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

Agreed. That's what I am trying to find out by asking OP to do the above. Now we need to find out what it is. For testing, try to rename the folders one by one. If you are able to rename it then rename it back to the original then try the next one. If a folder or files within the folder are being locked by Windows then Windows will refuse to rename it.

 

Hi,

Yeah sure. *Smile
I understand perfectly well what you're trying to do and that's also why I suggested to make a backup with Macrium Reflect and then clear the disk.
If there's anything on it that Windows thinks belongs to itself then you can always restore folder by folder etc.
If Windows doesn't complain then there's a good chance some of the software that's linked to that drive stops working and/or won't uninstall properly.
Guess you know what I was driving at albeit in a less conventional way.

Instead of renaming the folders one by one, he could also try to copy or, better still, move them to a dedicated folder on another drive. That would have the same effect but hopefully faster won't you think ?

Cheers, *Wink

 

I was thinking about just click on the folder once to get into edit then add an "x" at the end, if works then reverse the procedure to remove the "x" until we get to a folder that is locked. To me, it would be faster than copy a whole lot of files. Any hu, what ever it works to help the OP then I am happy.
Cheers.

 

Here are the contents of the folders:








As you can see the majority of things here are programs I have installed. I will quickly go through right now and try to rename them.

 

I am able to successfully rename every single folder shown in the screenshots in my last post. Nothing appears to be protected by windows...

Edit: I should also note that I changed the view settings to show hidden files and system operating files and nothing extra showed up, so there isn't anything hiding that I wouldn't normally be able to see.

 

Hi,

That's one way to go about it. Why not.
From the screenshot you can already tell that some are definitely from the days of Windows 7, some are standalone (AKA portable), but most are installed through a setup program.
This obviously means they're written in registry with that path setting.
Short of uninstalling and reinstalling making sure they install using the default path (i.e. C: \ "Program Files" etc., what can you do ??

Either way, it's going to be a lot of work to set this all straight.

I suppose a clean install of Win 10 is out of the question ? *Redface

Cheers, *Wink

 

Hi,

That's excellent news but then why does Windows Backup insist on backing it all up when making a system image ? *really

Can you launch backup to see if it still insists on doing this, please ?
Just don't make a backup as yet. We still want to know if some of the programmes are actually installed or if the list is just a leftover from Win 7.

Cheers, *Wink

 

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:

 

Hi,

O dear....Why am I not surprised.....*sarc

Anyhow, if you now make a backup of the G: drive and put it on one of your other drives you can then clean that G: and you're out of the woods. (I hope).

Cheers, *Wink

 

Ok, I will try to follow the steps in your previous post to make a backup of G:, clear the drive, and then replace the backup. The contents of my G: drive are used on a daily basis, so it may be a while until I find the correct time to get this done. A big thanks to you and topgundcp for helping me out so far!

When I am able to give it a shot il post back here and let you know how it works out *Smile

 

Hi,

Glad to be of help.

All the best, *Wink

 

Come to think ot this. I think it is normal since you installed your application softwares in G: drive and they were registered in the registry so your G: drive becomes part of Windows OS and Windows Backup software recognizes it to include the G: Drive.

One word of caution: when you use the built in Windows Backup, do not move your backup files to another drive, you might get a message that Windows Backup cannot find the backup files.

 

Yeah, I just find it weird that having software like that causes windows to consider it as an OS drive. The entire drive could be wiped and my computer would continue to boot windows and run fine, it just would have less normal programs to run.

 

So today I was messing around with Macrium Reflect and I actually like it. It makes windows 10 backup service look crappy *Tongue

I would like to use Macrium Reflect to create my SSD backup but it is not clear to me exactly how I could restore from that backup. I just spent an hour online trying to find the answer to my question but am not 100% sure so I am wondering if you guys could possibly answer it for me:

Lets say I create a backup image of my SSD on a secondary hard drive and then my SSD dies on me and the data on it is completely unrecoverable. In order to get my PC working again, I would have to buy a new SSD (or HDD), and then use a WinPE USB drive/CD/DVD to boot from, where I could then access my saved SSD backup on another drive connected to the computer and restore the backup from there to a new SSD (or HDD)?

If this isn't a question you guys can answer il make a new thread, I just thought I would give it a shot because you both have been very helpful so far.

I'm trying to make sure that if I use Macrium Reflect as my new backup software that I fully understand what to do if anything ever happens to my SSD. *Smile

 

Yes. Make a Macrium Reflect rescue USB/DVD/CD to boot from. I think it is under the Other Tools menu.