VeeshanVault

I want to wipe my primary drive on one of my desktop PCs and re-install the operating system. That drive is partitioned as C: and D:. Can I just reformat the C: partition, re-install Windows, but leave the D: partition intact? Or do I need to wipe the whole thing and start from scratch?

Mak wrote:I want to wipe my primary drive on one of my desktop PCs and re-install the operating system. That drive is partitioned as C: and D:. Can I just reformat the C: partition, re-install Windows, but leave the D: partition intact? Or do I need to wipe the whole thing and start from scratch?

You can leave the D partition alone if you want. If you have programs on the D drive , they won't magically be reinstalled when you reinstall Windows on C but if it's just data on D you'll be fine.

Thank you!

Yup. During the initial install, it will identify logical drives, so you can just choose to reformat and install over you primary drive. Like Winnow said, if you have any applications installed on your "data" drive, you would need to reinstall since many apps install registry entries or dlls, binaries, etc in the OS.

I have a mix of programs and data on the D: drive, but I'm prepared to lose the programs. Most of them probably need to go anyway, as I've been collecting a lot of crap on it over the years. I'm sure there will be one or two I will lose and not be able to re-install for various reasons, but I figure I'll live through it.

I appreciate the advice, gents.