How to Reinstall Windows 10 without Losing Data 3 Ways ?
How does it work?
When your system has issues and you have tried many solutions on the web to no valid, then you should reinstall Windows 10 to get all problems sorted out. By using the method that I am about to show you, you can choose to keep personal files and installed programs, keep personal files only, or keep files in a new location.
If you are certain that all applications are running well and the problem you are facing is not caused by any installed programs, then you can choose to reinstall Windows 10 without losing programs. In order to keep your files or apps, Windows will scan your C: drive and place all your personal files aside. When the installation complete, Windows will put your personal files and settings back to the original location.
If you are using a genuine Windows 10, Windows 10 will automatically get activated after the reinstallation.
Quick navigation for Windows 10 reinstallation methods:
Method 1: Repair install Windows 10 without losing any data
If your Windows 10 can boot and you believe all the installed programs are fine, then you can use this method to reinstall Windows 10 without losing files and programs. If one or more of your program are damaged, you'd better keep personal files only.
1. Download the latest Windows 10 installation ISO file. You can also use Windows Media Creation tool to create an installation ISO.
2. Double click to mount the ISO file (for Windows 7, you need to use other tools to mount it). At the root directory, double-click to run the Setup.exe file.
3. When the Windows 10 Setup is ready, you can whether to download updates or not based on your needs.
4. In the screen, click "Change what to keep".
5. From there. You can select "Keep personal files, apps, and Windows settings" or "Keep personal files only".
6. Click Next to install Windows 10.
This may take a while because it will spend extra time scanning your hard drive and moving files. If you just want to keep your files where they are, then try the next method.
Method 2: Fresh install Windows 10 without losing data
Windows 10 provides the feature "Reset this PC" to help you solve system problems by reinstalling Windows 10. During the process, you can choose whether to keep your personal files or not.
To use the feature, you can go to Settings > Update&Security > Recovery > Reset this PC, then you will have two options, "Keep my files" and "Remove everything", select one of them and follow the on-screen instruction.
You can also reset Windows 10 from command line. The process are shown below:
1. Type “cmd” in the search box and press Enter.
2. In the listed results, right click on the Command Prompt and select "Run as Administrator".
3. Type “systemreset” (without quotes) in the command prompt window and press Enter. If you need to reinstall Windows 10 and install new updates, you can run command “systemreset -cleanpc”.
If your system cannot boot, you can boot into recovery mode and from there, you can reset your PC. You can boot your PC from a recovery drive to reset your Windows 10.
Method 3: Clean install Windows 10 without losing data
If you prefer installing Windows 10 without losing data from USB drive or installation disc, you can also choose this method. Before you do, you need to make sure your C: drive has more than 16GB of free space.
1. Insert your installation disc and boot from it. If you do not have one, you can download the Windows Media Creation tool to create one.
2. When it loads, select the language and keyboard, then click "Next".
3. Click "Install Now".
4. Type your product key or skip it.
5. Select the installation type "Custom".
6. At the following screen, just select the C: drive and click Next to proceed. Then, wait patiently until the installation complete 100%.
As long as you do not format the C: drive in the Setup, you will not lose your data, but they are moved to another location. After the installation, you can find a folder Windows.old in the root directory of C: drive. All your files are saved there.
After copy all your needed files out from Windows.old folder, you can use Disk Cleanup to delete the Windows.old folder to free up disk space.
Reinstall windows 10 is not a perfect way
If you choose the first method, you can keep your programs, but it cannot fix the problems that caused by installed programs. If you choose the other two methods, you will lose all your programs. That may be a lot of work to reinstall all your applications. This is why I say reinstallation is not a perfect way.
To avoid such trouble, you can use a free backup software to create a system image backup in case system issues that may happen in the future. For simplicity and effectiveness, I strongly recommend you AOMEI Backupper Standard to protect your Windows 10 PC.
It does not require much disk space for keeping many backup versions thanks to its medium to high compression level and incremental/differential backup feature. Also, it can free you manually backup via daily, weekly, monthly backup.
System backup always ensures system and data security
To create an image backup with AOMEI Backupper:
1. Download and install this free backup software.
2. On the main page, click the "Backup" tab and then choose "System Backup". If you want to backup entire disk, you can choose "Disk Backup" as instead.
3. Select a destination location to receive the backup image. You can backup to any location (folder) that Windows detects, including external hard drive, NAS network location, local storage, etc.
4. In the next screen, click "Schedule" to configure scheduled backup settings if needed. After that, click "Start Backup" to start the operation.
Note: System backup in
AOMEI Backupper Standard can satisfy almost users' need. But if you are
advanced users, you may need the following features that are available
on higher version.
• Enable encryption for backup: This feature is useful for users who store sensitive data or business data on their computer to prevent unauthorized access.
• USB Plug in:
This feature is designed for users who frequently use USB storage
device, and make the backup task more convenient. Once you create a
schedule backup with "USB Plug in", AOMEI Backupper will automatically start backup when USB connected to your computer.
• Scheme:
This is a indispensable feature is for all users who don't want to miss
any changes, but worry about disk space issue. It can delete old
backups automatically when backup versions reaches the specified number.
In a short time, the backup will be created. With a backup, whenever you have problems with your system, you can easily restore from the backup. Even when your PC fails to boot, you can restore from bootable CD.
Wrapping things up
To reinstall Windows 10 without losing data is surely possibly using these three methods mentioned above, and it can fix system issues that your computer may have. But, honestly, it's not perfect. And it is obvious that restoring from a backup is easier and more convenient to solve Windows issues.
The basic version AOMEI Backupper Standard is enough to prevent unexpected disaster, such as, system crash, disk failure, virus, fire etc. But if you want more advanced features, such as, USB plug in, incremental and differential backup, universal restore, you need to upgrade from the basic version.
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