Installing windows on another drive, can I keep the files?

[rohver]

So my primary hdd stopped working and my work must continue. I need to install win 10 on my secondary drive but I would like to keep all the documents and files on that drive. Is it possible or do I need to format the drive first?

If it helps, I made Bootable Usb installation

 

[darthvader30]

Yes, you can install Win 10 without formatting it.

 

[Colif]

How old is PC? what are specs of PC? If you have a UEFI bios its probable that win 10 will want to wipe hdd before installing win 10 so yes, you would need to format drive. As such, copy everything off it now.

Or buy an SSD and replace primary. That is what I would do.

What happened to primary drive?

 

[rohver]

The primary ssd had my OS installed and today it just stopped being detected. Went into the bios, not listed in the devices. I even exchanged the cables but nothing.

Specs below :

i5 3550
16 gigs ddr3 ram,
Msi R9 390X
Corsair CS650M psu
Asus P8 Z77 M Pro mobo
Sandisk ultra 250gb ssd
Seagate barracuda 1gig hdd
WD caviar black 1gig hdd

 

[Colif]

Yes, you have a UEFI bios, unless you really lucky and secondary drive is already formatted as GPT, then the Win 10 installer will want to reformat the hdd. Now unless you can backup all your data onto one of those drives, I would think buying a new SSD and then just fresh installing Win 10 to it would be far less painful.