How to Reinstall Windows 10 Without Losing Data

Reinstalling Windows 10 is necessary for many scenarios, such as addressing severe infections or corruption, cleaning your computer, or downgrading from Windows 11. However, your drive needs to be prepared in order to set up the operating system – that means your data may become collateral during the cleanup.

Can I Reinstall Windows 10 Without Losing Files?

Yes! It’s possible to reinstall Windows 10 without losing files. In fact, there are a few different ways a user can do it. However, the ideal method for each user depends on a couple of factors. To make it easier for you to figure out which method to use, we created a menu where you can jump to the recommended method for your specific case.

How to Back Up Data Before Windows 10 Reinstallation

Before proceeding with reinstallation, we highly suggest that you first create an image backup of your drive in case something goes wrong. As opposed to a regular backup, an image backup copies your entire drive byte-per-byte, including cache files and other easy-to-overlook data.

Our backup tool of choice for this demonstration is a data recovery software called Disk Drill Data Recovery. It’s not only powerful and easy to use, but its byte-to-byte backup feature is 100% free. We’ll also be using Disk Drill in one of the methods in the next section.

1. Download and install Disk Drill for Windows, then launch it.
2. On the left sidebar, click Drive Backup. Then, select your hard drive from the middle pane and click Byte-to-byte backup.
3. In the dialogue box that appears, select a destination folder on a separate drive (like a USB stick) for your image backup file. Click OK to proceed.
4. Once the image creation is complete, you will see the screen below.

How to Reinstall Windows 10 Without Losing Data

Below are 4 solutions that will allow you to reinstall Windows 10 without losing data. Whichever you choose should depend on your personal situation (we built you a menu here). We also highly recommend you read the last section if you haven’t, where we show you a reliable way to back up your data before proceeding with reinstallation.

Method 1: Repair Windows 10 from Installation Media

Method 1 is to use Windows installation media to perform a system restore on your computer. This process will repair Windows 10 without losing data, but it will clear out any recently installed apps or drivers (but you can opt to keep programs). However, you’ll need a flash drive to store the installation media and a working computer to install the tool on your drive. We’ll show you how to do it:

1. Connect your flash drive to a working computer.
2. On the working computer, download the Windows Installation Media from Microsoft’s official website.
3. Read the license terms and click Accept.
4. Select Create installation media for another PC and click Next.
5. Select your language, edition, and whether you want to install a 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows. You can also allow Windows to recommend your settings. Then, click Next.
6. Select USB flash drive and click Next.
7. Select your flash drive and click Next.
8. Once the installation process is complete, click Finish.
9. Safely eject your drive from the working computer and connect it to your non-booting PC. Then, turn it on.
10. Your computer should automatically boot into the installation media. If it doesn’t, you’ll have to change your boot order – check your computer’s manufacturer’s website for directions. In the initial screen, set up your preferences and click Next.
11. Click Repair your computer.
12. Select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options, and click System Restore to proceed.

Method 2: Perform Startup Repair

If you can’t boot into the Windows environment and you don’t have a bootable flash drive to repair Windows, you can perform a Startup Repair. This built-in tool diagnoses and automatically fixes startup problems. Once you can boot into Windows, you can proceed to Method 4. To access Startup Repair:

1. Turn off your PC.
2. Then, turn it on and hold the power button once you see anything show up on your screen. Do this one more time (total of 2x).
3. On the third time powering up your PC, let it continue to start until you see the Automatic Repair screen.
4. Click Advanced options > Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Repair and follow the instructions.

Method 3: Recover Windows 10 Using Previous Versions/Reset This PC

Windows has a built-in tool that allows users to reverse any changes to the operating system that caused problems. To do this, it rolls back your PC and removes recently installed apps and settings but keeps your personal files. Here’s how to use it:

1. Hit the Windows + X keys and click Settings.
2. Select Update & Security.
3. Select Recovery on the left side bar and click Get Started under Reset this PC (or Go back to the previous version of Windows 10).
4. Select Keep my files.
5. Select Local reinstall.
6. Click Next and follow the wizard to reinstall Windows 10 on your PC.

Method 4: Install Another Windows Copy Side-by-side

If you’re currently running Windows on a healthy drive with enough space, you can install a new version of Windows on that same drive. Once you’ve got your new operating system up and running, you can simply get rid of the old Windows installation to free up space again.

You’ll even get to bring all your important files. But this is a multi-step process and there are a few things you need to prepare: (1) an external storage device that can store ALL your old data (both personal and system files) and (2) a USB stick with 8 GB of free space or more.

This is an excellent solution if you want a true fresh install of Windows without losing any of your data. Once you’re ready, begin with Step 1.

Step 1: Back Up Your System

To back up your system using Windows Backup and Restore tool:

1. Connect an external storage device to your PC, ensuring it has enough space to store a system image of your PC (equivalent to your “used disk space”).
2. Open Control Panel (from the Windows search menu). Then, under System and Security, click Backup and Restore (Windows 7).
3. In the left sidebar, click Create a system image.
4. Choose On a hard disk and use the dropdown menu to select the drive you connected in step 1. Then, click Next.
5. Click Start backup.

Step 2: Create a Partition for the New Windows Installation

To create a new partition using Disk Management:

1. Open Disk Management (search “Disk Management” from the Start menu – sometimes labeled “Create and format hard disk partitions”). Then, right-click your system partition (where your current Windows system is installed – usually C:) and click Shrink Volume…
2. In the field beside Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB, enter the following value: (your system image size in MB + 20000 MB for Windows 10 + 10000 MB extra space). For example: my system image is about 51000. Adding the rest of the values, I’ll input 81000. Done? Click Shrink.

Step 3: Create a Bootable Windows Installation and Install It

To create a bootable Windows installation using Rufus:

1. Download the Windows installation ISO file you want. Here’s the page for Windows 10 2023 Update Version 22H2.
2. Connect a storage device to your PC, ensuring it has enough space to store the Windows 10 installer
3. Download and install Rufus.
4. Open Rufus. Under Device, use the dropdown menu to select the drive you connected in step 2. Under Boot selection, click SELECT and choose the ISO you downloaded in step 1. Enter a Volume label and click START.

Once you’ve created the installer, shut down your computer and proceed with the next section.

Step 4: Install the New Windows System

To install the new instance of Windows on the partition:

1. Connect your USB installer to your computer.
2. Open it and immediately press your machine’s boot menu hotkey. In the boot menu, choose to boot from your Windows USB – this should start the installer.
3. Select your language, Time and currency format, and Keyboard or input method. Then, click Next.
4. Click Install now (you may be asked to enter the product key and accept the License terms).
5. Click Custom: Install Windows only (advanced).
6. Select the NEW partition you created in Step 2 of this method guide. The value under Free space should be the same as the value you entered in the partitioning guide. Then, click New.
7. At this point, the installation process will begin. Your computer will reboot a few times. Once it reboots into your old Windows instance, shut it down.
8. Open your PC again and, using your specific computer model’s BIOS key, boot into the BIOS menu.
9. Navigate to the Boot section and move your new partition (which contains the new Windows installation) to the top of the list. Then, save your settings and exit BIOS.
10. Your computer should now boot into your new operating by default. Follow the setup wizard and safely eject your USB installer once done.

At this point, you can delete the old Windows partition using the Disk Management tool to free up space. You can also “move” your data to the new operating system by restoring the image backup you created in Step 1 of this guide.

Method 5: Retrieve Data from Byte-to-Byte Backup

If you performed a byte-to-byte backup by following this guide at the beginning of the article, you can easily restore your data after formatting your computer, even if you don’t use any of the other methods we went through above and even after a fresh install of Windows 10 or 11. This applies to any backup tool and recovery tools you used.

However, because Disk Drill creates an image backup and not just a file backup, you can reinstall Windows 10 without losing programs as well as your personal data. For this task, we’ll use the data recovery function of Disk Drill and set the image backup file as our recovery target. Here’s how:

1. Launch the Disk Drill app.
2. At the bottom of the main window, click Attach disk image…
3. Locate the image backup file we created earlier in the article and select it. Then, click Choose.
4. Select your image backup from the main window and click Search for lost data.
5. Wait for Disk Drill to complete its scan. Then, click Review found items.
6. Disk Drill can usually recover data with original folder structure (especially from a backup), so you can review files and folders the same way as you would in Explorer. If you use the search bar in the top-right corner, you can recover deleted files by name or extension. Select your files one by one by ticking the boxes in the leftmost column or tick the box beside the Name category to select everything. Then, click Recover.
7. Select a destination folder for your recovered files and click Next to proceed with the recovery.

Method 6: Repair Windows 10 System Files Without Losing Data

A fresh install isn’t always needed to fix Windows even if it’s misbehaving. Instead, you can try certain tools that help you fix even severe problems without having to reinstall Windows and lose your data.

Specifically, you can use the DISM and SFC tools, which are built-in Windows utilities you can access through Command Prompt. While DISM services any Windows images, SFC will fix most instances of file system corruption.

Together, they may be able to get your version of Windows back to optimal performance.

To repair Windows using DISM:

1. Open Command Prompt as administrator (from the Start menu).
2. Type the following command and hit Enter:

   DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

   

3. If DISM finds any problems, type the following command and hit Enter:

   DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

   

To repair Windows using SFC:

1. Open the command prompt as administrator (from the Start menu).
2. Type the following command and hit Enter:

   sfc /scannow

   

FAQ

systemreset -factoryreset

Conclusion

The process of reinstalling Windows 10 will usually wipe your data – however, as we discussed in this article, it’s possible to do it without losing any data. You’ll just have to take a few extra steps to secure your files. For even more security, we strongly urge our readers to routinely create both image and file backups on external storage devices and in the cloud. There are a lot of factors out of the user’s control that can cause Windows and its tools to malfunction.