Need assit in backing up user profile without win access

I've experienced a critical error in Windows that is going to require repairs and I would like to avoid losing or potentially losing as many settings, files and programs as possible. I assume the best way to do this is to back up my User Profile and any setup software I have for installed programs, preform a clean install and then replace the User Profile and install the programs again. I just need some help/advice on how to do this from the Automatic Repair>>Advanced Options>>Command Prompt environment, since the problem I'm having prevents me from accessing the Windows 10 OS.

Thanks!

You can't really do what you hope to do. After a clean install of Windows you have to re-install your programs/apps from scratch. There is no magic way to back up everything but the basic Windows OS and restore it all. About the closest thing you could try is PCMOVER but I don't know if that will work from an environment where you can't get into a running Windows that you are going to "move":
Feature Overview - Laplink(R) Software

What I do in a situation like yours is use Kyhi's Recovery Tools:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk

Boot from that and use the programs on there to either move the damaged Windows installation to a minimally sized partition at the end of the drive, do a clean install to the rest of the drive, and then pull what I can save from the old Windows saved in it's own partition.

or use Macrium Reflect (also on Kyhi's recovery tools) to save an image of the damaged Windows installation, do a clean install, then retrieve what I can from the backup image.

NavyLCDR said:

You can't really do what you hope to do. After a clean install of Windows you have to re-install your programs/apps from scratch. There is no magic way to back up everything but the basic Windows OS and restore it all. About the closest thing you could try is PCMOVER but I don't know if that will work from an environment where you can't get into a running Windows that you are going to "move":
Feature Overview - Laplink(R) Software

What I do in a situation like yours is use Kyhi's Recovery Tools:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk

Boot from that and use the programs on there to either move the damaged Windows installation to a minimally sized partition at the end of the drive, do a clean install to the rest of the drive, and then pull what I can save from the old Windows saved in it's own partition.

or use Macrium Reflect (also on Kyhi's recovery tools) to save an image of the damaged Windows installation, do a clean install, then retrieve what I can from the backup image.

Thank you kindly for the advice!

I've already copied the folder: C:\Users\(username) to an external USB drive, so I can preform a clean install and then, as I think you've suggested, go through everything manually and pick out all the files and SOME of the more basic particulars involving the previous Windows setup, like visuals and icons and start menu items etc. Although it sounds quite tedious, I can do that!

I suppose that I thought there would be a simpler way to sort of move the old user profile to the new installation and import it so that windows recognizes it. I guess that's just not possible...

There might be a way and I just don't know about it.

EdTittel said:

I don't know, however, if a backup environment like Acronis or Macrium Reflect might not offer a VM creation tool.
--Ed--

Macrium viBoot - Create Virtual Machine using Macrium Image