Windows reinstall

[Speedster]

A family member managed to completely corrupt their windows installation so much so that none of the windows recovery / reset options work. I figure the only option is to format the drive and then reinstall windows.

My question: I see the drive currently has four partitions. Do I need to repartition in the same manner, or can I simply partition the drive as a single partition?

 

[Grouter]

I usually rescue their data first, then delete all partitions when installing windows again - the installer does everything for you.

 

[Speedster]

I usually rescue their data first, then delete all partitions when installing windows again - the installer does everything for you.

Thanks. I managed to copy across the user folder to another drive by popping their drive into a usb cradle.

 

[Grouter]

I also always check obscure locations, like the root of C drive, for rogue "Pictures" or "My Personal Stuff" folders, etc.
There's nothing worse than the phone call days later from the client: "But where are my grandchildren pictures?"
Yeah, you hid them in the windows folder, umm, thanks for that...

 

[SauRoNZA]

Just let it do by itself.

Delete all the partitions during setup and then just press next and it will sort itself out.

 

[WHG]

Run Windirstat on the external, will show what info is where, users do save stuff anywhere, and the windows install will sort the partitioning and mentioned above delete all the partitions.

 

[Herr der Verboten]

Just install *nix

 

[Speedster]

Just install *nix

Not sure the septuagenarian technophobe would be very appreciative

 

[ponder]

Thanks. I managed to copy across the user folder to another drive by popping their drive into a usb cradle.

If they use a email app the mail & contacts might live in a different location. Some people also store schit in weird places.

 

[Speedster]

If they use a email app the mail & contacts might live in a different location. Some people also store schit in weird places.

Well, it's done now. If anything is lost, oops

 

[Speedster]

Everything's up and running again and I've copied the user files across but "Documents" doesn't point to the User/username/Documents folder, it's some OneDrive thing. Is there a way to change this?

Sorry for the n00b questions, I haven't set up a windows system in yonks.

 

[supersunbird]

Everything's up and running again and I've copied the user files across but "Documents" doesn't point to the User/username/Documents folder, it's some OneDrive thing. Is there a way to change this?

Sorry for the n00b questions, I haven't set up a windows system in yonks.

Onedrive, settings, backup tab, you either set onedrive to backup to the cloud when signing in or thats wherr it was set to back up to before thr crash.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Everything's up and running again and I've copied the user files across but "Documents" doesn't point to the User/username/Documents folder, it's some OneDrive thing. Is there a way to change this?

Sorry for the n00b questions, I haven't set up a windows system in yonks.

You probably enabled One Drive during the install wizard.

Just go unlink it and it should revert to the normal location.

But considering how this person almost lost all their data OneDrive might not be a bad idea.