Operating System Reinstall

[JBurnett]

I know that you have to reload all your programs, but what I'm wondering is if you can just point the particular program's installer and reinstall right over your old folders (different drive obviously)?

Windows 10.

Thank you

 

[Herc08]

If you are reinsalling the OS, then there is nothing to install over. You will have to install from scratch. Unless you are trying to do a refresh or upgrade.

 

[JBurnett]

If you are reinsalling the OS, then there is nothing to install over. You will have to install from scratch. Unless you are trying to do a refresh or upgrade.

So my C;\ drive is an itty SSD drive and it contains the O.S. only.

All my programs are installed on the D:\ drive.

when I reinstall my operating system, nothing is touched on my D:\, E:\, F:, M:, or O:/ drives.

So to reiterate; I know that you have to reload all your programs when you reinstall the operating system, but what I'm wondering is if you can just point the particular program's installer and reinstall right over your old folders (different drive obviously)?

Regards

 

[Herc08]

Ah, did not catch that edit. It shouldn't need to be uninstalled, but on your main drive, you will have to setup things EXACTLY like it was. Basically it's tied to your registry. If it isn't setup exactly like before, there is a possibility you may get errors, and have to re-install

 

[JBurnett]

Ah, did not catch that edit. It shouldn't need to be uninstalled, but on your main drive, you will have to setup things EXACTLY like it was. Basically it's tied to your registry. If it isn't setup exactly like before, there is a possibility you may get errors, and have to re-install

Tied to the registry?? It's a new O.S, and this really is a yes or no question.

I'm resolved that every program will have to be reinstalled, my question is; can I just reinstall over the existing folders, or is it better to wipe the drive? If I leave those (now not good) folders) I know what programs to install.

Regards

 

[Calvin7]

The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) was designed to initialize the hardware faster than the legacy BIOS and help the OS to boot in normal conditions. You can install Windows 10 using the UEFI mode.

When Windows Setup starts, you will need to reformat the hard drive using the GPT partition table;
After formatting, click the “Next” button and you will get the following partitions:
◦Drive 0 Partition 1: Recovery –type Recovery;
◦Drive 0 Partition 2: System- this is an EFI partition that contains the core OS files, which are required to boot the operating system;
◦Drive 0 Partition 3: MSR- it is a partition that reserves space on each hard drive for Windows internal use;
◦Drive 0 Partition 4: Primary- this is the partition where all users data and Windows will be stored;

I recommend you delete all existing partitions when starting the reinstallation so you will have an empty drive.

As far as "reinstall over the existing folders", maybe you want to do some kind of a repair to your existing installation.

 

[JBurnett]

Here's all I'm asking:

1) I'm going to reinstall my operating system by using Recovery>Reset>Keep My Files.
2) Since my programs are on the D: drive I fully understand that they'll have to be reinstalled.
3) The question I can't get answered: I'd like to keep all those program's folder there on the D:so I can see what needs to be reinstalled. Is this okay, or should I start with an empty drive? Can I just reinstall over the old program's installation since nothing's in the registry yet for these existing, useless folders?

Thank you

 

[USAFRet]

3) It is preferable to start with a blank drive. But...here's a suggestion:
You have your applications installed on the D drive, under a folder called 'Program Files', right?

Create another top level folder for these new application installs.
Call it 'MyPrograms', or whatever. It does NOT have to be named 'Program Files'.

This way, you can see what applications you had, install them under this new top level folder.
When done, simply delete the original 'Program Files' on the D drive.

 

[Herc08]

Here's all I'm asking:

1) I'm going to reinstall my operating system by using Recovery>Reset>Keep My Files.
2) Since my programs are on the D: drive I fully understand that they'll have to be reinstalled.
3) The question I can't get answered: I'd like to keep all those program's folder there on the D:so I can see what needs to be reinstalled. Is this okay, or should I start with an empty drive? Can I just reinstall over the old program's installation since nothing's in the registry yet for these existing, useless folders?

Thank you

Now that make sense. You can do USAFret's way. I thought you meant trying to find a workaround from installing it. When I do a refresh, I usually use IOBit and save all my programs to a text file, and then put that on a thumb drive. I go through each program, and if I really don't need it, I don't get it.