Format the drive in disk manager
#how do I delete all windows files from my hdd?
obsidian spruce
U said u want to delete all files
So you have windows installed on that hdd?
Do you have space on your ssd to move all your data?
Or a spare drive
Thats the only way i know sorry
wicked pumice
Won't take too long though, I'd guess under an hour to copy the 200GB over
Can you take a screenshot from disk management that shows your partitions on both drives?
Right, I was afraid of that.
The EFI partition is on the HDD, if you format it, you break windows.
You need it for startup, and if you remove or format the HDD, it breaks the installation on the SSD.
Yep but the installation is split between two drives, since the EFI system partition is used for startup. Both OS use the same partition.
Is the ssd installation new?
Did you install it recently?
..and can you redo it?
You're in a lousy situation where your OS on the SSD is dependant on the HDD, and when the hdd breaks, you're screwed.
Your windows boots from the HDD.
Because that's where the startup partition is.
Because it only boots from there, then it proceeds to load windows from the ssd and use that as primary os.
Yeah windows is lousy like that, it likes the split the install sometimes. Only way to force it into a single drive is to not give it any options. What I would do is reinstall on the SSD, but before you do, disconnect the HDD so it doesn't have the option to use the EFI on it.
So it'll create a new system partition on the SSD and use that.
Once you've done that, copy your files from the hdd and format the hdd.
same setup as yours, ssd and a hdd
but the EFI is on the ssd
windows just says system reserved, it's the first partition on disk 0
win10 that is
yep, at that point it has already booted from the EFI and now it's detecting two different windows installs and asking you to pick one
You can just remove the windows dir on the hdd, that'll get rid of the prompt.
But eventually the hdd will fail and then you're looking at reinstalling windows anyway.
You need to reinstall like I said earlier, that'll fix it for good.
No you won't lose data, but the windows install on the ssd breaks and won't load.
As long as you know you'll need the EFI on the hdd for your system to work.
Actually, you can format the D drive too, that won't change the EFI in any way, but it will clear out the windows install (along with all other files)
So if you don't want to reinstall windows on the ssd, happy copying I guess?
There's another reply saying the commands worked ok from inside windows as well, no need to boot from install media it seems.