New
#1
Create a System Reserved Partition and keep original OS
Sometime ago I installed a second, larger SSD on a Dell XPS8700 but due to my lack of attention I reinstalled Win10 without a System Reserved Partition. By the time I realized what I had done, I had installed too many programs to start over and decided to just live with it. So far there have been no problems. Now I understand that the next major Win10 update, in early 2017, may not install without an SRP. While I could always start over with a clean install, the thought of reinstalling a huge number of programs along with configuring them is daunting. It would likely take at least 4-5 full days of work, something I’m really not up to at this point. So I’m wondering if I might be able to avoid this by the following:
Do a fresh install, after running a current backup of all the existing partitions, with the correct partitioning thereby creating a correct SRP. Then reinstall my previous OS partition from a backup copy. I realize that two sets system files would exist, one on the newly created SRP and one from the restored C-Drive. Which set of files would be used to boot from the newly created SRP or the OS partition? If it successfully boots than I suppose I could remove the duplicate files from the C-Drive. What concerns me if that there will be registry entries that would be incorrect and it would fail to boot after the C-Drive restore.
Do you think this would work? If not then is there another way I could correct the partitioning?