Formatting and reinstalling Windows is sometimes a necessary inconvenience. It may be necessary because of a bad virus or other malware, or a program may have been installed that causes Windows to become corrupted or partially corrupted. It is an inconvenience because when you do format and reinstall Windows, you then have to reinstall drivers and other programs, and you lose any files that was stored on the same drive and all your existing settings.
There is hope at hand though! It’s not really mentioned in any documentation but there is a way to reinstall Windows without losing everything in the process. Windows will remain with current settings, all drivers and programs will still be there, and you won’t lose any of your files!
The following is really aimed at Windows 7 but works in a similar fashion for Windows Vista. You will need your Windows 7 DVD, or at least a copy of a Windows 7 DVD and your Windows Product Key. It’s okay to use someone else’s installation DVD but you need to use your own Windows Product Key.
For those who have updated Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 (SP1),
you will need to first uninstall the service pack unless you have a copy of Windows 7 with SP1 already on it.
Before doing anything you will want to make a backup of at least your files. You never can be sure when something may go bad, so it definitely pays to keep things backed up just in case.
Once you have your Windows DVD, Windows Product Key and files backed up, then you are ready to start the Windows installation. You don’t want to boot from the DVD, but instead, have Windows open and put the Windows DVD into your drive. Click “Run Setup” from the AutoPlay window. If the AutoPlay window doesn’t open, go to your DVD drive, open the contents of the DVD and select setup.exe. You may get asked if you want to make changes, to which you can select
Yes.
When the Windows 7 screen comes up, select Install now. After it has finished setting up some files, it will ask if you want to check online for updates for installation. Assuming your connection to the Internet is working, it is okay to allow it to check online.
The next step will ask what type of installation you want to do. The options are “
Upgrade” and “
Custom (advanced)“. This is where it can get confusing. The upgrade option says it will upgrade to a newer version of Windows, and the custom option says it will install a new copy of Windows and that it won’t keep your files and settings etc. Neither seem to fit what we are trying to achieve here! The trick is to tell it to do an upgrade, even though it will be the same version currently installed.
Windows will go ahead and run the installation. It may take a while for the install to complete, but it can be left to do its thing at this point. When it’s done, you will be asked for the Windows Product Key. Put that in, and then activate Windows, check for any Windows updates, and everything should be done, and all files, programs and settings should be as they were before. No reinstalling other programs and changing settings needed!
