Installation :: Does Recovery Disk Save Personal Folders And Files
Dec 13, 2015
I got a new windows 10 laptop a few weeks ago and I'm belatedly getting around to creating a system recovery disk on usb. I'm intending to use the standard windows 10 option 'create a recovery drive'. Someone mentioned that among other things this would be useful if I ever wanted to sell the machine on further down the line and wanted to do a clean install.
My question is, does the standard recovery disk save personal data because I've already loaded some music, docs, notes vids and added a few browser bookmarks etc. Basically I'm hoping it doesn't because I wouldn't want to pass anything on. (I already do 2 separate backups of my personal stuff in case of failure, so that's not an issue)...
Recently i tried downloading windows 10 when 2 options popped up 1. keep personal files only, and 2. is nothing. well i wanna choose the keep personal files only. but i wanna know if it will delete all of my games...
I wanna upgrade my Windows 7 PC directly using the Media Creation Tool, keeping the personal files only. Is it possible to specify which folders to keep?
At minimum, I would like to remove the 'AppData' folder to remove old cache and program files, but I'm still not sure if this is a good idea. The only folder I want to keep intact is my very large 'Dropbox' folder.
I considered choosing the "Nothing" option, except I don't want to re-download my entire Dropbox and put unnecessary stress on this 7yr old hard drive.
since installing Windows 10, I can not save updates to word files or anything to a folder. I've read I should change the user settings that default to 'read-only' in the system folder. I've done this 3 times. The fix doesn't work.
What I mean is, if I select to keep my personal files only, will the installed programs be removed completely from my hard drive, or will they be moved to the Windows.Old folder like what happens in Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 ?
Because I would like to have them in the Windows.Old folder in case I might need some of the files there, but I want the installation to be clean as well.
As with many I have upgraded to Windows 10 today and it is going well except for the fact I am unable to save any files or create new ones in the Documents and Pictures folders or any sub-folders within these folders. For instance, I tried to save an image created in paint and attempted to save it in the Pictures folder, it gave me the error message seen in this picture below:
Note, I am the only user on the system, and also the admin account so I do not know why it says this. Clicking Yes on the box does nothing and the same thing still occurs afterward. In addition, bringing up the right click menu and going to new only allows me to create a new folder, and the windows admin shield icon appears next to it. Deleting files also prompts me to ask for admin permission but in that case I can simply click the continue button and it goes through.
Once it was my turn to gain the free Windows 10 installation I went straight ahead and everything went well except when I went to save a photo to My Photos. Windows 10 began repeatedly asking for "administrator permission" to save to my OWN folders on my OWN laptop. My PC was not in a Homegroup, neither was it in a network of other PC's....I WAS the administrator!
If you encounter this problem (and many will) you may want to try my solution which after exhausting all other avenues including disabling inheritance and mucking about with Permissions, this does indeed work.
Windows 10 and Microsoft seem to think all PC's are networked (they are not) and so the solution is to join the Homegroup with yourself as the only member, that way you become "administrator" and gain back control of your files.
Start menu (bottom left) - type "Homegroup" in search box and then click on "settings" - click "Homegroup" - then follow instructions to set up a new Homegroup and make a note of the password it generates. Chose what folders to 'share' or not and then you will become homegroup administrator with full permissions.
I am trying to create a recovery USB drive from which I can install Windows 10 fresh, if needed. Or quickly restore system images in case of a drive issue. There are a couple of things I am not clear about.
Background:
I have an ASUS laptop that came with Windows 8.1, UEFI (upgraded to Windows 10 at the moment). Initially, I created a Windows 8.1 recovery USB and reinstalled Win 8.1 using it. From what I understand, the 100MB EFI partition is normally the first one. On restoration, the following was created
305 MB Win 8.1 system partition 100 MB EFI C drive Manufacturer recovery partition
When it upgraded to Win 10, it ended up with the following partition structure
305 MB Win 8.1 system partition 100 MB EFI C drive 450 MB system partition (I believe this is Win 10 system partition) Manufacturer recovery partition
Questions:
The trouble is, now when I create a Windows 10 recovery USB drive, it really creates just a rescue drive (< 1GB in size) even though the 'copy system files' option is selected. I believe a recovery USB drive needs at least a 16GB drive. Not sure what is happening here?!!!
Also, is there a way to make Win 8.1 recovery create the system partition adjacent to the C drive so it can resize it to 450 MB during the upgrade? Or maybe create a 500MB partition beforehand that Win 8.1 uses during recovery and later is upgraded to Win 10? Can I create the partitions beforehand using GParted Live USB and expect the Windows recovery process to use them?
I've tried using the "Create a Recovery Drive" and have tried making my own installation media using the "Media Creation Tool". Both seem to do nothing, just constantly search. The Media Creation Tool stays on the "getting a few things ready" screen for upwards of half an hour then I'll close it and it'll say "setup is cleaning up before it closes" and it'll stay on that screen forever. Even task manger won't close it - it will not show up as a process any longer, but still on the screen. EDIT: I have to shut down the computer to close the window.
Create a Recovery Drive, when choosing "Back up system files to the recovery drive", does pretty much the same thing, a screen with a green progress bar going left to right for hours. I'm trying to put it, either way, on a 32gb USB flash drive.
Its a new computer no software has been installed by me other than the MCT and a tool to find the windows product key. I'm very new to Windows 10 coming from XP.
I created ISO disks for both my 32 bit and 64 bit systems at the MS download site. If I use the ISO disk instead of the Windows Update method, does the install still create the W7 image in case I want to go back to W7 after installing W10?
Also, do I boot from the disk or do I go into the ISO disk and click on Setup?
Last night I wiped out my ASUS T100 tablet to clean install TH2. But there is a 7GB Recovery partition from Windows 8.1 that I can't get rid off using Diskpart.
I am trying to boot my laptop that will not boot windows 7 due to some kind of corruption.
Ive downloaded the ISO of windows 10 and manged to install it onto another laptop using a USB but not with personal files kept.
When I select the option to install windows 10 but to "keep all personal files and settings" it brings up a message:
Compatibility report
The computer started using the Windows installation media. Remove the installation media and restart your computer so that windows starts normally. Then, Insert the installation media and restart the upgrade.
My question is how can I do the above when I need to select the option to boot from USB whilst my computer is booting?
Have HP Pavilion Dv5 running windows 10, I purchased a new HP Envy with Win 10 installed.I want to give DV5 to my step-daughter with Win 10 on it, and remove me from laptop and Win 10 completely. I have files stored on flash drives and OneDrive and have a Microsoft Account.
If I do a total reboot of Win 10 and have her as Administrator and get a Microsoft account, that should work? My Microsoft Account and OneDrive will be able to link with new Envy laptop and with installed Win 10?
I have 2 accounts on my new windows 10 laptop however the 2nd account added later cannot see folders or files that I set up by the first user. All permissions and sharing has been opened up but still 2nd user cannot see the folders created by the first. Both are administrators etc etc.
My friend has been using AutoCAD on fairly new Windows 10 install. No problems till today when he got an error stating he needed to reinstall the OS. I didn't see the error before he shut down. To be safe he pulled his hard drive and asked me to backup his personal files using a USB enclosure, before reinstalling OS.No problem right? I've done this for other people many times in older OSs, but this is the first time I've seen Windows 10 file structure. I plugged in the drive and found that I can't access files in the OS partition. I can't crack it. Basically, it can't get the rights to see files there. I actually plugged the enclosure into an old XP computer I had laying around and was able to see some folders and files, but no personal files. where his files are located on the drive and how I can access them?
My HP pavilion dv6000 is running windows 10 currently the 1511 version. Pc is passworded and associated with Microsoft account. Somehow it developed fault that resulted to spark on the board resulting to system unable to power on. I have a new system but I need to transfer my files from the old laptop's hard drive so I used the socket that connects internal hard drive to another laptop as external hard drive via USB. it FAILED to install the hardware. It installs as unknown in device manager. I have tried on other sockets and PCs still noticed the same thing. Hard drive is healthy..
I am almost certain this has to do with windows 10 attempts to prevent me from losing my files to theft perhaps my hard drive was stolen, something that is obtainable in earlier versions of windows. However, that's just my guess.
Meanwhile I have NOT tried connecting the hard drive via IDE socket to try booting windows 10 on another laptop BUT I tried booting it as OS on external hard drive & it is not read by the laptop
How to access the hard drive and get my files as the spoiled laptop shows no sign of coming up soon.
Is it safe to use Local Disk (D as my backup storage? i don't have an extra HDD so i want to transfer my files from (C to (D instead but i'm worried Windows might delete them if i do the reinstallation.
My PC has Windows 10 Pro installed on it but it's just a 1 month trial version. I ordered Windows 10 Home for it but I'm wondering if I will get to preserve all my personal files and settings when I install it. I'm going to back it up just in case either way, but it would be nice to know if everything is preserved or not.
ADDING Libraries to and REMOVING the This PC folder from the Save As dialog? I know how to remove and add these in File Explorer, but have no luck in finding a solution for the Save As dialog.I found this thread, but when I get to the value to be changed it already is set to that.
When you have an SSD drive with a secondary HDD for files, you can remap libraries to the HDD but saving files from a program is a problem. I guess another option would be to remap the This PC folders to the HDD and not show the libraries.
I recently purchased a new Windows 10 laptop (HP), which I presumed is a 'clean install' and I'm mooching around looking into how to create a recovery disk. Anyway, when I go into control panel, underneath System and Security I see a link that says; Back up and Restore (Windows 7).I'm wondering why there's a reference to Windows 7 on my Windows 10 device?
I have just upgraded to Windows 10 from windows 7 home edition, I have problem while creating system repair image disk. I have inserted a blank dvd but while the create image app is running it shows error message called Unspecified error,
