Format and Reinstalling on C: but keeping everything that's installed on D:

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dauntlessds

dauntlessds

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Feb 17, 2012
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Well like the title says... I have my OS installed with Adobe products and 1 select game on a 64GB SSD. It's been nearly a year and a half and I want to format and reinstall however, most of everything I have installed is on a secondary 500GB 5200RPM HDD. Considering I do not have an external source to backup the installs for the things I would like to keep my question is:

Can I format the OS drive and reinstall while keep everything that is installed on D: undamaged?

P.S. I understand the Userdata would be gone because I had everything that windows read on a constant basis to read from the D: drive instead of the SSD so I could save precious life of the SSD.
 
Solution
Tradesman1
What you might think about is after install done, updates loaded, etc and all data still over on the D:, if you have one, or could get your hands on prob even a 60GB or so drive, is clone your C: drive, then in the future if you decide again on a reinstall, can basically wipe the disk and bring on the clone - clone it to your original C: drive and it'll be ready for you in the morning if you start it at bedtime
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
Jun 5, 2013
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All your data on the D: will be fine (and may want to copy any data files from the C: to the D:...but if you have any programs installed on the D: they'll be worthless and will have to reinstall....when all done and Win reinstalled, just need to redirect the apps once reinstalled to look to D: for the data files
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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When you install a program on the "D" drive, there will be information stored in the registry and that is on the "C" drive.
Sorry, you will have to install any apps that recorded info in the registry, and that means almost all except perhaps a few stand alone utilities.

Why do you want to format and reinstall?
 
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M

mbreslin1954

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Nov 27, 2010
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Yeah, the new Windows registry that you install on "C" with the new re-install will know nothing of the old programs you had previously installed to "D". They will still be on "D", but Windows won't know anything about them. They'll need to be re-installed. Not only do they put their configuration information in the registry during install, but applications sometimes put files in C:\Windows. Any files from the original application installations that were put in the original C:\Windows of course won't be there after the re-install.
 
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dauntlessds

dauntlessds

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Feb 17, 2012
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Alright that's what I assumed would happen. Sigh... this reinstall takes soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
LONG!
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
Jun 5, 2013
67,883
40
126,960
What you might think about is after install done, updates loaded, etc and all data still over on the D:, if you have one, or could get your hands on prob even a 60GB or so drive, is clone your C: drive, then in the future if you decide again on a reinstall, can basically wipe the disk and bring on the clone - clone it to your original C: drive and it'll be ready for you in the morning if you start it at bedtime
 
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Solution
M

mbreslin1954

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Nov 27, 2010
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Yes, great idea. I always make a disk image of my "C" drive after I install Windows, patch it, and install my standard applications and games. Then, when the hard drive breaks or I move to a different one, I have my original install/clone that I can restore to the new drive. I make an incremental backup to the original about once a year, so I catch new games and programs that I install as time goes on.
 
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