Windows 10 Reset with Multiple Drives Broke System

[Krolic]

I recently updated my CPU and MOBO and have been putting off resetting Windows 10. Today I decided to do it through the Windows 10 reset setting with "Keep personal files, remove programs and windows settings". As I have mulitple hard drives (SSD and HDD) I figured Windows would remove installed software from both drives. Nope. It moved stuff from one hard drive (Windows drive) but broke connections that existed in the secondary drive. Software was not removed from the second drive, but paths were broken and programs were corrupted. At this point, what is the best way to fix this, other than a complete wipe of both drives and saying "fuck it" as that is a last option in my opinion? Also, in the future, what is the best way to avoid this kind of situation? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Yea a reset will remove all apps, and you will need to reinstall all of those.

 

No real way to avoid, a reinstall means you gotta reinstall apps.

[Krolic]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea a reset will remove all apps, and you will need to reinstall all of those.

 

No real way to avoid, a reinstall means you gotta reinstall apps.

That was not what happened. I wanted the apps removed, but a good portion were not removed properly and links and paths are broken. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Krolic said:

That was not what happened. I wanted the apps removed, but a good portion were not removed properly and links and paths are broken. 

Can you delete the apps from the other drives? then reinstalll.

 

Can you show a screenshot?

 

[Krolic]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Can you delete the apps from the other drives? then reinstalll.

 

Can you show a screenshot?

 

Some programs can be uninstalled by going into the binaries and some cannot if they were too broken. I can't really show a screen shot, and not entirely sure how that would help. I wanted to reset Windows. Windows did not properly remove programs installed on secondary drive.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Krolic said:

Some programs can be uninstalled by going into the binaries and some cannot if they were too broken. I can't really show a screen shot, and not entirely sure how that would help. I wanted to reset Windows. Windows did not properly remove programs installed on secondary drive.

Reset only affects the boot drive. You can reformat the other drives if you want to delete all the files on those aswell.

[Krolic]

7 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Reset only affects the boot drive. You can reformat the other drives if you want to delete all the files on those aswell.

Ugh... Why is Windows like that. I'm probably better off doing a fresh install on the boot drive and fully reformatting the secondary drive and fully starting fresh. 

 

Microsoft needs to figure out that most systems have more than one drive in them.

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 minutes ago, Krolic said:

Ugh... Why is Windows like that. I'm probably better off doing a fresh install on the boot drive and fully reformatting the secondary drive and fully starting fresh. 

 

Microsoft needs to figure out that most systems have more than one drive in them.

reset is basically a fresh install, nI  just do a reinstall normally.

 

Most systems have on drive, by far.

 

[Krolic]

4 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

reset is basically a fresh install, nI  just do a reinstall normally.

 

Most systems have on drive, by far.

 

Not anymore. It's very common, even from Dell or best buy computers to have multiple drives. Laptops don't, but a significant amount of desktops do.

[NineEyeRon]

Rescue data from second drive of any, reformat, all good.

 

Fresh installs of windows are for more serious errors these days and not this.

 

We are not talking XP here, windows 10

is a different beast and a fresh install is often not worth the effort.

[Krolic]

11 minutes ago, NineEyeRon said:

Rescue data from second drive of any, reformat, all good.

 

Fresh installs of windows are for more serious errors these days and not this.

 

We are not talking XP here, windows 10

is a different beast and a fresh install is often not worth the effort.

That's not entirely true. If you have a massive hardware change then there can be compatible issue bugs that can occur. In those situations a fresh install is generally needed.

[NineEyeRon]

1 hour ago, Krolic said:

That's not entirely true. If you have a massive hardware change then there can be compatible issue bugs that can occur. In those situations a fresh install is generally needed.

 

I stand by what I said.

[homeap5]

10 hours ago, Krolic said:

Ugh... Why is Windows like that. I'm probably better off doing a fresh install on the boot drive and fully reformatting the secondary drive and fully starting fresh. 

 

Microsoft needs to figure out that most systems have more than one drive in them.

Why Windows is like what? Windows is operating system that works and not need to be constantly reinstalled. If you want to play with resetting, reinstalling etc. then you should know that it's not as easy as empty trash. Do you want to have your system working? Then leave it, use it and stop reformatting and starting from zero. If something works, don't try to repair it.

 

Microsoft knows that system may use more than one drive. They also have years of experience creating more and more stable system so users can focus on real work instead of reinstalling system - it's not win98, it's win10.

 

Of course you can always made clean install if it's something you like to do (like hobby). But that is up to you - if you know what you're doing and how it works, then you're be fine. Waste of time imo, but hey - everyone can do whatever they wants.

 

And one more thing - removing files from other drives during reset may be not what people wants to do. What if you have some personal files inside custom program installation folder? And what if it's portable program without registry entries? How Windows can recognize is your file important to keep or not? It's up to you what files do you remove from other drives. It's not complex operation, it's simply delete. After reset you have no registry dependencies anyway.