Windows 10: Clean Win10 Installation, Question: Auto Backup & Secondary HDD

Hi Guys, a few questions which should be easy enough for you to awnser I hope!

First of all I'm an everyday Linux user, I haven't used Windows much since Windows 7 was out! so I am a bit rusty with Windows 10 as such.

I'm building a new PC for my Dad as he is still running on Windows Vista with very old hardware. The new tower iv built him has a Gigabyte mobo with an AMD Ryzen 3 processor, 8GB of Ram, a 480GB SSD for the OS and a 2TB HDD for storage. Iv purchased and installed Windows 10 Pro x64 on the SSD, that's as far as iv got at present. My questions are:

1. Is there a way to keep the entire user folder on the Storage HDD? I'm thinking of this way so the system folders such as App Data etc. isn't lost if the SSD fails. Or is the best way to just relocate the Document, Photo folders etc. via the folder settings?

2. If I can't transfer the entire user folder, what is the best backup utility to use? Incase of SSD failure, I would want to be able to swap the failed SSD out and restore the entire system from a backup image stored on the HDD. A free utility would be great, not sure if Windows has something already included in the OS? If not I don't mind paying for a utility that will get the job done.

I am thinking of installing the following programs, just wondering if you guys have any other suggestions or would want to recommend something better:

LibreOffice Suit for word processing
Google Chrome for Web browsing
VLC Media Player
Ccleaner to keep the system uncluttered
7zip for file achives
Adobe PDF Viewer
Malwarebytes Free Edition
Windows Deferender (I hear its pretty decent these days)
iTunes for his iPhone & iPad
Shotwell Suit to keep his photos organised.

Any other suggestions will be much appreciated. Thanks, Dan.

:)

 

Secondary HDD not found by Optimize and Defrag

Hello,

Upgraded to Win10 a few weeks ago. I have a 240G primary SSD (C and 1TB internal secondary HDD (E, plus a 1TB external USB backup drive (J. I wanted to determine why the internal 1TB HDD seems to have some 'missing' space so I opened Optimize Drives.
But Optimize Drives only lists the SSD (C, USB drive (J and a System Reserved drive. It doesn't list the internal 1TB HDD.

So far my searches have turned up problems where extra drives aren't recognized at all, but mine works fine for everything else (I've moved Libraries there, created system images there, it shows in Explorer, etc.)

Edit: Device Manager indicates no issues with the drive. I've also right-clicked from Explorer > Properties > Tools > Optimize, and the list is still missing this drive.

Can anyone explain this or provide a solution?

Thank you!

Stephen

 

Windows 10 wrongly labels my secondary HDD as "System" in backup


A clean windows 10 install is unfortunately out of the question. I had to do a clean install of windows 7 a couple years ago when I built my current computer, and spent literally weeks downloading and reinstalling all my games and programs. I will switch to Macrium Reflect before doing a clean install.

And yes, windows still insists my secondary HDD is a "system" drive:

 

Clean SSD install (Users folders remain on HDD) - help

My desktop has an old SSD (Win10 boot and applications) and HDD for Users files / data.

I am replacing the old SSD with a new one and will do a clean install of Windows10 Home 64bit and all applications.
I will keep my existing Users files data on the HDD.

2 questions:

1. Is it best to disconnect the HDD while doing the SSD clean install and then reconnecting the HDD once Win10 installation is complete?
2. Regarding Users folder on the HDD - what is the best way to instruct Windows that the Users folders will be on the HDD?

1. during installation / setup (eg. using audit mode, registry editor etc), or
2. after the Windows 10 SSD installation is completed and selecting move the location of the users folders within Windows that have been set up to the HDD?

Thanks