Clean install of windows 10

[WestTexan]

Hii. I'd like to do a clean install of windows. I have 2 storage drives in my pc. 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

 

Before I clean install windows, I'd like to move all my files to my HDD. Remove the HDD, and do the clean installation of windows with only my SSD inside. I dont want to lose my files.

 

I have a question regarding moving the files. The only concern I have is that I dont know how to correctly move the files. I have all my drivers and utilities on my SSD. How do I deal with them? Should I keep them there and let them be formatted along with everything else (and reinstall them afterwards) or can I just cut> Paste them (the folders) into my D drive?

 

Is it a bad idea to do all of this? Should I just do a clean install with both drives in my PC?

 

 

 

[DarkEnergy]

Go through your documents, videos, downloads, music and pictures folder and move stuff over. Make sure you have browser bookmarks backed up or synced to an account. 

After that i'd recommend formatting the SSD including programs and drivers (especially drivers, that's part of the point of clean installing). Just know that you'll have to re-download and install all of your software. Anything large like games you should move over too. 

 

Some things are more complicated however. For example if you play minecraft, world saves are in the .minecraft folder in AppData->Roaming.

Other programs save things in the AppData folder, you'd have to know if you need something important from there or not.

[Moonzy]

6 minutes ago, WestTexan said:

I have all my drivers and utilities on my SSD. How do I deal with them?

drivers have to be reinstalled, copy pasting doesnt work

 

as for utilities, its recommended to reinstall them, but some can be copy-pasted and runs just fine.

depends on individual softwares.

 

7 minutes ago, WestTexan said:

Is it a bad idea to do all of this? Should I just do a clean install with both drives in my PC?

move your files to HDD

and unplug it to prevent accidental deletion/partitioning error when formatting

[WestTexan]

17 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

drivers have to be reinstalled, copy pasting doesnt work

 

as for utilities, its recommended to reinstall them, but some can be copy-pasted and runs just fine.

depends on individual softwares.

 

move your files to HDD

and unplug it to prevent accidental deletion/partitioning error when formatting

 

19 minutes ago, DarkEnergy said:

Go through your documents, videos, downloads, music and pictures folder and move stuff over. Make sure you have browser bookmarks backed up or synced to an account. 

After that i'd recommend formatting the SSD including programs and drivers (especially drivers, that's part of the point of clean installing). Just know that you'll have to re-download and install all of your software. Anything large like games you should move over too. 

 

Some things are more complicated however. For example if you play minecraft, world saves are in the .minecraft folder in AppData->Roaming.

Other programs save things in the AppData folder, you'd have to know if you need something important from there or not.

Thank you!

[homeap5]

First of all, based on this forum posts and my personal experience, you should consider do NOT made clean install and use your system as is. If you have any problem with system, we can help here on forum. Reinstalling just for sport is pointless.

[WestTexan]

On 8/31/2020 at 8:22 AM, homeap5 said:

First of all, based on this forum posts and my personal experience, you should consider do NOT made clean install and use your system as is. If you have any problem with system, we can help here on forum. Reinstalling just for sport is pointless.

Hii, I already fixed my problem.I was considering doing a clean install because I have unactivated windows 10 pro, but I have a home key.I downgraded to win 10 home by changing some stuff in the registry and reinstalling windows by mounting the ISO on my PC

 

Thx for the advice