Reinstall windows without formatting

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htid

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I recently got a new SSD and cloned my OS onto this. The old HDD was wiped in the process. I was using windows from the new SSD fine for a week and now have a new motherboard. After installing new motherboard I get the bsod where it says windows has to shut down to avoid any problems. Windows installation CD can't repair etc. So now I can't start windows. Happy to wipe the SSD and re-install from scratch but first want to make a list of what's on there and back up any files. I now have 3 x hdd:

1) SSD that has old OS on it. Don't want to reinstall until I can see what's on it
2) HDD that has all my documents on it
3) hdd that has a backup of all my photos only

I was going to install windows on the one that has my photos backup just as a temp measure so I can get into windows and see what's on the SSD. But I can't remember which is the backup HDD that I'm happy to wipe and which is the one with all my docs that I don't want to wipe!!

Is there anything I can do? If I could see how much space is being used on each HDD ID know which the backup is, but since I can't get into windows, I don't know how to check.

Any ideas what to do? Thanks
 
If you don't know what is on the SSD and you don't want to risk loosing files and you don't know which HDD is which my best bet would be go and buy a cheap HDD and put windows on that so you can find out which is which.
Unless you have a mate who would let you plug the discs into his PC and find out that way
 
Sounds like you didn't install the new mobo correctly, can you not put the old board back into the pc, get the info you need, then swap the boards again?
 
troutfisher said:
If you don't know what is on the SSD and you don't want to risk loosing files and you don't know which HDD is which my best bet would be go and buy a cheap HDD and put windows on that so you can find out which is which.
Unless you have a mate who would let you plug the discs into his PC and find out that way
Click to expand...

Suspected that might be the way. I wanted to put windows (7) on the SSD, keeping the current install which it said would be saved in Windows.old. The SSD has 35gb free and it said there's not enough space so it can't do it!

I do have another HDD but when plugged in it said there are no driver's for it. Not sure how I'd get the drivers on if I can't boot to windows!
 
Pete Allen said:
Sounds like you didn't install the new mobo correctly, can you not put the old board back into the pc, get the info you need, then swap the boards again?
Click to expand...

That would take ages and lots of messing about to unconnected everything...think I'd rather try other solutions first, thanks anyway though :)
 
Have you got access to another computer? If so, you could download a copy of Linux, install it to a CD or a memory stick and boot your computer from that. Then you'll be able to see your drives, assuming they're readable, and you could back them up to one or more external disks. The external disk(s) won't be wasted. You really need to keep backups!

There's even a special Linux distro (SystemRescueCD) with all the tools to help you sort out a damaged system: https://www.system-rescue-cd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage
 
Pete Allen said:
Sounds like you didn't install the new mobo correctly, can you not put the old board back into the pc, get the info you need, then swap the boards again?
Click to expand...
Sometimes board replacements aren't straight forward.

I replaced a board with same make and model but a slight revision change and nothing would stop it bsod.

Probably whould have been wise to back the drive up before any major work though.
 
Another vote for never do a major upgrade without a full backup and copy of all your data.
you can get a USB caddy for buttons and connect that to another windows PC, you should be able to browse the disks then as an external disks.
You may need to use Disk Manager on the other PC to import a foreign disk though.
 
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