How do I get my old Windows user back? I NEED it.

[RagePoweredGamer]

2 minutes ago, BoomerDutch said:

Okay lets uninstall steam and install new steam but disconnect D drive and install on c drive then connect d drive and go to steam installation folder steam again then there should be steamapps folder move that to c drive on new steam installation once done then launch steam then you can add drive D on your steam storage settings for extra storage.

I can't just put everything on D? I'm trying to avoid this crap all happening again. I'm putting NOTHING on my C drive anymore. Zero. If I can put it on D, it goes there. This seems like a workaround that doesn't solve the problem, and the kind of problem I'm just going to keep coming across with other things.

 

[BoomerDutch]

6 minutes ago, RagePoweredGamer said:

I can't just put everything on D? I'm trying to avoid this crap all happening again. I'm putting NOTHING on my C drive anymore. Zero. If I can put it on D, it goes there. This seems like a workaround that doesn't solve the problem, and the kind of problem I'm just going to keep coming across with other things.

 

Then install steam first without D drive

Once done  launch it then connect drive

Then Go to steam settings add storage select folder in D drive you wanted.

 

Then make default so in future installs will be on D drive.

 

And for games that needs to be moved will be folder that steam created in D drive called steamapps.

[RagePoweredGamer]

1 hour ago, BoomerDutch said:

Then install steam first without D drive

Once done  launch it then connect drive

Then Go to steam settings add storage select folder in D drive you wanted.

 

Then make default so in future installs will be on D drive.

 

And for games that needs to be moved will be folder that steam created in D drive called steamapps.

Oh I've been using D drive for steam games since I built the PC. Steam games have their own separate folder in there. I just want to make EVERYTHING that isn't Windows on D drive, including Steam itself. Can I move it after it's installed? I know I can't just dragondrop the folder, but can I move the install location in Steam options?

 

[BoomerDutch]

2 minutes ago, RagePoweredGamer said:

Oh I've been using D drive for steam games since I built the PC. Steam games have their own separate folder in there. I just want to make EVERYTHING that isn't Windows on D drive, including Steam itself. Can I move it after it's installed? I know I can't just dragondrop the folder, but can I move the install location in Steam options?

 

Steam not appearing is because it was installed on D drive if my memory reserves.

 

And steam itself isn't big so i don't know any other way.

 

You can try move it after installation but not sure if issue reappears.

[Kilrah]

1 hour ago, RagePoweredGamer said:

I can't just put everything on D? I'm trying to avoid this crap all happening again. I'm putting NOTHING on my C drive anymore. Zero.

No. Most programs install system dependencies, store things in Windows' registry, in your user profile... even if the actual program files are on another drive.

 

And anyway even if the whole user profile was on D that could still get corrupted...

 

Usually when I do a fresh install I then copy the actual documents (downloads, desktop, pictures,...) back into the new user profile from the old, along with the appdata folders for a minimum of specific apps where it makes sense.

[RagePoweredGamer]

1 hour ago, BoomerDutch said:

Steam not appearing is because it was installed on D drive if my memory reserves.

 

And steam itself isn't big so i don't know any other way.

 

You can try move it after installation but not sure if issue reappears.

Yeah, it refused to update or anything if I installed on D. Everything logged in, but I noticed it was the old Steam login page, before the QR code one. Installed on C. No way to move it. At least it auto-detected the library. It's not about the size of Steam. It's about having as many things NOT on the boot drive as possible.

[RagePoweredGamer]

1 hour ago, Kilrah said:

No. Most programs install system dependencies, store things in Windows' registry, in your user profile... even if the actual program files are on another drive.

 

And anyway even if the whole user profile was on D that could still get corrupted...

 

Usually when I do a fresh install I then copy the actual documents (downloads, desktop, pictures,...) back into the new user profile from the old, along with the appdata folders for a minimum of specific apps where it makes sense.

Already moved over everything I could. Now I'm just trying to set things up again, and moving chunks of folders when I come across it. This will take weeks, if not months.

[Alex Atkin UK]

1 hour ago, RagePoweredGamer said:

Already moved over everything I could. Now I'm just trying to set things up again, and moving chunks of folders when I come across it. This will take weeks, if not months.

Bottom line, it makes no sense to install applications on D: as that wont stop it from storing the configuration files on C:.  If C: corrupts, you'll have the same problem and have to reinstall the applications anyway due to all the registry stuff.  Its never ever worth trying to hack things back into the registry to make applications work without a reinstall, you'll just mess up your new Windows install again.

 

I've always stored as much as possible on D:, before moving to storing most stuff on a NAS.  When it comes to getting application settings back, its just safer to start from scratch than try to move things over.  Your OS got corrupted, so anything you move over from there is a risk it was corrupted.  So its only worth moving what is absolutely essential.

 

The only thing I ever used to move between installs was my Firefox profile, that was dead easy.  Depending on why your previous OS got corrupted, it could be your Brave profile is corrupt and why it keeps refusing to use it.

 

This was actually one reason I fell in love with Linux, its so much easier to backup everything and a complete OS reinstall can be done without wiping anything in your user folder.

[RagePoweredGamer]

1 hour ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Bottom line, it makes no sense to install applications on D: as that wont stop it from storing the configuration files on C:.  If C: corrupts, you'll have the same problem and have to reinstall the applications anyway due to all the registry stuff.  Its never ever worth trying to hack things back into the registry to make applications work without a reinstall, you'll just mess up your new Windows install again.

Steam seems to be the only thing causing issues besides things that I can't find and had to reacquire regardless. Everything else on D drive, just grabbed the desktop shortcut from the old drive, threw it in the new boot drive, and worked well. Even non-steam games and mods.

1 hour ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

The only thing I ever used to move between installs was my Firefox profile, that was dead easy.  Depending on why your previous OS got corrupted, it could be your Brave profile is corrupt and why it keeps refusing to use it.

Fixed the Brave thing a few messages ago.

1 hour ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

This was actually one reason I fell in love with Linux, its so much easier to backup everything and a complete OS reinstall can be done without wiping anything in your user folder.

Still not using Linux until it makes sense.

[Alex Atkin UK]

2 hours ago, RagePoweredGamer said:

Still not using Linux until it makes sense.

Of course, its still problematic for proprietary software and gaming.  Its gotten a lot better for the latter but people who claim to have moved completely to Linux for gaming must have a very small, specific library of games.

 

I'm really surprised you are having issues with Steam, that's always been the easy thing to deal with in my experience.

 

Overall if you plan to permanently use the old OS drive for game installs, you really need to format it to clear any corruption and remove the OS files that are almost impossible to delete otherwise.

 

I'd move everything you want to keep onto the new C drive or the mass storage drive, then use Disk Management to delete all partitions off the old OS drive and create a single new partition on it.