In order to reparation the hard disk, many users would like to make a clean Windows installation, but this requires deleting all partitions or volumes on the hard disk. That is to say all files will be deleted. So how to backup important files before clean Windows installation? In this post we will introduce a good solution.
For most users, they choose to copy all needed files, and then paste them to another device (either hard disk or removable device). This is indeed a solution, but the process may last for several hours if there are a great number of files to backup. Actually, as long as these files are saved in one or several partitions, we highly suggest copying partitions to backup files rather than copying files directly, because the former solution may help save half of the time. Moreover, no damage will be brought to original data even if power outage or other accidents happen.
Now that cloning partition is a good way to backup files before clean Windows installation, how can we complete this kind of clone? Firstly, a piece of disk clone software is needed. In addition, there must be a hard disk or external device which has enough space to save all important files. For cloning software, try using MiniTool Drive Copy which is free for Windows non-server users. For server support, Partition Wizard Server is available.
Backup Important Files before Clean Windows Installation
After the disk clone software has been installed, please run it to get the starting interface:
Then choose “Partition to Partition” module to copy a single partition. Of course, you can also choose “Disk to Disk” module to clone the entire hard disk, but it will cost much more time since uneless files are copied.
Then, select the partition we want to clone and click “Next>”. Next, choose an unallocated space or partition from another hard disk to save the copy of the source partition and click “Next>”. After that the following window will appear:
Here we are able to resize partition by changing the length of the partition handle. After getting desired partition size, click “Finish” to continue.
At last, click “Yes” and the free disk clone software will perform all changes automatically.
Now we succeed in copying one partition. If there is more than 1 partition to backup, we just need to clone them one by one via the same solution. Once all desired partitions are cloned, we can say all important files have been backed up before clean Windows installation. Try MiniTool Drive Copy out when you have such a need.