Internal Harddrive Wipe, Will be able to play games after reformat?

[czre]

Question for someone.If I only keep my system data on my internal and keep games on my other 3 hard-drives will I be able to just reformat my OS and not have to re-download/install all of my games again?

2 internal data drives 150gb/pc NTFS
1 OS internal 100gb NTFS
1 External 2Tb FAT <<Games

I have extraordinarily slow internet maybe 170kbps on a good day and I've accumulated hundreds of gigabytes of my games. We're talking months of re-downloading without interruption any solutions or would my idea work?

Thanks guys.


Thanks for quick response JRE , although my real problem is not with needing the save data, I can always replay if I want to, but the thing I really don't want to have to do is spend weeks upon weeks re-downloading things. Is it possible to back the registry files up for the games. Some sort of compressed backup program. It's approximately low to mid 400GB's of games I'm talking about.

 

[Dr_JRE]

You will need to re-install all apps after OS install.
If you have custom mods/saves, you can back up the game's folders and drag and drop them back in (over writing the newly installed game with your saves, settings and mods / add-ons)

 

[Dr_JRE]

Yes this is possible, but locating all the files, folders and registry values could take just as long as downloading I'm sorry to say.

Some games are easier than others, just copy the program files folder and set up new shortcuts to the executable and it works.
Others spread config files, resources and settings all over the hard drive and registry.
It'd be a good idea to save a copy of the entire windows registry just in case you miss some keys.

How I would do it: Remove the patient from the tumor.

Use a registry editor to save a copy of your current registry, then delete all keys from the copied registry that have no obvious relation to something you want saved. save this skeleton registry to C:\bak\

Go through all folders recursively deleting anything that has no relation to the stuff i want saved (I'd use a live linux such as xubuntu running from DVD or USB.) In the end i should have a complete skeleton of how the games were installed. move this skeleton intact to a folder called C:\bak\, .

Reinstall windows without formatting, then drag that skeleton back into place.

Merge the skeleton registry that contains all the saved keys and nothing else from ur old OS install to the new system registry.