Does Windows 10 delete any files during the installation?

[Windows Central Question]

I'm planning a clean installation but have no space to backup all the files.

The plan is to connect the hard drive to a different computer, move all the files to one folder called BACKUP, erase everything else (Windows folder, Program Files, etc.), connect it back to the main computer and carry on with the installation.

Would that BACKUP folder be touched/deleted by Windows installation process?

 

[TechFreak1]

Yes, if it is in the same partition and you chose 'delete personal files' via reset this pc otherwise it will do an in-place install with the old install as windows.old.

So the question is how did you initiate the windows install process?

Also you would be better of moving the files off the HDD completely onto another PC / removable media.

In the future, the cheaper solution would be partition the HDD and have windows / program files in one partition and the your data etc in another.

The better solution would be to get a smaller drive for the o/s - you can pick up a 128 or 256 ssd fairly cheap these days.

You can move all your documents etc in to a different drive via two methods on Windows 10.

1) Via the location tab in the properties dialogue box access via going to users-> [your username] -> then right click documents for example then location -> you will see -> C:\Users\[YourUserName]\Documents -> Change it to [Drive letter of partition of choice]:\[Location of choice].

For best practise it's best to mimic the current structure, which means creating the relevant folders so presuming the other partition driver letter is D:

It would change from C:\Users\Test\Downloads to D:\Users\Test\Downloads

This method prompts you if you want to move previously saved content.

You can move almost every folder than Local, Roamining and Onedrive sync folder.

Local and Roaming are used by the O/S so you can't move those but you can manually copy files from them.

To move the one drive sync folder see here:

support.office.com/en-us/article/change-the-location-of-your-onedrive-folder-f386fb81-1461-40a7-be2c-712676b2c4ae

2) Via storage settings

Settings -> Storage -> change where new content is saved -> change it to preferred partition. This will create a folder with user name in the root of the drive then move the directory but it will not move the previously saved content; so if the newly created partition is E for instance it would be created in E:\[YourUserName] i.e. E:\Test\Documents for newly created files only.

As above you cannot move the one drive sync folder, you have to use the steps in the link above.

If you need additional help or have more questions or details to share, please join the site so you can reply in this thread. See this link for instructions on how to join Windows Central.

 

[Ryujingt3]

Yes, if it is in the same partition and you chose 'delete personal files' via reset this pc otherwise it will do an in-place install with the old install as windows.old.

So the question is how did you initiate the windows install process?

Also you would be better of moving the files off the HDD completely onto another PC / removable media.

In the future, the cheaper solution would be partition the HDD and have windows / program files in one partition and the your data etc in another.

The better solution would be to get a smaller drive for the o/s - you can pick up a 128 or 256 ssd fairly cheap these days.

You can move all your documents etc in to a different drive via two methods on Windows 10.

1) Via the location tab in the properties dialogue box access via going to users-> [your username] -> then right click documents for example then location -> you will see -> C:\Users\[YourUserName]\Documents -> Change it to [Drive letter of partition of choice]:\[Location of choice].

For best practise it's best to mimic the current structure, which means creating the relevant folders so presuming the other partition driver letter is D:

It would change from C:\Users\Test\Downloads to D:\Users\Test\Downloads

This method prompts you if you want to move previously saved content.

You can move almost every folder than Local, Roamining and Onedrive sync folder.

Local and Roaming are used by the O/S so you can't move those but you can manually copy files from them.

To move the one drive sync folder see here:

support.office.com/en-us/article/change-the-location-of-your-onedrive-folder-f386fb81-1461-40a7-be2c-712676b2c4ae

2) Via storage settings

Settings -> Storage -> change where new content is saved -> change it to preferred partition. This will create a folder with user name in the root of the drive then move the directory but it will not move the previously saved content; so if the newly created partition is E for instance it would be created in E:\[YourUserName] i.e. E:\Test\Documents for newly created files only.

As above you cannot move the one drive sync folder, you have to use the steps in the link above.

If you need additional help or have more questions or details to share, please join the site so you can reply in this thread. See this link for instructions on how to join Windows Central.

The above should work fine. If you don't copy your data to another partition or drive when installing Windows then it'll get deleted as part of the installation process.