Can i reinstall windows 10 without deleting everything?

[lancer420]

So, for a few days now, I've got the dreaded "your PC ran into an error and needs to restart" message. Now, the only thing that's ever fixed that problem for me is reinstalling windows, if you had better luck then god bless you because i haven't. Problem is, I'd really like to keep photos, apps, game save files ETC if i can. Can i do it without deleting everything? If so how? I'd really like to not go through the hassle of getting everything back. I'd rather quit gaming entirely to be honest. What do you guys think? Thanks!

 

[Shektron]

If you have a separate partition than the C: drive, transfer everything you want to keep into the other partition, and when reinstalling Windows, simply don't format that partition. You only need to format C: drive during the reinstall, the other partitions stay as is.

 

[lancer420]

If you have a separate partition than the C: drive, transfer everything you want to keep into the other partition, and when reinstalling Windows, simply don't format that partition. You only need to format C: drive during the reinstall, the other partitions stay as is.

I only have one drive so, no, i don't have another partition.

 

[Shektron]

Well you can create multiple partitions on a single drive, but that's something that needs to be done during the Windows install as far as I know. So, unfortunately, it seems that you will indeed lose your data, unless you have some backup drive where you can temporarily store the data.

Ah wait, I just found this:

https://www.disk-partition.com/windows-7/create-partition-in-windows-7-from-c-drive-3889.html

You can just shrink the C: drive, and using the unallocated space that gets created, form a new partition, and transfer your data to that partition.

I'm sure the process is quite similar for Windows 10 as well, just right-click on Start menu and click on Disk Management, then the rest of the steps are probably the same.

 

[CoDrift]

Wanna know an easy way through? Just right click my computer - Manage - Storage - disk management - And right click on you're partition - click shrink volume - Set required amount of space to create a separate partition - right click on the new unallocated space (Black) - New volume - Keep hitting next - New volume created!
Now copy all files you want to that new partition and reinstall! Enjoy! :d
Later backup from that partition!

 

[USAFRet]

So, for a few days now, I've got the dreaded "your PC ran into an error and needs to restart" message. Now, the only thing that's ever fixed that problem for me is reinstalling windows, if you had better luck then god bless you because i haven't. Problem is, I'd really like to keep photos, apps, game save files ETC if i can. Can i do it without deleting everything? If so how? I'd really like to not go through the hassle of getting everything back. I'd rather quit gaming entirely to be honest. What do you guys think? Thanks!

And why isn't there a backup of this data?
What if the issue is not the Windows install, but rather a dying hard drive?