction between 2 so during install.
i have read in ocz's abc guide that when installing win on ssd it is better all other drives to be disconected so windows cant move some of the system files/folders to other drive (i personaly hate when devs think they know better then me what i want)

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

Isn't there a simpler solution to all of these shenanigans?

Go into the boot menu, choose the SSD as the only drive to boot from. The Windows 7 drive will be ignored on startup, so you should be good.

Has that changed recently? I've been dual booting, so I haven't checked. Last time I wanted to prevent booting from a specific OS that's what I did.

 

[ne6togadno]

Isn't there a simpler solution to all of these shenanigans?

Go into the boot menu, choose the SSD as the only drive to boot from. The Windows 7 drive will be ignored on startup, so you should be good.

Has that changed recently? I've been dual booting, so I haven't checked. Last time I wanted to prevent booting from a specific OS that's what I did.

there is a lot of ways to not let windows to dual boot. OP question was how to remove win7 from hdd but to keep user data after win8 is installed on sdd.
everything else is a bit of off topic

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

there is a lot of ways to not let windows to dual boot. OP question was how to remove win7 from hdd but to keep user data after win8 is installed on sdd.
everything else is a bit of off topic

Fair point.

After reading the actual post, it seems like the OP just wanted to make sure the OS defaulted to the new install. Maintaining the old OS drive, until everything could be migrated, seemed like a more stable course of action than burning out the OS without having a proper backup. Apparently my reading was different than others.

 

[Mindweaver]

I would just delete or rename the "Windows" directory. Just set the boot drive to the new drive. You'll never see the other windows install. I've done this many times for users that didn't want to move files to another drive and wipe it and move it back. I would suggest to just rename it to "OLD Windows" in the event something happens to your new drive all you have to do is rename the "OLD Windows" back to "Windows" and set the drive to boot and tada you have a working pc. It's true the MBR will still show a Windows install on the drive, but if it can't find the "Windows" directory then it won't boot, and tell you the boot drives not found. But like I said if you set the correct drive to boot then you'll never see it. The biggest reason I even rename the "Windows" directory is in the event the bios gets reset the user doesn't go into the wrong Windows and start working on the wrong drive. Also, for anyone that's worried about seeing 2 windows on every start up. This only happens if there are 2 Windows installs on the same drive. I'm heading to a meeting, and I'll check back in a few hours.

 

[lyndonguitar]

Okay thanks guys, I guess you really have to reformat the drive to uninstall windows, I tried deleting the windows 7 files while booted to my Windows 8 and it won't let me,

What I did was just copy over the files I need to another drive temporarily, when I feel like I've copied everything important then I will reformat it and put back the files

 

[Steevo]

If you reinstall windows it will copy everything to a folder on the drive called windows old. Copy and paste back out from there.

 

[Ja.KooLit]

i guess not a lot of people read first the post before replying. lol. They just read title and then just reply