Critical Memory issues - Advise before I do factory restore

Hi Experts,
My Lenovo Thinkpad E490 with Windows 10 is having strange issues. My local files are in bytes as I deleted everything, cleaned 1.9 gb of data and within minutes, I get a critical error message and I delete applications like SQL, Visual studio creating 2 gb and I have not written anything and Yet I get a critical error message. So I decided to go for a factory reset.

• 475 GB now 200 MB free and practically nil my data.
• RAM 7.85GB Usable memory

Please advise me how to save
1. My passwords
2. My software licences Like windows
3. Browsers favourites etc
and other recommendations you expect before I do a factory reset and also reset with optimal windows memory. I do nto want windows to eat all my memory if possible.

Thanks a ton.

My local files are in bytes as I deleted everything,

It sounds like you accidentally deleted Windows System files.
What Browser do you use? (ie) Chrome, Edge, Firefox etc? Your Passwords for websites should be saved in your Browser under Settings. If you signed into your browser, they will be saved on their server. When you sign into the browser after a reset, it will show you passwords and your Browser favorites.
Windows software license is saved in your CMOS/Bios. So, it will automatically populate when you reinstall.
Rather then do a Clean Install do a Repair Install saving your files and settings. It will just reinstall the Windows System files and leave your settings and User files alone.

Hi, does your PC still boot up?
If so you can attempt an in-place upgrade repair install of Windows as spunk suggests, and try to rescue your current installation.

If not, you can create a complete image of any partition - it sounds as if C: is the only one - using e.g. Macrium reflect's boot disk, booting your PC from that and creating an image of C: to an external disk.

That way, you can clean install Win 10 using a Win 10 bootable disk, or perform a factory reset to what would probably be an older build of Win 10, then install Macrium Reflect, and mount the image file created. You can then attempt to recover whatever data you need from the mounted image of C:

How do you protect yourself from disasters and mistakes?

Use disk imaging regularly and routinely, so you have both a full backup and an image you can restore- even if your imaged disk fails.

Please advise me how to save
1. My passwords
2. My software licences Like windows
3. Browsers favourites etc

Only you know whch browsers you've used and where key data is stored.
E.g. for Edge and Firefox, data are stored quite differently. You can search for information on this and how you might recover it and whether that's possible.

Note- data recovery from a booting running system is quite different from trying to do that from a non-booting system.

My local files are in bytes....... my actual memory is in bytes

Could you please explain this further? Do you mean your C:\Users\[UserName] Folder (ie) Documents, Downloads, Desktop etc are in bytes? That would be impossible. Please Right click C:\Users\[UserName} and choose Properties, tell us the used space.
You have not answered the question of which Browser you are using. We cannot tell you how to back up your favorites and passwords unless you tell us this? Again, if you sign in to your browser, it would show you all your saved Favorites, and Passwords on any device or reinstall of any device you sign into.
If your computer uses UEFI Bios, all modern computers do, it stores your Windows product key in the Bios so you don't have to type it in.
Macrium Reflect makes an Image of your computer as it is now. If you are getting error messages and missing files, then the Macrium Reflect Image would just backup and restore the same thing. all missing system files, But it would backup your programs, passwords, and personal files.

Radeon kept saying there are updates

You would go to the Lenovo site directly to download the Radeon driver Or from the AMD web site.
If you don't want to do a Windows Repair Install, then use the Lenovo NOVO button to restore your laptop to Factory Defaults that includes all Drivers and Lenovo Bloatware.

A disk image of a partition is normally a compressed copy of all the used area of that partition... every file.

Therefore you can gain access to everything on that partition by mounting the image file - when you then see a new drive letter available. Open that drive letter and you see all the files as you do now.

However that does not mean all of them are readily accessible. For example, browsers normally encrypt stored passwords. I cannot tell you if offline recovery (without that browser running normally) is at all possible.

Therefore you should consider which data might be easier to export and save from your currently running Windows.
Favourites, passwords, emails, email settings (if you use an email client- program) etc.

If you use Google appropriately or the browser's help, or simply look around its options you should be able to deal with that.

Note: I use a password manager program, which makes my logins and passwarods available on multiple browsers and devices - including my Android phone. This avoids any issue with loss and recovery of these.

2. My software licences Like windows

Windows will be reactivated from the digital entitlement held against a hash of a form of your hardware ID. You can clean install Win 10 as often as you like- activation should be automatic.

You will lose any giveaway licenses which were required to be activated in a certain timescale.
For purchased licenses, hopefully you have kept a secure record.
There are programs that scan for and list software licenses e,g,
Belarc adviser
Licensecrawler
etc.
Though these may not pick up every single one, as the way these are stored is variable.

Here are some solutions for SQL Server https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql...l-server-ver15