Will my data delete, if I update PC to W10?

[AquaWarrior13]

I want to try Windows 10, but I fear that all of my files will be gone.

 

[Richard Culverhouse]

You should do a backup first anyway, but when I do the upgrade (NOT a fresh installation!), all of my files are OK.

 

[ncxcstud]

Alternatively you could dual boot as well.

 

[xandros9]

some programs can potentially go away, but upgrading does not delete files.

However, it's still good to have some kind of backup solution in place, whether a flash drive or cloud storage in case the unthinkable happens.

 

[djeire84]

As long as you have two partitions on your HDD you will be fine.

C drive = System ie Windows OS
D drive = Data ie media, documents etc.

Do a backup of C in case there us a problem with the upgrade, you may lose some system settings as they would be a little different to Win 10.

 

[Davoshyn]

Contrary to what many say, you may lose files. Back up everything you want to keep, particularly photos, music, and documents. Back it up on an external drive. Or to the cloud. Or both.

In my "first" upgrade, win10 just moved stuff around, and although it was annoying, I found my files in the user folder and arranged everything the way I wanted it. It was a pain, but bearable. A week or two later, win10 apparently re-installed itself, changing my desktop, my file structure, and deleted my music and photos. They were not in user, not in windows.old, not in a half dozen other places people on forums say they found theirs, and win10 showed the folders in my backup drive as empty. They were not. The files were all there. I spent hours screwing around, reading snippy comments from people who think those of us who have lost files are idiots, and frantic comments from the ones who have lost files.

I am done with W10, at least until MS gets it's act together. I'm back in win7, and all my programs work again (some didn't in win10), and win7 shows all my files on the external drive, ready for recovery. I have been running windows since it first came out, and I have to say, this was by far the worst upgrade experience. It seem every new OS upgrade involves MS deciding what I should see or not see and how I should organize my data. I guess I expected that this time, but I really didn't expect huge chunks of data to be inaccessible (I won't go through everything I did to access this data, but I did a great deal, so I don't need to hear suggestions like "show hidden files" or whatever.

Oh, and you gotta love the ironic upgrade message: "All your files are right where you left them."
Not.

You're warned. Good luck.