Can I reinstall Windows 10 by formatting just the :C partition and preserving the other partitions?

I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 on the first day, and I've liked it until I ran into some minor nuisances. Before the first week ended, the sfc /scannow command began to fail, and dism commands have been uncooperative as well. Running Windows Update Diagnostic tells me that the registration is missing or corrupt. Also, Windows Search does not let me open any components of the Control Panel, except the Control Panel itself. I have no idea how things went south so quickly.

Anyways, these things have been bugging me, so I'm thinking about reinstalling Windows. However, I have so many programs installed, so I do not want to wipe my entire SSD. Thankfully, I installed almost every program on a different partition. My concern is that, even though I installed them in a different partition, I still see folders named with those program names in the :C partition. So if I format only :C and reinstall Windows, will those programs installed on the other partition not run properly?

Skipher

Posted 2015-08-07T01:45:31.153

Reputation: 205

I'm reporting back after an "in-place" installation of Windows 10 on my previous Windows 10, which thankfully preserved everything. Now, SFC and DISM detect no corruption. However, the pesky problem with the Windows Search is still prevalent. I guess I will wait on Microsoft to fix these issues. Thank you everyone. – Skipher – 2015-08-07T03:43:32.307

Answers

Many program's features/settings reside on the C:\Users folder (AppData, Roaming, etc), even tough the program is installed somewhere else, AND the registry. Unfortunately, so far I've been unsucessfull on finding a way to backup those files efficiently. Some bugs appear and associations disappear. So, indeed, you may not wipe the thing You may install windows 7 on the same partition (booting through the DVD and ignoring warnings, if any). After installing, a "windows.old" folder will be created containing your current stuff. I'm not very sure, but I think you will still find bugs when doing that, but fewer. It's worth trying if you can reinstall the applications by their media. You may selective bring back things from the AppData and Roaming folders as desired, and check if they work as normal. The same for the windows registry.

Lucas BS

Posted 2015-08-07T01:45:31.153

Reputation: 333

Thank you for the suggestion. On one hand, it sounds like your method may work the charms because it sounds like pasting my settings and applications over a freshly installed Windows, but it may also go terribly wrong in the case that it's not a simple action of just copying and pasting. I guess I was kind of asking for a complicated problem like this, expecting a smooth in-place upgrade for Windows.

I'm hoping to fix these issues with the dism command, but I keep getting the "source not found" error. By chance, do you have any idea what could be causing this error? – Skipher – 2015-08-07T02:12:49.207

Good question. The day windows successfully fix itself of all the problems it allows to create, the world will fall apart. If you are still trying to fix the current windows, you may have to create a new topic about this Dism error (to fix the fixer... ironic). Also, may sound dumb, but you are aware that Dism only attempts to fix windows' messes, not the programs, right ? – Lucas BS – 2015-08-07T02:30:09.443

Yes, and it is because they ARE only problems related to Windows that I'm struggling in this manner right now. I have just read about an in-place installation (upgrade .... repair....) of Windows 10 from Windows 10. Since the method says "in-place," I assume this should leave all my programs and data in place. I will consider this method for now. Thank you. – Skipher – 2015-08-07T02:36:18.897

Good luck! I won't be surprised if you find another bug while doing this in-place thing... Windows 10 has many bugs and problems... I'm back to 7. – Lucas BS – 2015-08-08T13:20:37.883

The in-place reinstall actually finished successfully! SFC and DISM report no corruption. I had to do a bit of manual registry cleaning and configurations because the event logs reported some negligible alerts. Other than that, Windows 10 is running smoothly. Of course, Microsoft still has a lot to fix to make it "smoother." – Skipher – 2015-08-08T14:26:31.827

You can find the official instructions here

Basically just select "custom" during installation.

On the Which type of installation do you want? page, click Custom.

On the Where do you want to install Windows? page, select the partition or disk where you want to install the new Windows operating system. Be sure to install Windows on a different partition from the one where the earlier version of Windows is installed.

3clipse

Posted 2015-08-07T01:45:31.153

Reputation: 175