Windows 7 reinstall - keeping games on secondary HDD

MoRT489

MoRT489

MoRT489

Soldato
Joined
21 Aug 2006
Posts
7,511
Hi all,

I want to format my SSD and reinstall windows 7 (needs a tidy up and want to create a backup image from clean so I can do it more often). However, I have a seconday mechanical hard drive on which all my games are saved, is there a way that I can perform a clean install of windows and have these games on the second HDD still work without the need to reinstall them all?

My concern is once Windows is reinstalled the games won't be linked to the new install and will not run.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.
 
Impossible to say, some (e.g. Steam games) should be fairly simple to get working again but chances are the installs will litter DLL files and registration changes and the like all over your Windows install which will mean you won't be able to run them again.

Could always try it and see.
 
Make sure to backup all saves with game save manager, as you will need these if you still wish to carry on playing. A lot of games will play fine after a reinstall, although you will get the odd few that rely on registry entries and will complain that the game isnt installed.
 
Anything that can be done about those registry entries other than uninstall+reinstall? Repair maybe?

Another question - I have saved backups of my desktop files and everything in the username directory (i.e. My Docs, My Videos, game folders, IE favourites, etc.), are there any other folders in W7 that I should save to bring across?

I've reinstalled XP loads of times but only 3 or 4 times for W7 and the last was almost 2 yrs ago :eek: so a bit rusty and dont want to miss anything annoying. All media is on another separate HDD and backed up externally, so that's safe.
 
Iam about to do the same thing
re-install win while keeping games on seperate HD

1. Take a full acronis image of your current c drive if possible ( just incase you need some reg key or files etc)
2. go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
in regedit and export out that entire branch , you can edit out which few bits out of this branch you need later.
export
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE
as well.
3. Backup my documents , c:\users folder and also c:program data folders.
4. Take a quick pic of your current my computer window so you know which partitions are what.
5. power down PC and disconnect all other HD apart from the one you are installing onto.
6. Install windows , add drivers etc , after win is installed , power down PC and plug other HD's back in.
7. re-arrange drive letters as they were before, now edit your uninstall reg files to ONLY contain the entries you need , then merge back in.
Also copy over my documents , now see if the game works , if it dont then you might need other reg keys from HKLM/software HKCU/software.

good luck
 
I know some games like L.A Noire only work if they're on the c: drive, anti piracy and everything.

Make sure you games aren't affected by this, or just keep your games as c:.
 
This is what I love about the Mac OS, when you reinstall it, it just redoes the system folder I heard. I never been on a Mac, so I am not sure, but you can reinstall with out nuking the whole drive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom