[Solved] If I install Windows 7 over Windows 7, will it delete my files?

[Jose_49]

Yo people! How are you today? I hope that fine.

Right now, I'm trying to fix my little sis PC (Aspire One - Laptop 1410) which is at the state of throwing it out of the window.

The question is:

If I make a Windows 7 Installation over Windows 7, will I be able to keep the files (Documents)?

I'm not sure, but I remember that Windows uses to rename to .old after one does this.

Now, before you ask:

- I'm doing this as a last resort. I can't do a repair install because a stupid missing .dll keeps slugging down the machine and restarting it out of nowhere.

- I haven't managed to get the files out to an external hard drive because the PC crashes at 3 mins of file transfering (and it takes around 15 - 20 mins to fully boot up).

- I can't put it to an external hard drive because I don't have other PC or equipment to send the files to (since the external case has the hard drive I was planning to do the backup).

What I'm trying to do is to extract some pictures (50 GB worth, aprox.) and then do a full reformat...

Sorry for the long post, and thank you.

[Rigby]

You should be able to do a repair install without losing any personal files. Still you should always have backups of all of your files. In this situation it sounds like it may be possible that you could have a failing hard drive. I would make getting copies of your photos a top priority. You might try transferring just a few dozen files at a time instead of all of them at once. If you can, running Malwarebytes and maybe a hard disk diagnostic program might be a good idea also.

[farmeunit]

Try a Linux LiveCD to copy the files. Ubuntu is one.

You can try a repair, and that will not delete anything.

Edit: I didn't read the part about the repair, lol. Sorry.

[The Teej]

You'll keep all of your programs and files, it'll simply make a new Windows folder and keep the old one as Windows.old - at least in my experience.

[pack34]

Your files should stay intact but you may need to reinstall your programs. However, as always, if possible have your files backed up on another computer just in case.

As an aside, it's "last resort" not "last resource"

[Jose_49]

@pack34: Thanks for the correction.

@The Teej: I'll do that

@TRC: Yeah I know. Those are not my files, but I'll tell her to do a backup more often.

Update:

:D.

"The partitoin you selected might contain files from a previous Windows installation. If it does, these files and folders will be moved to a folder named Windows.old. You will be able to access the information in Windows.old, but you will not be able to use your previous version of Windows."

Think this is self explanatory.

Thanks for the help guys! :p

[Jose_49]

  On 28/02/2012 at 23:30, TRC said:

like it may be possible that you could have a failing hard drive.

Indeed. I remember Windows popping up a Warning from time to time about a Hard Drive failure. I believe it's my sis fault. I know she has dropped the laptop several times, has removed two keystrokes from the keyboard, and it has around 5 dead keys. So yeah, it pretty adds up that she's the one responsible for its poor performance.