How to reinstall windows 10

How to Reinstall Windows 10/11 Without Losing Data (3 Ways)

Sometimes, you may need to reinstall Windows 10 to solve system issues. This guide will show you how to reinstall Windows 10 without losing data step by step.

By Lily / Last update June 15, 2022

User Case

Can I just reinstall Windows 10 without losing files?

Hi there. I have an issue with my laptop and I was told to resolve that issue, I’d need to reinstall Windows 10. I don’t recall where I put my CD, but I have my product key. My question is, if I reinstall Windows 10, will it delete the data on my laptop or do I have to back it all up into a hard drive?

— Question from Microsoft Community

Does reinstalling Windows delete files?

When you’ve tried many solutions to fix system errors and none of them actually works, it may be the time to clean install Windows 10 and get all problems sorted out. But does this process delete your important data? Can you reinstall Windows 10 without any data loss?

Well, it depends on the approach you take:

By using Repair Install, you can choose to install Windows 10 while keeping all personal files, apps and settings, keeping personal files only, or keeping nothing.
By using Reset This PC, you can do a fresh install to reset Windows 10 and keep personal files, or remove everything.
By using installation disk to perform a clean install, your data won’t be delete, but will be moved to Windows.old folder in the root directory of C: drive after installing.

In short, you definitely can, and have different methods to reinstall Windows 10 without losing data.

If you are pretty sure that all your files and applications are in good conditions and have no thing to do with the problem you are facing, then you can choose a way to reinstall Windows 10 without losing files and programs.

To do that, Windows will scan your C: drive and place all your personal data aside. And when the installation is complete, Windows will put these files and settings back.

If you are using a genuine Windows 10, Windows 10 will automatically get activated after the reinstallation.

Quick navigation for Windows 10/11 reinstallation:

How to reinstall Windows 10/11 without losing data

As mentioned above, there are 3 different methods you can choose to reinstall the system. Next, this article will show the 3 methods in turn. And the stepwise tutorial will be included for each method. You can choose any of these methods according to your own needs. Please read on for more details.

Method 1: Repair install Windows 10/11 without losing any data

If your Windows 10 can boot and you believe all the installed programs are fine, then you can use this method to reinstall Windows 10 without losing data and programs. If one or more of your programs are damaged, you’d better keep personal files only.

1. Download Windows Media Creation tool from microsoft.com and create an installation ISO file with it.

2. Double click to mount the ISO file (for Windows 7, you need to use other tools to mount it). At the root directory, double-click to run the Setup.exe file.

3. When the Windows 10 Setup is ready, you can whether to download updates or not based on your needs.

4. In the What needs your attention screen, click «Change what to keep» option.

5. Then, you will access the Choose What to keep screen, you have three options, namely, «Keep personal files, apps, and Windows settings«, «Keep personal files only«, or «Nothing«. Choose the first option and click Next.

6. Here you will go back the What needs your attention screen, confirm the option you select and click Refresh.

This may take a while because it will spend extra time scanning your hard drive and moving files. If you just want to keep your files where they are, then try the next method.

Method 2: Fresh install Windows 10/11 without losing personal files

Windows 10 provides the feature «Reset this PC» to help you solve system problems by resetting your computer to factory settings. During the process, you can choose whether to keep your personal files or not.

1. Open Reset this PC from computer or boot.

>> If it’s a working computer and still bootable, please go to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > Reset this PC and select Get Started under Reset this PC option.

>> If not, you can create a recovery drive and then boot from it, then choose language and other preferences and click Next > Repair your computer > Troubleshoot > Reset this PC.

2. After selecting Reset this PC, you have two options, «Keep my files» and «Remove everything«, select the first option. It will remove apps and settings but keep your personal files where they are.

3. Then, in the Ready to reset this PC window, it will tell you all the changes during the process. Confirm it and click Reset.

You can also reset Windows 10 from command line. The process is shown below:

1. Type “cmd” in the search box and press Enter.

2. In the listed results, right click on the Command Prompt and select «Run as Administrator«.

Method 3: Clean install Windows 10/11 without losing data

If you prefer installing Windows 10 without losing data from USB drive or installation disc, you can choose to upgrade Windows 10 using this method. Before you do, you need to make sure your C: drive has more than 16GB of free space.

1. Insert your installation disc and boot from it. If you do not have one, you can download the Windows Media Creation tool to create one.

2. When it loads, select the language and keyboard, then click «Next«.

3. Click «Install Now«.

4. Type your product key or skip it. Usually, your computer will be activated automatically when it’s connected to a network if your install the same version of Windows 10 as before.

5. Select the installation type «Custom«.

6. At the following screen, just select the C: drive and click Next to proceed. Then, wait patiently until the installation complete 100%.

As long as you do not format the C: drive in the Setup, you will not lose your data, but they are moved to another location. After the installation, you can find a folder Windows.old in the root directory of C: drive. All your files are saved there.

After copying all your needed files out from Windows.old folder, you can use Disk Cleanup to delete the Windows.old folder to free up disk space.

Reinstalling Windows 10/11 isn’t always a perfect solution

Though there are several methods to choose, they all have some shortcomings in practical use. For example, the first method will keep your programs, but won’t fix problems caused by them. And the other two methods can only keep your files, so you have to spend time and effort reinstalling these apps. That’s why I say reinstallation is not a perfect way.

To avoid such trouble, you can use a free backup software to create a system image in case of possible system issues. This way, even if your computer fails in any way, you can use this system backup to restore and use it normally without losing data. For simplicity and effectiveness, I strongly recommend you AOMEI Backupper Standard to protect your Windows 10/11 PC.

вњ¦ It enables you to backup file, partition, system or even the whole disk in a simple manner.
вњ¦ It can save you from manual operation with the scheduled backup on daily, weekly, monthly, etc.
вњ¦ With the incremental/differential backup mode, it will only backup changed files instead of all files, which greatly reduces the risk of the backup disk full issues.
вњ¦ You can change the compression level, split backup images, use Microsoft VSS service and intelligent sector backup as you like.
вњ¦ It supports multiple Windows operating systems, such as Windows 11/ 10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista.

Download this software to create a backup image right now with the following steps.

Backup Windows 10/11 to protect everything on it

If you want to recover your computer easily and quickly without losing stored personal data and installed apps, you could consider creating a system image backup in Windows 10/11 with free backup software.

Note a single backup will only backup the items in the system partition when you create it, and changes made later will not be included. Thus, if you don’t want to lose any important data, it’s suggested to create an automatic backup in Windows 11/10.

Then, let’s get the detailed steps.

1. Launch this free backup software, click the «Backup» tab on the main page, and then choose «System Backup«.

Note:

If you want to backup entire disk, you can choose «Disk Backup» as instead.

2. Select a destination location to receive the backup image. You can backup to any location (folder) that Windows detects, including external hard drive, NAS network location, local storage, etc.

3. In the next screen, click «Schedule Backup» to configure scheduled backup settings if needed. After that, click «Start Backup» to start the operation.

Notes: System backup in AOMEI Backupper Standard can satisfy almost users’ need. But if you have advanced needs like below, higher editions like Professional may serve you better.
• Enable encryption for backup: This feature is useful for users who store sensitive data or business data on their computer to prevent unauthorized access.
• USB plug in: This feature is designed for users who frequently use USB storage device, and make the backup task more convenient. Once you create a schedule backup with «USB plug in», AOMEI Backupper will automatically start backup when USB connected to your computer.
• Scheme: This is an indispensable feature for all users who don’t want to miss any changes, but worry about disk space issue. It can delete old backups automatically when backup versions reach the specified number.

In a short time, the backup will be created. With a backup, whenever you have problems with your system, you can easily restore from the backup. Even when your PC fails to boot, you can restore from bootable CD. If you upgrade to AOMEI Backupper Professional or higher edidtions, you can create a specialized recovery environment for backup/restore without booting Windows. You just need to go to Tools > Recovery Environment to enable it.

Wrapping things up

To reinstall Windows 10 without losing data is surely possibly using these three methods mentioned above, and it can fix system issues that your computer may have. But, honestly, it’s not perfect. And it is obvious that restoring from a backup is easier and more convenient to solve Windows issues.

The basic version AOMEI Backupper Standard is enough to prevent unexpected disaster, such as, system crash, disk failure, virus, fire etc. But if you want more advanced features, such as, USB plug in, incremental and differential backup, universal restore, you need to upgrade from the basic version.

If you want to protect unlimited computers within your company, AOMEI Backupper Technician is worth a shot. The inbuilt AOMEI Image Deploy tool allows users to deploy/restore system image file on a server-side computer to multiple client-side computers over the network. What’s more, you are able to create portable AOMEI Backupper that can run from a removable device on any computer. You can download this software to explore more features!

How to Reinstall Windows 10 Without CD (3 Ways)

Reinstalling Windows 10 can usually make your PC as good as new (or even better). For this reason, it is generally performed as a solution when your PC stop working or doesn’t work as well as it once did and cannot be repaired by some other methods. Have you encountered such a situation and been hesitated to do the job because it may cause a data loss disaster, or it is a little bit difficult, especially when you have not an installation CD?

3 Ways on How to Reinstall Windows 10 Without CD/USB

Here, we created troubleshooting solutions to reinstall windows 10 without losing data. There are three ways to reinstall windows 10 without CD in different cases. I hope it is helpful to deal with your problem.

If you’re having problems with Windows 10 on your PC or you want a fresh copy of Windows 10, you can reinstall Windows 10 to try and fix your issues and return your PC to a cleaner state.

How to Reinstall Windows 10 Without Losing Data (Back Up)

Before you begin, make sure you back up data. To keep your computer data safe, we recommend you use the professional data backup and recovery software for Windows 10/8/7. EaseUS Todo Backup can back up files or folders with simple steps.

Support Windows 11/10/8/7

* The following backup procedure requires another working computer to create an emergency disk of EaseUS Todo Backup. You’ll need to boot your unbootable computer through this emergency disk to make a full backup.

Step 1. To make an EaseUS Todo Backup emergency disk, you need a USB flash drive and connect it to a working computer. Launch EaseUS Todo Backup, click «Tools» and then click «Create Emergency Disk».

Step 2. Switch to the USB option when choose a boot disk location, and then click Create.

Step 3. When it’s done, insert this emergency disk to the computer that needs backing up. Restart the PC, and Press F2/DEL to enter BIOS. Change the boot sequence, and then start the computer and run EaseUS backup software from the bootable disk.

Step 4. Access the option of Select backup contents and then choose the Disk backup mode. Here, select the computer hard drive(s) to make a full backup.

Step 5. Select a destination to save your backup file. It’s recommended to save the backup file to external storage media.

Step 5. Click «Backup Now» to execute your operation.

For Application Backup:

Before you reinstall the system, you may still have some programs, data, and accounts to restore after reinstalling the system. EaseUS Todo PCTrans can help you. This PC transfer software moves applications, files, and accounts between computers in 1 click. It can also help you selectively back up your installed programs with all its associated data and registry keys in Windows 10.

It’s time to reinstall Windows 10 without losing data. In the following sections, you will learn how to reinstall Windows 10 without CD in three ways.

Tip 1. Reset Computer to Reinstall Windows 10 Without CD

This method is available when your PC can still boot properly. Being capable of solving most system problems, it won’t be different from a clean install of Windows 10 via an installation CD. Follow the steps below to reset the computer to reinstall Windows 10 without CD.

Step 1. Go to «Start» > «Settings» > «Update & Security» > «Recovery».

Step 2. Under «Reset this PC option», tap «Get Started».

Step 3. Click either «Keep my files» or «Remove everything», depending on whether you want to keep your data files intact. Either way, all of your settings will return to their defaults, and apps will be uninstalled.

Step 4. After the process, a window will pop up, saying that your apps will be removed. Click Next to go on.

Step 5. In Ready to reset this PC interface, click the Reset button to reinstall Windows 10 without CD or personal file loss.

Tip 2. Create a Windows Installation Disk to Reinstall Windows 10

This method is available when your PC cannot boot properly. It will use a tool to create installation media, which you can use to completely wipe the disk and install a fresh copy of Windows 10. If you don’t want to use a CD or DVD, you can use a USB, SD card, or external hard drive. Before starting, prepare a USB drive (about 8GB or larger).

Step 1. Download the media creation tool from Microsoft on a working PC

Step 2. On the «What do you want to do?» interface, select «Create installation media for another PC», and then select «Next».

Step 3. Choose the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for Windows 10. Select media tool you want to use:

After the drive is selected, the tool will start downloading Windows 10, and it will take a few minutes to finish the downloading process.

Step 4. Connect the USB flash drive to the new PC where you want to install Windows 10.

Step 5. Restart your PC and boot your PC from USB or DVD media. If not, you need to press a key (such as F2, F12, Delete, or Esc) immediately after you turn on your PC to open the boot menu and change the boot order.

Step 6. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the Windows 10 installation. Enter your Windows 10 license key when a pop-up appears for a product key during installation.

After all these steps, all you need is to wait patiently, and you’ll be able to clean install Windows 10 on your PC.

Tip 3. Use a System Image to Reinstall Windows 10 Without CD

This method works no matter your PC can boot properly or not. But note that it helps only when you have created a recovery drive before. Next, we will show you how to use EaseUS backup software to create a system backup when you think your PC is in the optimum state.

To back up Windows 10 to an external hard drive

Support Windows 11/10/8/7

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Todo Backup on your computer, and click Create Backup on the home screen and then hit the big question mark to select backup contents.

Step 2. To back up your Windows operating system, click «OS» to begin the backup task.

Step 3. Your Windows operating system information and all system related files and partitions will be automatically selected so you don’t need to do any manual selection at this step. Next, you’ll need to choose a location to save the system image backup by clicking the illustrated area.

Step 4. The backup location can be another local drive on your computer, an external hard drive, network, cloud or NAS. Generally, we recommend you use an external physical drive or cloud to preserve the system backup files.

Step 5. Customiztion settings like enabling an automatic backup schedule in daily, weekly, monthly, or upon an event, and making a differential and incremental backup are available in the Options button if you’re interested. Click «Backup Now«, and the Windows system backup process will begin. The completed backup task will display on the left side in a card style.

See? Just three simple steps can help you make a system recovery drive. And then, you can restore Windows 10 from the recovery drive whenever you need it. It is easier and faster than reinstalling Windows 10 from an installation CD.

To restore Windows 10 to your PC

* To perform system recovery on a none-bootable machine, try to boot the computer through the EaseUS Todo Backup emergency disk.

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Todo Backup, click «Browse to Recover«.

Step 2. Guide to your backup destination, choose the system backup file you need. (The backup file created by EaseUS Todo Backup is a pbd file.)

Step 3. Choose the recovery disk. Make sure that the partition style of the source disk and the recovery disk are the same.

Step 4. You can customize the disk layout according to your needs. Then click «Proceed» to start system backup recovery.

Conclusion

You have learned how to reinstall Windows 10 without CD or USB and how to reinstall Windows 10 from a USB drive. You can choose a method to reinstall your Windows 10/8/7 according to your needs.

Support Windows 11/10/8/7

Reinstall Windows 10 Without CD FAQs

You can perform a clean install of Windows 10 even if you don’t have the original installation DVD if you have tried any one of these solutions. If you still have problems, you can read the following questions and answers.

How do I reinstall Windows without a disk?

Restore without an installation CD:

How do I clean and reinstall Windows 10?

Use the installation media to perform a clean install:

How do I wipe and reinstall Windows 10?

In Windows 10, there is a built-in tool that can wipe your PC and restore it to a factory-fresh state. Navigate to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Recovery. Then, select Get started under Reset this PC. You can keep your personal files or remove everything based on your actual needs.

How to Reinstall Windows 10

How do I reinstall Windows 10 on my laptop or PC?

If you want to find out how to reinstall Windows 10 Technical Preview on your operating system then you only need to follow the instructions posted below and you will be done in just a few minutes of your time.

The reason as to why you would want to reinstall can be several but most users usually encounter registry errors in the usage of the operating system and the only way to completely fix it is by completely reinstalling the operating system.

Doing the steps below are as easy as they can get but you will have to follow them to the letter and be sure not to skip any one of them as it may take you a bit more time redoing them all over again.

In order to do this tutorial, you only need the Windows 10 Technical Preview ISO file and an 8GB USB stick but I am sure you have it if you installed it before on your operating system.

How to reinstall Windows 10 ton a PC or laptop?

First of all, we will be uninstalling the operating system:

Now we will install the Windows 10 Technical Preview:

Possible Windows 10 installation issues

Expert Tip: Some PC issues are hard to tackle, especially when it comes to corrupted repositories or missing Windows files. If you are having troubles fixing an error, your system may be partially broken. We recommend installing Restoro, a tool that will scan your machine and identify what the fault is.
Click here to download and start repairing.

Even if Windows 10 is a well-designed OS, there might be some problems with its installation. Several problems may occur, from the disk you are trying to install Windows to your laptop model.

We have decided to gather the most useful articles for this purpose so you can have a solid backup in case something goes wrong. Here they are:

So if you have a USB stick and an ISO file I don’t think you will have any issues following the steps above and get your Windows 10 Technical Preview reinstalled on your device.

Also if you have any questions regarding this subject please write us in the comments section of the page below and I will help you as soon as possible.

Restoro has been downloaded by 0 readers this month.

How to Reinstall Windows 10 without CD/USB Easily (3 Skills) [MiniTool Tips]

Can you reinstall Windows 10 without CD or USB? How to reinstall Windows 10 without or with CD/USB on your ASUS, Dell, Acer, etc.? The ways are various for you to have a shot and read this post from MiniTool to know what you should do. Also, learn useful tips on how to prevent your files from getting erased before reinstalling Windows 10.

Reinstalling Windows 10 Is Necessary

If your Windows 10 operating system runs into a problem, it might slow down or even stop working normally on your ASUS, Acer, or Dell PC. What will you do to solve this issue?

Usually, the first thing to do is to search on the internet for a solution. If you are lucky enough, you may successfully find a solution for your issues. Nevertheless, in often times the problem may still exist even after trying all the possible methods.

In that case, the only effective solution is to reinstall Windows 10. This may be your last resort to revert your PC back to the normal working state.

However, reinstalling Windows can sacrifice your data and applications on your drive. It could also be a bit difficult, especially when there is no CD or USB.

Can I reinstall Windows 10 for free without losing data? Certainly!

In the following sections, we will teach you the process of reinstalling Windows 10 both with and without a CD or USB drive.

How to Reinstall Windows 10 Without Losing Data

In the following sections, you will learn how to reinstall Windows 10 without CD and how to reinstall Windows 10 with USB drive.

Case 1: Reinstall Windows 10 without CD or USB

Quick Video Guide:

① Reinstall Windows 10 While Keeping Files

Windows 10 comes with a feature called Reset This PC, using which you can either choose to keep your personal files or remove them and then reinstall windows 10 without key. Resetting is a good solution for a PC that isn’t working well.

The merit of this solution is that Windows does not require any additional downloads nor installation media to initiate the setup.

Step 1: To do this, please go to Start > Settings > Update & security > Recovery.

Step 2: Click Get started under Reset this PC section.

Step 3: Choose an option to continue. To reinstall Windows 10 without losing data, you should choose Keep my files.

Step 4: After the process has been prepared, a window will pop up saying that your apps will be removed. Click Next to go on.

Step 5: In Ready to reset this PC interface, click the Reset button to reinstall Windows 10 without CD or loss of personal files.

How to reset a computer that isn’t working properly?

If the system fails to start up, how to reinstall Windows 10 from boot? Please boot your PC several times, then Windows 10 may enter the WinRE.

Go to Choose an option > Troubleshoot > Reset this PC. And then, start to reinstall windows 10 without key by following the wizard.

②Reinstall Windows 10 without CD or USB: Directly from ISO File

Microsoft comes with a media creation tool that can upgrade this PC to Windows 10 by creating an installation media or directly using the ISO file to install Windows 10.

If you don’t have an installation CD or USB flash drive, how to reinstall Windows 10 without losing data? Here, we will use the Windows ISO file to reinstall ASUS, Acer, or Dell PC.

Step 1: Download the media creation tool from Microsoft.

Step 2: Get the Windows 10 ISO file.

1. Open the downloaded tool, and choose Create installation media for another PC.

2. Choose language, architecture (32 or 64-bit) and edition to continue.

3. Check the ISO file option to create an installation ISO. Note that this tool requires the ISO to be burned to a DVD later.

Step 3: If you need to install Windows 10 directly from the ISO file without a USB drive or DVD, mount the ISO file. This also performs an upgrade of your current OS to Windows 10.

To mount the ISO file:

Step 4: After the setup is ready, decide whether to download and install updates or not. Here, we suggest choosing the first option. These updates will smooth the installation by including important fixes and updated device drivers.

Step 5: The setup will check for some available updates.

Step 6: Click the Accept button in the License terms screen.

Step 7: The setup will start looking for updates and downloading them.

Step 9: Then, three options are offered. If you need to reinstall Windows 10 without losing data and apps, please check Keep personal files, apps, and Windows settings.

Step 10: Then, this setup will then go back to Ready to install screen. Now click Install to begin the Windows 10 reinstallation. After finishing the reinstallation, follow the instructions to customize your settings.

③ Run Windows Setup from a Partition Containing the ISO File

Another way to reinstall Windows 10 without CD or USB is by running the Command Prompt and opening Windows setup from the partition containing an ISO file. Note that this method might erase everything on your computer.

Case 2: Reinstall Windows 10 with CD or USB

This method also requires the Windows media creation tool.

How to reinstall Windows 10 from boot?

Note that this way will erase your personal files on the non­-working computer, so you will need to first back up all the files you want to keep. Use MiniTool ShadowMaker, as mentioned above.

While searching for a solution to «reinstall Windows 10 without CD», you might find in the related search results: can I reinstall Windows 10 for free? How to reinstall Windows 10 after the free upgrade?

Actually, it is possible to free reinstall Windows 10. When you upgrade your OS to Windows 10, Windows 10 will be automatically activated online. This allows you to reinstall Windows 10 at any time without purchasing a license again.

To reinstall Windows 10 after its free upgrade, you can choose to perform a clean install from a USB drive or with CD. Just follow the guide mentioned above.

Best Method: Use a System Image to Reinstall Windows 10

A system image includes all the Windows OS files, settings, programs and personal files, so it is a good option to restore Windows to a normal state.

To ensure the best solutions for OS issues, we strongly recommend backing up your Windows OS and then perform a system image recovery to reinstall Windows 10.

Step 1: After launching MiniTool ShadowMaker, click Keep Trial to start.

Step 2: Under the Backup tab, system partitions have been selected as the backup source. You only need to choose the hard drive of the non­-working PC as the destination storage path.

Step 3: Finally, click Back up Now to perform the backup operation.

If Windows ever runs into a problem, use the system image file to restore your computer to its previous state.

This will require a bootable USB drive or disc to be created using its Media Builder. After creating the image, you can then boot the crashed PC to use MiniTool ShadowMaker Bootable Edition to begin the recovery.

If you don’t have a system image backup, what should you do to restore the non-working PC?. Use the Universal Restore offered by MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition.

After getting Trial Edition to back up the system of a working PC, you can restore the system image to the hard drive of the crashed PC and then start a universal restore.

Important: Back up Important Files in Advance

No matter which method you use, to reinstall Windows 10 without losing data, it is recommended to back up your important files before starting a reinstallation. We suggest using the professional PC backup software for Windows 11/10/8/7, MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition, to back up files or folders with simple steps on the desktop or in WinPE.

When your PC is working properly, you can directly create a file backup on the desktop

Step 1: Run MiniTool ShadowMaker.

Step 2: Go to the Backup window and enter the Source section.

Select the Folders and Files section, and choose the files or folders you want to back up and click OK.

Next, specify a location to save the backup image file. Using an external hard drive or USB drive as the destination path is relatively safer than the original disk.

Step 3: At last, click the «Back up Now» button to start the file backup.

If your ASUS, Acer, or Dell computer fails to boot, you can use the MiniTool ShadowMaker Bootable Edition

Just create bootable media (using CD/DVD or USB drive) with Media Builder feature on a working PC, then boot the non­-working PC from the disc or drive to get the Bootable Edition. After that, you can start backing up your important files.

PC is not booting but you want to back up files without booting to save them? This post will show you how to back up data from a computer that won’t boot.

Further Reading: Reinstall Windows 10 on a New Hard Drive

When searching for «reinstall Windows 10 without CD», you might find some other users are also interested in Windows installation on a new hard drive.

How to do this? One method is to use the Clone Disk feature of MiniTool ShadowMaker or Copy Disk of MiniTool Partition Wizard to clone Windows 10 to a new hard drive. Or you can also reinstall Windows 10 from USB or CD.

How to reinstall Windows 11 without losing data in case the PC system goes wrong? This post shows you three efficient ways to do this task and have a try.

Final Words

After reading our article, you should know how to reinstall Windows 10 without CD or USB and how to reinstall Windows 10 from a USB drive. You should choose a method to reinstall your Windows based on your needs.

Reinstall Windows 10 Without CD FAQ:

About The Author

Vera is an editor of the MiniTool Team since 2016 who has more than 5 years’ writing experiences in the field of technical articles. Her articles mainly focus on disk & partition management, PC data recovery, video conversion, as well as PC backup & restore, helping users to solve some errors and issues when using their computers. In her spare times, she likes shopping, playing games and reading some articles.

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How to Reinstall Windows 10

If you are experiencing difficulties, bugs, or other unexpected errors with Windows 10, you can reinstall it without having to format your computer or remove or delete system files. This is known as a repair install or Windows 10 in-place upgrade. To do so, you will need a Windows 10 setup USB drive or DVD. If you do not have a Windows 10 setup drive or DVD, you cannot attempt a repair install or in-place upgrade (note: you can copy a downloaded version of Windows 10 onto a drive or DVD should you not have the original).

To reinstall Windows 10, you must first be able to boot into the operating system. If you are unable to boot into Windows 10, you will not be able to reinstall the operating system without losing system files. Assuming you are able to boot into Windows 10, do so. You can then insert your drive or disc, or run an ISO image and mount it as a virtual DVD. Once complete, run «setup.exe» from your removable drive to begin setup – you may be automatically prompted to do so, but if not, navigate to your drive (or disc) to initiate the process yourself.

As you run through the setup process, you will be prompted to answer a variety of setup-related questions; answer as you see fit, as your answers will be used to tailor Windows 10 to your needs. This holds true for every setup page except for the last – the last page in the Windows 10 repair installation process is arguably the most important. On this page, you will want to make sure you provide specific answers to the provided questions.

On the final setup page, there will be an option that states «Choose what to keep.» Be sure to select the first radio button, labeled «Keep personal files, apps, and Windows settings,» before pressing the «Next» button to begin the repair install. This will ensure that none of your system files or personal data are lost during the reinstallation. Windows 10 will then reinstall with all of your files intact.

How to Reset Windows 10

If you want to reset Windows 10, and you aren’t concerned with losing system data (including personal files), there is a quick and easy way to do so. Within Windows 10, open the Settings application by clicking on the Start menu. Once in Settings, select «Update & Security» and then click on «Recovery.»

You should see multiple options under «Recovery» (including the option to revert back to a previous version of Windows if you’ve recently upgraded). Click the «Get started» button under the option for resetting your PC, and then select «Remove everything.» Remember, this step will wipe all of your files, including personal data. If there is anything you don’t want to lose, be sure to have backups.

Clean installing Windows 10

In some cases, you may want to revert back to a fresh install by reinstalling the operating system from scratch. If you do not wish to keep your personal files, system files, and other data, you can reset Windows 10 by reinstalling it over the existing installation. The simplest way to do this is by booting from your installation disc or drive.

Doing so will overwrite the existing operating system installation. Simply start your computer with the drive or disc already inserted into your computer; once prompted, you can then boot from the drive. As stated above, if you do not have your original Windows 10 setup disc or USB drive, you can download the operating system from Microsoft and copy it to a USB drive or DVD.