Will refresh remove drivers?

Hazel123 · 25 Jun 2016

Hi. I have upgraded an HP Pavilion DM4 1050ea to Windows 10 (after backing up and imaging beforehand). It's mostly ok but boot up is glitchy and I'd like to try the "Refresh" option. Now I believe the "Reset" option is basically like a clean install that keeps your personal files - if you opt for that. Whereas refresh keeps personal files but removes programs. So I don't want to try reset or do a clean install just yet. Because I don't want to have to start finding and installing drivers.

So what I'd like to know please is, if I do "Refresh" and installed programs are removed, will it also remove factory installed drivers (that are there after doing the upgrade over Windows 7?). I know there are some issues with some drivers.

In other words - will I need to reinstall drivers (or let Windows find some drivers) after a refresh, or will they still be there? I do'n't mind reinstalling programs. I've just confused myself ha ha.

cereberus · 25 Jun 2016

Export them to a flash drive just in case.something goes wrong before you reset.
:
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/export...ing-powershell

Hazel123 · 25 Jun 2016

Thanks! Looking at the options there was just Reset, or go back to Windows 7, or restore from an image. I checked in device manager which drivers were original ones (which I have on a usb stick) and which ones had been replaced or updated by Windows. So I'm hoping Windows will just replace them all bar one or two which I have anyway. So I did a reset keeping files and settings. Actually now I'm wishing I'd just done a keep nothing reset as I have all my personal files backed up and would rather start fresh with settings. Anyway it's partway through now so I'll let it finish resetting and then reset it again with nothing.

Do I need to check that it is activated by the way?

Well that seems to have worked nicely. All drivers seem to be there and all seems to be working fine. The only issues I've found are - boot up is still quite slow and some of the apps like the weather app won't open. I opted for custom set up and turned off all but one of the settings related to privacy and have a standard user account. Would that affect apps opening? Don't really want any except the weather one anyway.

Hazel123 · 25 Jun 2016

Hmm - seems I don't have a clean install after all as some settings are still there and so is the D drive with the old recovery partition on. So firstly after the initial upgrade I did reset keeping files. Then when that had finished a did a reset keeping nothing and opted to use the whole disk and lose any partitions.

I just went to set up system restore and found it had already kept the settings I put in before the second reset and the D drive is still showing. So it doesn't seem to have done quite the same job as reformatting and doing a clean install from disc.

Anyway, everything seems to work well. Start up is a bit slow. Some apps not working (but from what I've googled that's the apps and not my install). I'm quite happy to leave it as it is but would it be ok to remove the partition with the D drive in do you think?

What I have is
199Mb NTFS System
C Drive
Recovery D Drive (there is just one folder in this called ProgramData - in that is a folder 'Microsoft', in that is a folder 'Diagnosis', inside that is a folder 'ETLLogs', inside that is a folder 'Autologger', inside that is a file called 'AutoLogger-Diagtrack-Listener.etl

HP Tools E drive 103mb - nothing in it.

So I could maybe lose those partitions and expand the C drive do you think? No idea what the file inside the old Recovery drive is.

Hazel123 · 25 Jun 2016

Did a clean install from DVD and formatted and everything seems perfect now. Boot up is faster, apps are all working and Windows installed all drivers. I just had one unknown device which was an HP hardware protection thing. Clean install is definitely better than reset. I guess that etl thing is still in there somewhere but I'm ignoring it.

Hazel123 · 25 Jun 2016

Anyway the answer to my question ended up being - no a reset didn't remove drivers. But some things didn't run well and a clean install made everything run perfectly, plus Windows still found all the necessary drivers and only one thing left unidentified (not that important and sorted).