Windows 10 fresh install on SSD

Darcon

Bought a Crucial 2TB SSD. Created two partitions: 1.5TB and 0.5TB labelled Drive S and Drive W respectively. Drive C (with original Windows 10) is still physically present on the PC. Downloaded a “fresh” copy of W10 and installed in Drive W.

Rebooted the PC and during reboot, changed the primary (default) drive from Drive C to Drive W. Rebooted and the PC successfully started from W10 in Drive W.



However, I cannot seem to be able to reproduce my desktop (icons) (which are visible when I boot from Drive C) when I boot from Drive W.

A reason for downloading a fresh copy of W10 is because the original has become bloated and I wanted to have the OS in its own partition.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

ArthurG

Don’t you have to manually select which icons you see in display properties?

smuggler.ie

Booting to W its like starting new PC, there is no relation to your C any more, until you create links to it. C is just another drive that can be used as storage.
Fresh install should have only icons that come with Windows, if you had branded PC(Dell, Lenovo, etc.), bloatware(and icons) that came with brand wont be on install from Microsoft download.

If there was "custom" icons(shortcuts created by you) pointing to your files/folders, you will have to recreate them.
If there was "custom" icons (shortcuts created by you installing program) pointing to your programs, you will have to reinstall programs to get them working as your fresh Win doesn't have files, drivers, etc., etc. required for programs to run.

Some programs might run from C drive, but this might not be beneficial, especially if C is HDD.

You can "dig" into C:\Users\yourusername , copy all or selected your old desktop content and paste on your W desktop - if you kept drive letter, shortcuts should work, providing all files/folders are still on C in their original location. Programs most likely wont.

I would not recommend this type setup, as any new program you try to install, by default will install on C, unless that's what you want.

CatInABox

Also, just for future reference, there's a refresh your PC setting in windows 10 that probably does much of what you were looking for: Resetting Windows while keeping your files, or resetting Windows while wiping your files.

Darcon

Thanks Guys for the responses.

The reason for the way I’ve set up the disks/Windows 10 installation is as follows. Any or all of the reasons may be invalid.

I decided to get a 2TB SSD in order to speed up the PC’s response (DELL T3610) especially when I do video editing. There is 16GB of RAM on board, 64bit.

After a few years, Windows 10 becomes bloated. Getting a new fresh version of Windows 10 seemed like a good idea.

I could “clone” all of Drive C to the SSD but then I would not have a fresh version of Windows 10.

I thought that having the OS on a separate partition (on the SSD) all to itself was a good idea. I would install the video editing program (as well as other frequently used programs) on the other partition of the SSD thereby, hopefully, speeding up video editing.

Those programs that I don’t use that often would remain on Drive C.

So a few questions:

Is it a good idea to have the OS on its own partition? If not, how can I get a “clean” version installed to replace the current “bloated” version?

Thanks.

smuggler.ie

Personally i would install fresh Win with original C disconnected allowing windows to go with default letter assignment (eliminate headache later when installing programs, etc.).

Reason for this is that Win10 might act "smart" and "reuse" existing hidden partitions on your original C. You can check this by looking in "disk manager" (RUN>diskmgmt.msc) to see what partitions are on what disk.

Once you reconnect ex C drive, it will get different letter.

Copy your data to desired locations.
Install programs.
After CONFIRMING ALL DATA was copied over, decide whether you want to format old drive and reuse it as data storage or safe keeping it outside your system as backup.

Having Windows on separate partition is good, it allow you to delete/format/reinstall/whatever Windows partition without effecting data partition.

You can install programs to any other partition by manually specifying installation path, however, part of installation still goes to actual OS partition as it has to put entries into registry and other system (OS) places. In case if you reinstall Windows, you will need to reinstall/repair program as it will be missing these records.

The way i have set up my system - redirect default profile folders (Desktop, Doc's, Dow's, Pic's, Vid's) to separate data disk (could be partition in your case). In event of need to reinstall/restore Win, all i need to do - change default path per folder, data was not effected. To change path Folder properties>Location>Move(or manually type path). Might not suite you.

Darcon

Thanks Smuggler for the extensive information; I'll digest later!