Windows 10 Messed Up?

[Shadeslayer110]

Hi,

So my hard drive was full to the point where windows was forcefully crashing and killing my apps, such as google chrome. In order to fix this, I looked at what was taking up so much space, and I saw it was iTunes. I uninstalled iTunes and deleted all of the files. However, after doing this, chrome stopped working and I still got the message that memory was low. By deleting the files, I got about 30 GB of storage back so I shouldn’t have this problem. I decide to uninstall and reinstall chrome. After doing this, I restart my computer. At this point, chrome either crashes or freezes, and I get random error messages. I go to uninstall chrome, but it says that something else is installing. Also, iTunes is back even though I deleted it. Now, nothing connected to the internet works. Can somebody help me fix this problem? I’m going to call Microsoft eventually, but if anybody here could help, it would save me a lot of time and effort. Thanks in advance.

 

[mazboy]

HDD or SSD? What size? 1TB HDDs are cheap these days, and it may be worth while to upgrade so that you won't feel so bad about doing a clean install of the OS (Win10, one hopes), then reloading all your applications. If you're felling flush, 512GB SSDs are starting to seem reasonable.

 

[Shadeslayer110]

I have two- one SSD and one 1 TB HDD. The OS is on the ssd, while mostly everything else is on the hdd. I have some program files that are on the SSD though, like NVIDIA files and stuff. If I do a clean reinstall, will those files be deleted? And if so, will they be easy to get again?

 

[mazboy]

a reinstall will make everything on the SSD unavailable. Anything you want to save (and reinstall at a later time) should be backed up. Basically, the OS and all applications (programs) should be on the C:\ drive with the OS. All the data the applications produce should be directed to your big spinny disk. You didn't way what size your SSD is, but I'm guessing 128GB?

These days, a 256GB SSD is about the minimum size for the primary (C:\) drive, and my opinion is that 512GB is what you should really be shooting for (and those 1TB SSDs are getting cheaper and cheaper...). Anything else and you start bumping up against over-provisioning the SSD. Win10 does a great job of managing SSDs, but when they get around 80-90 full you start running into problems.

 

[Shadeslayer110]

a reinstall will make everything on the SSD unavailable. Anything you want to save (and reinstall at a later time) should be backed up. Basically, the OS and all applications (programs) should be on the C:\ drive with the OS. All the data the applications produce should be directed to your big spinny disk. You didn't way what size your SSD is, but I'm guessing 128GB?

These days, a 256GB SSD is about the minimum size for the primary (C:\) drive, and my opinion is that 512GB is what you should really be shooting for (and those 1TB SSDs are getting cheaper and cheaper...). Anything else and you start bumping up against over-provisioning the SSD. Win10 does a great job of managing SSDs, but when they get around 80-90 full you start running into problems.

Yea, sorry it is 128 GB. I don’t know what to exactly to back up lol. Should I do prorgan files and stuff and when the reinstall is done, I should just drag it back to the c drive?

 

[mazboy]

In reality, the only thing that you should back up is your data files: Windows usually puts this in the folders called "Documents", "Music", etc, in a folder in C:\Users\~your username~\…

You should have the original program install media for all your applications--things like Quicken, Adobe Acrobat, your video games. It is likely that a lot of your programs were downloads, and you will have to download and install them again when you get your larger SSD/HDD and do a clean install of Windows 10 (I hope you're running Win10...). If any of your programs were pirated, well...you'll just have to pirate them again. The chances of success of trying to copy them off the SSD is vanishingly small.

 

[Shadeslayer110]

a reinstall will make everything on the SSD unavailable. Anything you want to save (and reinstall at a later time) should be backed up. Basically, the OS and all applications (programs) should be on the C:\ drive with the OS. All the data the applications produce should be directed to your big spinny disk. You didn't way what size your SSD is, but I'm guessing 128GB?

These days, a 256GB SSD is about the minimum size for the primary (C:\) drive, and my opinion is that 512GB is what you should really be shooting for (and those 1TB SSDs are getting cheaper and cheaper...). Anything else and you start bumping up against over-provisioning the SSD. Win10 does a great job of managing SSDs, but when they get around 80-90 full you start running into problems.

In reality, the only thing that you should back up is your data files: Windows usually puts this in the folders called "Documents", "Music", etc, in a folder in C:\Users\~your username~\…

You should have the original program install media for all your applications--things like Quicken, Adobe Acrobat, your video games. It is likely that a lot of your programs were downloads, and you will have to download and install them again when you get your larger SSD/HDD and do a clean install of Windows 10 (I hope you're running Win10...). If any of your programs were pirated, well...you'll just have to pirate them again. The chances of success of trying to copy them off the SSD is vanishingly small.

Ok, thank you! Yes, I am running windows 10, and most of my video games and apps are on my hdd. Only basic apps that don’t take a lot of data, such as abode acrobat, are on my c drive. So, i just have to reinstall and I’m good to go? Also, reinstalling will basically solve my problem, right? And my hdd won’t be touched, right?

 

[mazboy]

Absolutely. Just to be safe, I would uninstall (or at least disconnect the SATA data cables) to your 1TB HDD when you do this. Do a "custom" install when the Win10 installer asks (not the "repair" or "upgrade" option), and then immediately after the install completes, go to "settings->Update & security->Windows Update->Check for updates" and get all the latest stuff downloaded and installed. Do that before you reinstall any of your applications. When everything is running fine, shut down the computer, reconnect your spinny drive, and all should be right with the world.

 

[Shadeslayer110]

Absolutely. Just to be safe, I would uninstall (or at least disconnect the SATA data cables) to your 1TB HDD when you do this. Do a "custom" install when the Win10 installer asks (not the "repair" or "upgrade" option), and then immediately after the install completes, go to "settings->Update & security->Windows Update->Check for updates" and get all the latest stuff downloaded and installed. Do that before you reinstall any of your applications. When everything is running fine, shut down the computer, reconnect your spinny drive, and all should be right with the world.

Thank you so much for your help! Fortunately, I turned my computer on, restarted it, and everything works fine now. I didn't have to do anything lol. Anyways, thanks for putting the time in and helping me out.