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I just upgraded my main hard disk to an SSD. I installed and re-activated Windows 10 on the SSD. Now I have a old hard disk that I want to use as storage. It already has some files that I want to keep. So I was thinking that I can just delete all the Windows-related folders and start using it for purely storage. For example, I could delete the following files (outlined in red) and keep the "Users" folder which has the files that I want to keep.

Windows hard disk contents

However, there was at least one article I found that mentioned reformatting the disk without explaining why. So that left me curious. Is there any particular reason to reformat an old hard disk before using it as storage?

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  • After you verify the EFI partition is actually on the SSD and not the HDD you can format the HDD if you want.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Dec 11, 2016 at 0:14
  • @Ramhound I installed Windows 10 while the hard disk was disconnected so it should be on the SSD. But my question was: can't I just delete the windows folders instead of formatting?
    – Cave Johnson
    Commented Dec 11, 2016 at 0:15
  • You can remove the files however you want
    – Ramhound
    Commented Dec 11, 2016 at 0:47

1 Answer 1

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There is no real harm in leaving the drive as is, however, there are some minor benefits of reformatting:

  • you have the opportunity to run a full read/write test to ensure the disk has no bad sectors
  • moving the files off the volume and back to a freshly formatted volume will reset the permissions.
  • you can repartition the drive to reclaim any space used by hidden system partitions
  • moving the files will also defrag them

Edit: Also, by formatting without first backing up the files you get a chance to test your backup plan ;-)

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