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How to Reinstall Windows Without Losing Your Data

Tags:  WinCommandPrompt   Windows   SystemRecovery   
Created on Fri, 25 Nov 2011.
Last Modified on Fri, 20 Apr 2012.

Motivation Behind This Cheatsheet

Because its only a matter of time until one of our freinds asks us to fix their computer because they have a Blue Screen of Death, Corrupted sys files, failed HDDs...

The Cheatsheet

- move user folders from 'documents and settings folder' to a new "oldstuff" folder

- create new account for each user with exact same name

- log off and on each user (do NOT use switch user)

- Log on as Temp then in command prompt, use command:

(press 'a' when asked to overwrite)
xcopy c:\oldstuff\*.* "c:\documents and settings" /s /h /r /c

- Log on as an administrator and run Control Panel's User Accounts applet again to remove the user Temp

Further Discussion

Worked well for me, but didn't try on Windows 7

Sources:

http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2109p156id111652.htm


PLEASE let me know if I'm doing something wrong, or if you have any suggestions or requests~

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