I got a new m2 drive, cloned my (sata ssd) C: drive to it. But couldn't get it to boot (wouldn't show up in boot list in bios). Gave up and just use this drive for extra fast storage.
But now I want to delete the windows, program files, etc. directories on this drive, but I can't get around the security. I've got so far as to change ownership, but it still won't let me. Is there a way to do this?
21h2
Hi, why not format the disk?
You can also delete partitions with a partition manager.
Note that there are zero permission issues if you were to do this from a live boot disk, for example.
As to your clone not booting- there are MANY threads on that topic- feel free to search tenforums.
Assuming you've tried doing it in Disk Management you most likely encountered a couple/few small partitions on the drive that can't be deleted. For those I use a bootable LiveUSB Thumb drive and the included GPARTED program or a bootable GPARTED LiveCD to manage partitions. Both programs are downloadable .iso files. DiskPart may help.
It's too late to reformat as I've got many things on the drive. I should have reformatted 6 months ago but didn't think of that back then. There's not too much from the clone left, just 22g of stuff in the windows directory.
It's an asrock MB and I could never get the bios to show the m2 drive in the boot list. I tried getting cust support but that never got me anywhere either.
How did you clone the disk? When you clone a disk, it wipes the Destination drive during the clone process, so you would not have files from 6 months ago on the drive? Do you still have the old SATA SSD drive that you cloned the M.2 with that sill has the files on it? If so, then your files are backed up and you can wipe the new M.2 drive.It's too late to reformat as I've got many things on the drive. I should have reformatted 6 months ago
Most files are not saved in the Windows Directory. Most files are saved in C:\Users\UserName (Documents, Pictures, Desktop, Downloads etc) You can save drag and drop or copy and paste those files to an external USB HDD if they aren't anywhere else.
Then as stated, go to Disk Management and Delete ALL the partitions on the M.2 or use a 3rd party partitioning app, like Minitool. until the M.2 is all Unallocated Space. Then you can create a new simple Volume (Partition) Format it and give it a drive letter.
Sorry, I didn't explain this very well. I got the m2 drive 6 months ago, although it still feels new to me :). That's when I cloned it to try to make it my boot disk. I use easus's todo backup software and restored a backup to it. Since that time I've moved things like my steam files onto it. I've got a new (as in yesterday) external 8tb drive and I'm now copying everything else to a folder on it, but the status says about 1 day to copy 350,000 files :) If that works, I'll try to reformat it.
well, after only 2 hours it actually finished, and another 2 hours to copy back after re-formatting. Whew! steam ran ok, so I guess it worked. Thanks.
first delete the windows\system32\config folder ( if it is still there ) using windows explorer
then use this https://github.com/Chuyu-Team/Dism-M....1.1002.1B.zip
Toolkit>File Explorer opens a browse dialog, browse to that windows directory, rt click it and delete
I have done it countless times.
There is no need to delete the partition or format it.
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