Quick advice needed for Vista reinstall

aj_4176 · 29 Aug 2008 at 09:52

I would like to reinstall Windows Vista (Premium edition) to sort out my video codecs which are all over the place.

I have two harddrives (not raid) attached and if i reinstall it on my main C: drive then will the data on the second drive preserve (i.e. after the reinstall will the windows be able to see all data that was there before reinstall)?

or

After the reinstall all data on the second drive will not be viewable and I'll need to format the second drive as well.

Any help appreciated.

Brian Stuart · 29 Aug 2008 at 10:47

Remove the drive with all the data on and reinstall Vista onto the other drive (C).
After installation reconnect the data drive and all your data should be safe

Dolph · 29 Aug 2008 at 10:52

You don't have to remove the drive, just be aware when you reinstall to ensure you select the correct one of the two drives.

The data on the second drive should not be touched at all.

bledd · 29 Aug 2008 at 11:02

Dolph is correct, but i always do what Brian said, -disconnect all other drives, in the off-chance windows decides to not set your main drive as C: (although i think this has been resolved in Vista), i still do it anyway, for good practice

as for codecs.

install Vista Codec Package, clean and it just works

Faffer · 29 Aug 2008 at 11:43

Anyone had file/folder permission issues on the untouched drives after a fresh reinstall of Vista? I've had to reapply owner and security permissions everytime i've reinstalled Vista.

aj_4176 · 29 Aug 2008 at 11:51

Thanks for the replies guys.

So in summary if i disconnect the internal harddrive, then reinstall Vista on the main (remaining one and only) drive, and then reconnect the secondary drive it will keep all the data on it as it did before the reinstall.

Liquidfox · 29 Aug 2008 at 12:26

Faffer said:
Anyone had file/folder permission issues on the untouched drives after a fresh reinstall of Vista? I've had to reapply owner and security permissions everytime i've reinstalled Vista.

This will always happen, as after a re-install, the previous user SID no longer exists... hence you have to take control of the files.