If I re-install Windows 7 will I lose access to programs on D:\?

[eddiebove]

Hi All,

I usually re-install windows every 6 months or so when my system starts to slow down and to clear out any rubbish that has accumulated over time.

However, last time I re-installed windows it was onto a new 120GB SSD and so I have been installing all my non-essential programs and games onto my D:\ drive (one of 5 internal drives) to save space.

If I re-install windows will I lose access to these games and programs as the registry will be wiped clean? I can make a back up of the registry and then use that once I have windows up and running but I'm not sure if that will mess things up even more.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers

 

[mi1ez]

yes, you will lose access to pretty much all of them I'm afraid...

 

[eddiebove]

yes, you will lose access to pretty much all of them I'm afraid...

Is there nothing I can do to salvage it?

 

[ss202sl]

Re-install the programs which should be easy since you installed them in the firrst place.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Backup your game saves, reinstall your games, then restore your game saves to the appropriate folders.

 

[kyzarvs]

yes, you will lose access to pretty much all of them I'm afraid...

Huh?

Over Christmas I upgraded my home PC from XP-Pro to 7 Pro which has two hard drives:

c: - Raptor 10krpm 300gb

d: - 1tb WD somethingorother(tm) just for Steam / games

Checking the 7 partitioner during install verified that it would only touch C (you could unplug the non O/S drive if you want to be double-sure), I went ahead and installed.

Went from 32 Bit Xp to 64 Bit 7. Drive D was detected and untouched. Deleted the steam blob file, re-downloaded/created it and 700GB of Steam games all (that I've tried so far) work fine without having to re-download.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Huh?

Over Christmas I upgraded my home PC from XP-Pro to 7 Pro which has two hard drives:

c: - Raptor 10krpm 300gb

d: - 1tb WD somethingorother(tm) just for Steam / games

Checking the 7 partitioner during install verified that it would only touch C (you could unplug the non O/S drive if you want to be double-sure), I went ahead and installed.

Went from 32 Bit Xp to 64 Bit 7. Drive D was detected and untouched. Deleted the steam blob file, re-downloaded/created it and 700GB of Steam games all (that I've tried so far) work fine without having to re-download.

That may work for steam games since they all run under the steam client, but even that sounds suspicious to me. When you reinstall windows, the registry is cleared of all program information, thus the need to reinstall.

 

[mi1ez]

That may work for steam games since they all run under the steam client, but even that sounds suspicious to me. When you reinstall windows, the registry is cleared of all program information, thus the need to reinstall.

Correct - Steam is the exception.