General / Off-Topic Why do I need to install everything again after reinstalling Windows 10 when all Programs were on Drive D?

[Urufu1997]

My trashy Power Supply Unit caused a Problem yesterday that made it necessary to install Windows 10 again and now I need to reinstall everything that was on Drive D (Windows 10 has Drive C completely for itself while everything else was on D). Only Files are left, no Games or other Programs. Is there a Way to work around this Problem so I won't need to install everything again if I need to install Windows 10 again someday?
Also is there a Way to automatically select Drive D for everything that gets installed? I must've accidentally installed Thrive on Drive C and that was probably too much for that small Drive when I've started the Game

 

[Non Grata]

Yes - do regular image backups. Then you can just restore the C drive from a backup, instead of reinstalling Windows.

 

[avow555]

Last time I had to reinstall win10 on the C: drive and retain my game files on the D: drive, I did this in the case of Elite Dangerous.

Install windows to C:
Renamed the Elite folder in D: eg D:/games/elitetemp
Ran the Elite installer to install to D: eg D:/games/elite
Let the downloader start to install for a few mins then quit.
Rename D:/games/elite to D:/games/elitedelete.
Rename D:/games/elitetemp back to D:/games/Elite
Reboot rerun launcher and hopefully you will have a working game without a full reinstall.
Delete D:/games/elitedelete folder.

Can work for other programs too although some games you may get away with running the executable from your D: drive.

 

[darkflemish]

Like Non Grata told, backup backup etc

Next to installation folder and installation does also the needed stuff in the register.

 

[Urufu1997]

Yes - do regular image backups. Then you can just restore the C drive from a backup, instead of reinstalling Windows.

Can I do this without a Microsoft Account? Some Programs like Driver Booster do sometimes create Backups before doing something but Windows 10 will be too stupid to recognize those Backups

 

[Para Handy]

Can I do this without a Microsoft Account? Some Programs like Driver Booster do sometimes create Backups before doing something but Windows 10 will be too stupid to recognize those Backups

You can create an image via the control panel (or settings / backup - same thing):

 

[GroG79]

As your OS was lost there is no way to revert to the old OS. If you perform a inplace upgrade you should not run into these troubles

 

[GroG79]

btw; Partitioning your drive into c en d is from the old days. Just get a big enough ssd for windows and leave your games on the c-drive same as your programs.

You can always use different disks for things you use less.

 

[Urufu1997]

btw; Partitioning your drive into c en d is from the old days. Just get a big enough ssd for windows and leave your games on the c-drive same as your programs.

You can always use different disks for things you use less.

It isn't partitioned into C and D. I've decided to use 2 separate Drives due to Windows 10 having Problems that often

You can create an image via the control panel (or settings / backup - same thing):

View attachment 293820

Thanks, I'll try that once everything is installed again

 

[metatheurgist]

Someone decided this thing called the Registry was a great idea. Now all your programs have to refer to it to know how to run. That got nuked when you reinstalled windows. Technically you could save and restore the parts of the registry that tell windows where your programs are installed but the others have already given you safer options.

 

[GroG79]

I wonder what I am doing wrong that my windows never needs reinstalling...

 

[Urufu1997]

I think I've figured out that my Graphics Card might be damaged. At least it does always end in a black Screen if I update the Graphics Card Driver. Or could it have some other Reason?

 

[hairychris]

Someone decided this thing called the Registry was a great idea. Now all your programs have to refer to it to know how to run. That got nuked when you reinstalled windows. Technically you could save and restore the parts of the registry that tell windows where your programs are installed but the others have already given you safer options.

Yeah, this.

As a guy who did corporate PC support through a chunk of the 90s, when Win95 started to percolate through to the desktop it became infinitely more difficult to fix issues manually. You could do a hell of a lot with cfg and ini file hacks back before then!

On the other hand you were very limited with drive capacity and data transfer speeds so reinstalling stuff now is a heck of a lot quicker & easier to do.

 

[Necronaught]

You don't have to reinstall your Steam games. Just double click on a game in your library, and as long as you direct Steam to download to D: Steam should find existing files and will quickly verify them.