Remove Old Windows

[elf_lord_ZC5]

Hi,

Windows 10 was installed on a terrabyte hard drive, which was dead slow.

Put in a SSD and installed Windows 10 onto it.

Now cannot get rid of the Windows 10 on the original terrabyte hard drive. Disk Cleanup tool does nothing to it.

If my Wife did not have her photos all over the place on that harddrive I would just format it.

Ideas please.

 

[ld13]

Count me confused, ... how is it in the way? Does it show at boot time?
Does it show here? Start>CMD>msconfig

 

[elf_lord_ZC5]

Gets in the way, as some programs, pick up on the old windows, it takes up a lot of hard drive real estate.

Will look where you show, but my guess would be not.

 

[Smiggles]

Backup the photos and then format it.

 

[WAslayer]

Disk cleanup, being native Windows utility, is not going to work.. It detects Windows installation even for non-C drive installs..

You could try Treesize, there is a free version, but I have not tried deleting protected Windows files on non-C drive using it, so you can let us know if that works or not..

 

[Heisenborg]

Copy the photos off the old drive and format it. I don't understand the issue

 

[NarrowBandFtw]

Backup the photos and then format it.

this

might also want (once you have the stuff you want to keep backed up) to fire up disk manager and delete any remaining boot or swap or other weird and wonderful partitions on the HDD

then resize the data partition to use the full disk, then format, then copy backed up files back onto it

 

[B-1]

You can delete it with a Linux boot USB but the best thing is to just find the photos ack them up and do a full partition/format.

Searching for *.jpg *.jpeg etc should get you there.

 

[ld13]

Gets in the way, as some programs, pick up on the old windows, it takes up a lot of hard drive real estate.

Will look where you show, but my guess would be not.

What programs? I have moved to new drives many many times and never had an issue. In fact, my old windows always remain in tact and act as a backup.

But the proper way will remain the best: Backing up the photos and formatting.

 

[elf_lord_ZC5]

You can delete it with a Linux boot USB but the best thing is to just find the photos ack them up and do a full partition/format.

Searching for *.jpg *.jpeg etc should get you there.

This basically has been, where I see this heading.

Except, I will find all *.exe, *.dll, *.bat, *.cmd files first, and delete.

Will remove a lot of files, and make any other searches faster.

But deloldos d:/ would have been nicer.

 

[HermeticAnarchist]

Have you tried anti-virus?

 

[Heisenborg]

This thread is giving me cancer

Just copy your files and format

 

[elf_lord_ZC5]

What programs? I have moved to new drives many many times and never had an issue. In fact, my old windows always remain in tact and act as a backup.

But the proper way will remain the best: Backing up the photos and formatting.

Photo printing, editing and viewing, Firefox and some others.

Do not want, or need a "windows" backup.

Deleting as many files as possible, that are not needed. Will make searches for the files that are wanted faster.

 

[elf_lord_ZC5]

This thread is giving me cancer

Just copy your files and format

If they where all in one place and properly organized if would be a doddle ...

 

[Smiggles]

If they where all in one place and properly organized if would be a doddle ...

Everything search https://www.voidtools.com/ and just search for jpeg etc files.

 

[ld13]

Photo printing, editing and viewing, Firefox and some others.

I think we are speaking a different lingo here. Have never seen any Photo printing, editing and viewing, Firefox and some others 'pick up' my old windows, not in any way that I would even begin to find problematic.

+1 for search everything that @Smiggles suggested.

 

[HAL 9000]

Use EasyBCD and set up a dual boot for both versions of Windows 10 - depending on what data you need to access on each one.

Link here.

 

[garyc]

Use a command to copy all jpeg files from this drive to another drive. Do a bit of weeding if desired. Then format the old drive. An example would be:

robocopy "Source_Drive:\" "Destination_Drive:\Backup_JPGs" *.jpg /S /Z /XA:H /MT:16 (depending on how many processor threads you want)

 

[elf_lord_ZC5]

Use a command to copy all jpeg files from this drive to another drive. Do a bit of weeding if desired. Then format the old drive. An example would be:

robocopy "Source_Drive:\" "Destination_Drive:\Backup_JPGs" *.jpg /S /Z /XA:H /MT:16 (depending on how many processor threads you want)

Thanks

 

[SauRoNZA]

This basically has been, where I see this heading.

Except, I will find all *.exe, *.dll, *.bat, *.cmd files first, and delete.

Will remove a lot of files, and make any other searches faster.

But deloldos d:/ would have been nicer.

Why delete files by type.

Just delete the Windows and Program Files folders and 99% of it is gone.