I've been always been backing up my system/OS disk with game folders excluded to preserve space. That results in having to wait 3hrs and more to have all the games re-installed. So, I figured I could just create a separate partition for them. I already have all the apps I need installed and I added up their size + Windows folder and it resulted in 30.62GB including pagefile. I figured 32GB partition is a safe bet, eh? One things that will be difficult is the fact that Witcher 2 Full Combat Re-balance mod installs itself into Documents folders and its 5.55GB in size. I am not sure if the folder can be moved somewhere, but I can't have a single game dictate the partition size, especially now that Witcher 3 is coming out in a couple of months! EDIT: Forgot to add the Hiberfil.sys file, which is 13.7GB in size.., which makes total space needed for Windows 8 OS is 43.22GB. Bah, I'll just allocate 50GB to it and that will make Witcher 2 files fit to! What's the best free program to create such disk partitions?
OK, here's what's up - I have a 256GB SSD as "Local Disk C:". This "Local Disk C:" has 58GB of space available. I want to allocate 50GB of that 58GB space to a new "Local Disk C:" and rename current "Local Disk C:" to "Local Disk D:". Short-term, I want to keep all the files on the "Local Disk D:", which includes OS + Apps + Games, but I also want a brand new fresh install of Windows on the new 50GB "Local Disk C:". This way I can boot from new "Local Disk C:" with fresh Windows install and later remove all the OS and Apps files from "Local Disk D:", but preserve my game folders, which is all that I need to make them run! Can this be done? How do I make it happen??? I do recall that at times it isn't possible to partition a drive without being forced to format or erase all the data on it...
Yey! It worked mostly. I used Acronis Disk Director and split my 256G SSD into 2 partitions, one of which is 50GB (C) and has fresh install of Windows, while the other partition (D) has games in addition to previous Windows install & folder and Program Files folders. I cut and pasted all game folders into root directory, which means all I have to do is to delete PerfLogs, Program Files, Program Files (x86), Users, and WINDOWS folders along with the pagefile, hiberfil file, and whichever other hidden files are on it... How do I do that? I keep getting Permission error, saying I need permission from TrustedInstaller. How do I get that?
The issue may be worse than I thought. I looked up info that says in multi boot environment, the earlier installed OS is what allows the 2nd OS to boot... When I boot my PC, I am taken to a screen where I have to select which Windows 8.1 OS I want to boot into. Do you think that booting screen is part of my older Windows 8.1 OS? I noticed there is a new folder on the earlier OS drive (drive D now) named "$WINDOWS.~BT" . Could that be it? I don't care if I have to leave SOME small Windows OS files on drive D, but I want the vast majority of files gone, to have space for my games. This is some advanced stuff I think because very few people (none?) reply.
Bump lol! Nobody here know how to delete old OS folders and files from previous OS partition without messing up new OS install on a different partition? LOL! There's got to be experience folks around here... I mean I can't be the only one with a similar problem, but Google isn't giving me much...
You could boot into winpe & delete the old OS partition with Diskpart. You can then extend (or is it expand) the current OS partition as well. The multiple boot entries are in your efi/system partition \efi\microsoft\boot\BCD. You can use bcdedit to delete the old OS entry or just run BCDBOOT D:\Windows (assuming D:\ is where your new OS is).