Replacing MOBO, Reinstalling OS, and Saving Old Data on HDD.

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Matthew-san

Matthew-san

Reputable
Feb 25, 2014
886
0
5,060
I am switching over from an AMD motherboard to Intel and reinstalling Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on the new MOBO. I have a lot of data on my 1 TB HDD I wish to keep and not wipe. What would be the most efficient way to save my data (least costly and time consuming)? Mostly I wish to preserve the games and some old schoolwork I have stored on the hard drive. I don't need everything saved, what I just described will suffice. I appreciate any help in the matter!
 
Solution
Captain_WD
Hey you are welcome :)

You can have 4 primary partitions or 3 pripary partitions and one extended partition containing any number of logical partitions.
You should install your OS on a partition with no data as it will be formatted and erased. Be careful and remember which partition contains your data. You can create more partitions after you install your OS and I would recommend that instead of partitioning your drive beforehand.

Captain_WD.
Sort by date Sort by votes
Captain_WD

Captain_WD

Reputable
Jul 30, 2014
101
0
4,760
Hey there Matthew-san,

As terroralpha suggested, you can slit your drive into multiple logical drives and install Windows on only one of them and keep all the info on the others. Do have in mind, though, that since you are reinstalling your OS, you will need to also reinstall all your games and programs, no matter if you keep the current installation intact or not.
You can always create a backup of all your important data and installation files for the games and programs and store them externally (for safety) and do a complete wipe of the drive and then return them back from a USB/CD/External HDD/etc.

Hope this helps,

Captain_WD.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Captain_WD

Captain_WD

Reputable
Jul 30, 2014
101
0
4,760
There you go :) http://partition-magic.soft32.com/

You should see a window when you start the installation of Windows that asks you to make a partition (or multiple) on your drive and where you would like to install it. That's the place you want to pay attention.
win7custominstalldriveo.png


Captain_WD.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Matthew-san

Matthew-san

Reputable
Feb 25, 2014
886
0
5,060
Thanks Captain_WD! You've been a great help to me! Last two questions. How many partitions am I allowed to make? Also, I should install Windows 7 OS on the partition that does not contain the data I wish to keep, correct? As that would most likely erase the data on that partition. Sorry for all the questions. I know the process of re-installing an OS is pretty straightforward but I'm being cautious for fear of losing three years worth of data.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Captain_WD

Captain_WD

Reputable
Jul 30, 2014
101
0
4,760
Hey you are welcome :)

You can have 4 primary partitions or 3 pripary partitions and one extended partition containing any number of logical partitions.
You should install your OS on a partition with no data as it will be formatted and erased. Be careful and remember which partition contains your data. You can create more partitions after you install your OS and I would recommend that instead of partitioning your drive beforehand.

Captain_WD.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom