OP is ready to rock and roll, as long as OP's version of Macrium Reflect will let OP pick the data folders and files out of that giant full image and restore said desired data folders and files. Naturally, any 3rd party programs and utilities will have to be reinstalled; OP can use that full image as a "road-map" of what to reinstall.
That's the best solution for data recovery. Mounting the .mrimg and using Explorer to copy back all the USER folders/files. That should also pull back his installers for 3rd party. Starting with an absolutely clean, bare, unallocated HDD/SSD and install to it....and let Windows correctly make what it needs. Make sure it's activated and verified and happy...then install Macrium and copy user data back.
Thanks for the help. I will give it a try as soon as I have a day to play with. I'll get back to you when/if I am successful.
Well, I tried to do a clean installation following the instructions in the tutorial referenced by Fafhrd in post 15, but I am not seeing the same screen shots that come up in that tutorial. I get the same options I had when I was trying to do a "clean installation" of W10 the first time around. I did not reinstall as it seems to just lead me down the same path I have already been down - keep nothing and reinstall, but when I did this, I still had 453 GB in Other Files as noted above in post 17. I don't want to go through this again unless it will actually work this time.
I have a W10 ISO file burned to a DVD as instructed in one of the tutorials. Should I now format the hard drive and then boot from the DVD? If so, can you please give me quick instructions on how to format the hard drive and then boot from the DVD? I am assuming that if the BIOS settings list the boot sequence for the DVD as #1, that it will automatically boot from the DVD if it is in the drive when I turn the machine on. Is this true?
BTW, I have a legacy BIOS, not UEFI.
When you get to point of choosing where to install Windows, you need to delete every partition you see on the C: drive. All of them. You will then have one unallocated partition on the drive. That's where you will install Windows. It will create what it needs based on your BIOS and hardware.
You need to boot the computer from the DVD to do a clean install. The option to boot the computer from the DVD will be in BIOS/UEFI.
I went through the reinstall process but was never given an option to delete partitions. The options shown in step 10 of the tutorial referenced by Fafhrd were never presented. My storage map shows I am again left with 454 GB taken up in "Other" of which 331 GB are in C:\ (Files at drive root). I am very frustrated. What am I doing wrong? How can I fix this? Screen shots of the storage maps are below. Of note, when each file folder is queried for properties, the total does not even come close to 331 GB. What gives?
BTW, I did boot the computer from the DVD, unless I am doing something wrong.
@Augi1I went through the reinstall process but was never given an option to delete partitions. The options shown in step 10 of the tutorial referenced by Fafhrd were never presented. My storage map shows I am again left with 454 GB taken up in "Other" of which 331 GB are in C:\ (Files at drive root). I am very frustrated. What am I doing wrong? How can I fix this? Screen shots of the storage maps are below. Of note, when each file folder is queried for properties, the total does not even come close to 331 GB. What gives?
You are missing a step, or don't realize you haven't gotten to that step yet.
This is step #10. It has nothing to do with deleting partitions. It simply tells the installation you intend to do a totally clean install.
Read these notes. What I have circled is what you need to do to have one unallocated space on your machine to install to.
Here is the place where you do that. In the example picture, it is already done. In your case, there will be a few partitions with data in them. I do not know exactly how many, but it's not important. Delete them all using the delete function I pointed to. Highlight each partition you see and click delete until all are gone and you have only one unallocated partition on the machine. That is where you will install Windows. If you delete all of the partitions first, it is impossible for you to still have that 454GB partition.
If you're not clear on any part of this, please ask. One of us will explain further.
TC
Last edited by f14tomcat; 03 Jun 2017 at 15:47.
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