Hi,
We had a power cut this morning whilst using the PC. Running Windows 10 Home pro. Is there any way of doing an instal but keeping the files I need on the drive. I do have a backup but cannot access it at this time. (I'm using the wifes PC at the moment to ask this question.
Thanks,
Gerald.
Yes you can install Win 10 on same partition. All current files will be moved to a Windows.old folder. Once you finished installation you can move your data to your new profile. As it is a new installation you will have to install all your software.
I suggest you try to fix the current installation.
Do you have a Win 10 installation drive?
What happens when you power on the computer?
Hi, I guess you mean your PC is not now bootable.
You can only perform an in-place upgrade repair install, for example, once logged in.
Bear in mind that if files on your drive have been corrupted, that will very much depend on both what the PC was doing at the time and I suppose sheer chance.
There is therefore no guarantee of fixing your current installation.
If your backup is limited to selected personal files, you will be facing a clean install in all probability. If your backup is actually a set of disk images of at least all the partitions comprising Win 10 (typically 4 for UEFI) and is fairly recent, you can restore that and then update any key personal files from a more recent backup.
Before that you might wish to consider attempting to recover the latest copy of any key files you know you have changed recently.
I also recommend you test your disk(s) in case there's any damage. The chances of this and its nature will differ depending on whether you have a HDD or a SSD or some combination.
That's the first thing I'd do- using e.g. a live boot disk to boot your PC (Hiren's, Bob Omb's.... ) and a suitable program such as Crystal Diskinfo, Macrorit Diskscanner (hard disks) - both free
Good point - I'd assumed "I do have a backup but cannot access it at this time." meant the backup was stored in a physical place currently inaccessible... keeping my only backup on the same PC would never occur to me..
A simple, lazy solution is to just buy a new disk and do a fresh install of Windows 10 on it. That way you don't have to fool around with trying to repair your old disk. Instead, send your old disk to a professional data recovery service and (for a fee) they can recover as many of your needed files as possible.
Gerald,
Even if Windows is not booting, you can rescue any of your files that have not been backed up using an InstallUSB or Recovery drive. See Use InstallUSB Notepad as a rudimentary File explorer to backup files [post #33] - TenForums
You are not clear about what your main problem is [presumably because your current priority is rescuing your files].
1 Is Windows booting?
2 Can you log into an account when Windows boots?
…
All the best,
Denis
You can also remove the troubled HDD/SSD from the computer and attach it to your Wife's laptop via a USB Adapter with a power adapter. You can backup your files to her computer or attach a USB HDD and save the User files to that. Then you can put the computer back in the troubled computer and Reinstall Windows and not worry if your data gets overwritten.
When you say that you don't have access to your previous backup, if your backup is on the same HDD/SSD then you have found out that this is not a good idea if you can't access that drive. It's always best to have your backup on another drive or cloud service in case of disaster like this.
"If the files are on a separate data partition, you can clean install Windows 10 without touching the data partition. I did so several times before." Matt, as long as one pays attention to the possible choices during install, correct? I thought one of those choices will clean the entire SSD or HDD, partitions and all - if the wrong choice is made during install.
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