Reinstalling Windows 7 on SSD with Programs Installed on another drive

A

Aaron Reinhard

New Member
I currently have Windows 7 installed on a 160 GB SSD. All of the programs that I've installed (that let me) are installed on a separate HDD.

My next mission is to wipe clean my SSD and reinstall Windows 7 fresh. (The SSD only has about 10 GBs left despite my not installing any programs onto it. Over the course of 4 years worth of Windows updates, I figured I would try from scratch in case there are any residual files from over the years.) So, I want to start fresh.

Would I need to perform a registry backup & restore (if such a thing exists) in order for the new Windows to recognize the installed programs on the other HDD and avoid my needing to reinstall all of them?

I'm so new to SSDs that I'm not even sure if a fresh install will make a difference. All I know is that I will either need to figure out other ways to free up space on my SSD or invest in a larger SSD. Any suggestions are welcome.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
WinDirStat can tell you what's sucking up space on your drive. It's likely the My Documents/Music/Downloads folders but it can tell you specifically:

https://windirstat.net/

If you still want to fresh format it'd be a waste to try to import registry values from an old install, negating the benefit of a fresh install. I'd just reinstall everything.
 
A

Aaron Reinhard

New Member
Tried WinDirStat...freed up 16 GB of space so far, which takes my drive out of critical. Ultimately, I will probably wipe it clean and start from scratch. This was a nice hold-over until then.
 
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