Hopefully the title of this thread will keep most people from wasting their time reading it, if they don't wish to help answer my general computing question(s). I ask this question here on this forum, because I know and respect the users here, instead of going to some random Windows forum site, or to Microsoft.com, to try to find the answer(s) I am after. Also, I thought I already asked this question before as an "off topic" question in another thread, but can't find the thread, or any answers doing a search, so here it is, maybe for the 2nd time, and if I am repeating myself, I am sorry, it is just one of the many benefits of growing older and becoming forgetful.

So, with all of that explained, I need to re-install Windows 10 on my laptop and want to move just the OS from the existing 1tb hdd to the internal 240gb mSATA, and move some of the more often used programs to the faster internal 128gb SSD, so everything will run a bit faster. I'll use the 1tb hdd for general storage, mostly media files, as it should be fast enough to stream movies and music to the CPU and GPU on this Intel Core i7-3630QM laptop w/8gb RAM & CPU @2.40GHz. It is a 4 or 5 year old laptop, but should be powerful and fast enough for general use for another 2 to 3 years, if not a bit more. I have been using it too much for web browsing and email, and want to instead switch to MacOSX on an even older Core2Duo MacMini for most of my web browsing and email, and just use Windows for a couple of Windows only games, and my CAD drawing program when I am away from home. I also have a fairly powerful i5 desktop system, which should be faster than this laptop (at least in some ways), but I find myself using the laptop more often, due to convenience of being able to use it in front of the TV in my living room.

My question is do any of you know the best way to re-install Windows 10 Home edition to a different (and smaller) storage device, without losing all my settings and passwords, without manually resetting all of those passwords and writing them down, and having to fix all of my saved settings in every program and game, after I do a fresh install of Windows 10 Home edition to my 240gb mSATA drive? Also, since I upgraded to Windows 10 Home edition online for free, from Windows 8.1 that came on this laptop, I don't have any install media, and don't know how to do a re-install (I can look this up on Microsoft's site).

Have any of you gone through a similar problem, and do you have any advice or tips to make this process less painful. I have put this off for over 6 months, because I know how difficult and time consuming it is going to be.

Thanks in advance for any answers or advice, and for your allowing non-MorphOS related questions on this forum site.

Edit: Not that it should matter, but I am running the 64bit version of Windows.

[ Edited by amigadave 20.12.2016 - 09:00 ]

Don't do a fresh install. Use Acronis. It's almost always used for this to the point where it tends to come bundled with SSDs, such as the one I got months ago (although I already owned Acronis).

It allows you to convert Windows backup tool backups, restore backups to drives of different sizes -- and, if you need to, to restore a Windows backup to different hardware.

[ Edited by KennyR 20.12.2016 - 18:39 ]

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Failing that you can just copy the C:\Users\<yourusername> directory over to a fresh install and hope for the best...

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Thanks for the advice Kenny.

I am undecided about doing a fresh clean install and resetting everything the hard way, or as you suggested, using backup tools and the Acronis tools to restore my setup on the smaller SSD. I already tried all of this shortly after installing both the mSATA and SSD drives into my laptop months ago, but the results were confusing, and I don't think I did it correctly, so it appears that my "C:" directory is still on the slower 1tb hdd, not on the mSATA device. I currently am forced into using the boot selector/manager every time I start up my laptop, pressing the F12 button, and scrolling down to the Windows installation I know still works. That is why I am leaning heavily toward doing a clean install, to remove any unwanted crap on the computer, plus to make sure I have the OS installed on the mSATA device, and the few most often used applications/games also installed on either the mSATA, or the SSD. My SSD drive did come with Acronis, but it is a very old version, which is maybe why my first attempt to migrate to the mSATA did not work correctly.

I really wanted to somehow avoid re-installing my paid key anti-virus software, as well as several other programs and utilities, which I have not kept good track of the passwords for, but the more I think about it, the more it appears to me that going the hard route is the only good option, no matter how painful it may be. It is times like these when I really appreciate the simplicity of the Amiga and Amiga inspired operating systems, that take less than an hour to re-install and set up, instead of 12 to 18 hours, or more. Having a slow and sometimes unreliable ISP does not help my situation, as re-downloading several hundred gb of data files for a couple of games and other programs, just to make sure that I don't have any old infected files on my fresh install of Windows10, could take a very long time, and increase the total time of the re-install and re-setting up of my laptop, from many hours, to a whole day or more.

This is why I have been avoiding this needed re-install for so long. Oh well, if any of you have any further suggestions within the next hour or two, I would be happy to read them. After that, I will probably be already in the process of doing the re-install of Windows10 Home.

One thing I am considering is to just copy over the larger data files, and depend on my virus checker to catch any potential problems in those files, to avoid the hours and hours of downloading them again. I use the paid for, full edition of AVAST virus checking software, and have had good luck using it for many years, but recently, after reading about many computer attacks, such as the Yahoo hack, I have felt that none of the virus checking software products are good enough to keep my computers safe. I really wish I didn't need Windows for any of the software/games I want to run.

Nearly every OS installs easier than Windows. On Linux, you can copy most of your configuration files back from /usr/share or /etc/ on a completely different distro and it won't cause any issues. In fact, you can take exactly the same Linux install and run it on wildly different computers with only minor issues (such as missing sound).

Windows 7 and onward stores much of its configuration files in C:\Users\<username\AppData, apparently an attempt by Microsoft to end the config file clusterbombing insanity. It is a hidden folder and marked 'system' as well, so not the easiest to find. Copying this folder will automagically restore your configuration settings and bookmarks on browsers for instance, but you'd be better off using their sync options.

Appdata is a bit like Amiga ENV: in that it's a unpruned mess in there, although Windows doesn't load it all into ramdisk at boot. If you're set on the clean install, then you can push along reconfiguration by selectively copying back some files from there, i.e. from a USB stick. Most software will have to be fully reinstalled though, thanks to the registry.

[ Edited by KennyR 20.12.2016 - 20:25 ]

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You think LINUX is an easier install than Windows?
My 79 year old mother could install Windows.
When a Linux distro won't installed correctly, debugging it is a PITA.

The biggest problem I have with Win7 is reinstalling it these days requires to much updating, AND getting updated so that it will work correctly with windows Update is difficult.

"Nearly every OS installs easier than Windows."...Riigghhht...Am I supposed to forget how hard AmigaOS can be to set up a get working the way you'd like?

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You must mean the way you like it to look, not "get working the way you'd like"

AmigaOS and all of it's siblings are a breeze to install and set up, but then you weren't an original Amiga user, so I can understand your differing point of view on this (but still don't agree that AmigaOS, MorphOS, are difficult to install and configure).

Even when Windows is "easy" to install, it takes forever to complete a new installation.

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Installation times are related to the hardware, installing Win7 or 10 on a system with a fast processor and decent hard drives isn't that bad.
BUT, yeah, MorphOS and Amiga OS are quicker, as they are much smaller.
The only issues I've ever had with a MorphOS install are related to networking and going online.
AmigaOS...its primarily related to the need to use floppies and adding additional drivers and software.
THAT is time consuming and can be problematic.

BTW - I don't have any experience altering a Windows install the way you mentioned, the drive cloning solution that has been suggested works great, but I'm still unsure of how you make the OS span its operation across drives like you've mentioned.

I would like to hear how you work it out.

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For future reference, you may want to follow these steps if you ever plan on doing this again:

1. Check how much space of your 1TB drive is currently being used. If it is less than the size of your new target drive (i.e. the mSATA disk), you can jump straight to step 3.
2. Backup all personal documents and other files. Optionally, uninstall large applications until you use less space on your 1TB harddisk than is available on your mSATA drive
3. Clone the content of your harddisk to your mSATA drive using either your existing copy of Acronis or free software such as MiniTool Partition Wizard.
4. Enable your mSATA disk as your boot drive via the BIOS settings.
5. Uninstall and reinstall all applications that you would like to move to your SSD.

You might also want to consider moving Window's swap file to your SSD to potentially improve performance.

> AmigaOS...its primarily related to the need to use floppies [...]

At least versions 3.5, 3.9 and 4.x don't require any floppies.

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Yes, but I must be into pain, because I prefer a customized version of 3.1 over those as I feel it has better speed, and I'm willing to put in the work.

Also, 3.5 and 3.9 aren't suited to my SX1 enhanced CD32.

4.X? I may have a copy of that eventually, and I'll probably install it (no doubt to the horror of the fanatics), if only for comparison purposes.

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THAT is a pretty well thought out series of steps, Andre.
And as long as he has access to the original software and can register that software again it should work out perfectly.

@AmigaDave - For almost any use I can think of, a laptop of the same age as you describe should be perfectly adequate. It really depends on the specifications of the particular laptop you are working with, as there are laptops on the market now with worse performance than some of the models from the period you mention.

BTW - That is a LOT of drives for a laptop. I assume you are going to install the 1GB drive in an external housing and use a USB interface?
Then your media files would be accessible on any machine you cared to use them with.



[ Edited by Jim 21.12.2016 - 12:55 ]

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Yes,my laptop does have a lot of drive options, with it's mSATA port and two 2.5" SATA drive bays. It is a Dell Inspirion with a 17" 1080p LCD, 8 core Intel i7-3630QM CPU @2.40GHz, 8gb RAM, BluRay RW optical drive, and a discreet NVIDIA GT 650M video card. When I bought it 3 to 4 years ago, it was a fairly high spec laptop, but no matter how powerful a desktop or laptop x86/x64 system I buy, I am always disappointed in how it performs and responds to mouse and keyboard input, when running any version of Windows. It seems that no matter how advanced and how powerful our hardware becomes, performance is always negated due to the poor design, and bloated content of Windows. Of course the inefficient way the Internet is coded these days is partly to blame as well, and my perception is skewed, due to my preference to AmigaOS and MorphOS, but I am also sure that my perception of Windows performance is not totally unfounded and it is at least partially a true representation of how poorly it works, when we consider how powerful the hardware is that it is running on top of.

One of my pet peeves regarding my laptop is the touchpad, which I have to turn off and save the settings every other day, using the provided Dell touchpad utility contained in the Control Panel. I (almost) always use a mouse with my laptop, as trying to type anything with the touchpad enabled is a nightmare, no matter how I adjust the touchpad's sensitivity settings.

Regarding your other comment about the OS working across multiple drives, I did not intend for that, as Windows10 will fit easily on the 240gb mSATA, so I can put other games or programs on the 128gb SSD, and then convert the 1tb hdd to hold only media files, to watch or listen to when I am away from home. I also need to perform this same operation on my i5 desktop system, which I installed a 480gb SSD into a few months ago. I don't remember what size the desktop's hdd is, but I know it is either 750gb, or larger, plus I have a couple of external 3.5" USB3 and/or eSATA hdd's that are 1.5tb and 3tb in size, for the desktop system, and 2 smaller 2.5" USB2/3 hdd external drives for my laptop, that are 500gb and 750gb in size, which I can use for backup drives, for both PC's and also for my MorphOS and MacOSX systems. I just need to keep the Windows and MacOSX backups on separate drives, as the backup utilities for each can easily trash partitions for other systems.

For me, all of this is complicated and time consuming, which is why I have procrastinated for months and months, instead of just getting everything done, so I would no longer have to worry about a drive failure taking out files that are not currently backed up.

Your system may be a couple of years older than my i7 laptop, but its got a better processor.
And Andre's advice makes perfect sense, I've never tried to replace a larger driver with a smaller drive myself, but the 1GB drive probably is overkill, and it is probably better suited to use as a portable media drive.

Gee, for a guy on a fixed income, you've got a LOT of nice hardware!

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My purchase of the SSD and mSATA drives for both my laptop and my desktop systems, was done to improve performance, and therefore my satisfaction level, when using Windows. Also, my decision to switch back to using MacOSX for most of my web browsing and email activities, instead of using my Windows systems, was made with the hope that keeping my Windows systems limited to only the absolute minimum number of programs and games, that I cannot run, or play on any other platform, will hopefully also help keep the performance of Windows as fast as is possible on my hardware. If I were smarter, I would remove as many built-in programs from Windows as possible, so that only the bare minimum of services are left, to run the 2 or 3 programs, and 2 or 3 games, I want to run on those Windows systems.

Until I can get a better ISP, with either DSL, or Cable TV Internet, or something optical, like Fios, my web browsing experience will be less than satisfactory, no matter what platform I use. It is just one of the disadvantages of living away from any big cities, in a beautiful environment. I might be able to get DSL in the near future, even though I know DSL is not the best option in other places, where faster Internet is available through cable TV companies, or optical cables, like Fios. Those two best options will not be available where I live for several years, if ever.

I'm glad to read that your experience with Windows can be described as "blazingly fast on so many things". I guess my expectations are just different, and maybe unrealistic, as I can't ever remember feeling that Windows was fast, let alone blazingly fast, at anything, from my days running Windows3.1 on 386sx CPU, to my current i5 and i7 based systems. In contrast, AmigaOS running on anything as fast as a 68030@25MHz, or faster, felt blazingly fast at doing screen switching and keyboard/mouse responsiveness. I know that is comparing apples to oranges, and my AmigaOS was running at a very low resolution, and low color count. To better appreciate the performance of my Windows systems, I should use some of my old Classic Amiga systems for a few days, and reacquaint myself with how slow they really were/are.

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I almost always buy my gear used, or after newer gear has been released, so it is not like I am spending top dollar for my stuff. Also, I probably spend more money on my computer hobby, than any other part of my expenses. My car has needed a new door for more than a year, after someone backed into it, and my dogs probably eat better than I do, plus I don't go out often, to spend money on other entertainment expenses.

I have definitely spent more money on computer gear than my budget can afford, which is why my spending has slowed down greatly over the last couple of years. The X1000 was my last big computer purchase, and I doubt that I will be buying any other new computers for several years. I would like to get an Apollo accelerator for an A500/A2000/CDTV (I don't think it will fit in the CDTV though).

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Obviously, there are people willing to help you. The only time-consuming part is the copying process but then again you do not have to watch your computer doing that part. If you use tools such as TeamViewer (just an example), you could even share your desktop with someone else who can do all the work for you and chat via text while doing so. You would just need to connect all the disks that are needed for creating backups, etc.