Archive Windows - Quick & Easy Way To Test A New Install Without Losing Data

[NviGate_Systems]

We've all been there, we need to verify the status of an issue, is it hardware or software? Perhaps we want to test a new image, but we don't want to mess with an existing install. Here's what I do.

 

I developed this at one of my previous retail jobs as the sales people would constantly sign in a customers unit for backup & reload but never gave me external media to save the files to. Our IT Policy forbid us from using store owned media for the purpose of customer backups.

 

I created a WinPE based off Windows 8.1 that included Explorer shell among other things. You can also do this using commandline from a typical WinRE.

 

Create a folder called "Archive" at the root of the HDD. Move these folders plus any others you may have as part of your image:

 

Note: If you have an EFI based system, you can safely move all folders except system folders such as Recycle Bin etc. If you have an MBR system, be carefull not to move Boot, BOOTMGR etc., as you want to re-use those entries.

 

Windows

Users

ProgramData

Config.msi

Recovery

Program Files

Program Files (x86)

hiberfil.sys

pagefile.sys

 

Now, apply the new image using DISM from your flash/hdd or from the recovery partition. Reboot and Voila you are in a fresh install that took less than 20 minutes and retained all data. If you want to go back to your original install, simply create another folder called Archive2 and move the new install to that folder, and move the old install back to the root of C:\ and when you reboot your old install will boot again.

 

This little trick has saved me hours of messing with backups and narrowing down issues by simply reloading while maintaining data.

 

If you are on a domain and store data using re-directed folders or roaming profiles this may not appeal to you per say, but for those who don't use domains or who run small labs, this could be a neat trick to use for those cases when you want to try something with the option to "roll back". I found manually applying images with DISM is faster than using Windows Setup and allows me greater control.