Is quick format the answer?

[Lennestal]

Hi,
So on my PC rig I'm currently running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, and I've recently bought Windows 8.1 and I'm about to install it. However, installing my new operating system would require me to reformat my (internal) hard drives, right?
By doing a FULL format, I'm guessing the whole hdd would be "cleansed" and all of my hundreds of hours spent in various different games would be gone.
And I just can't have that...

So my question is: Would a quick format, which leaves a folder named 'windows.old' mean that I can just drag the game files from the windows.old-directories into the reformatted hdd and just continue playing as like nothing happened, on my new operating system? Or would the game files be worthless since they're no longer on windows 7?

If quick formatting isn't the answer to my issue, I would appreciate other suggestions to installing W 8.1 without terminating my old game saves. Thanks in advance...

 

[Tradesman1]

If you want to keep the old, just do an install - NO FORMAT - a quick format will also delete all the data

 

[Lennestal]

I thought that a hard drive needed to be formatted in order to be recognized on a newly installed OS? Might be wrong though...

 

[Tradesman1]

No, it will install to however the current drive is formatted, if you WANT to format, save all your data to a flash, drive, burn to DVDs etc (which is a good idea anyway, in case anything goes wrong

 

[Lennestal]

I'll try that then. And I'll back it up on an external hard drive beforehand just in case. Thanks for the help so far.

 

[Tradesman1]

No worries