Windows 10: Reinstall Windows on a separate drive

Currently I'm booting on to my C: drive which is normally just a backup drive. My current D: drive is the drive I normally boot to but when I do, it's just a black screen after the load screen with the spinning circle. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I'm wondering if I can reinstall windows onto the D: drive without wiping all the data.Thanks!

:)

 

Reinstall Windows 10 to new hard drive

Hi Rodolpho,

We want to know about the issue you're having with your recovery drive. Please answer the questions below:

• Are you trying to reinstall Windows 8 or Windows 10?
• If you already upgraded to Windows 10, were you able to create a new copy of the recovery drive?

We suggest creating a new copy of the recovery drive and then follow the steps provided by Andre Da Costa above this thread.

Update us with the outcome so we can assist you further.

 

Hard drive/ OS issue

a guy suggested :

• shutdown
• unhooked HDD
• restarted
• yay !!
• reconnected HDD
• restarted
• yay !!

also , try method 3
How do I unlock the drive where Windows 10/11 is installed?

 

Reinstalling Windows (what drive)

It may be possible to troubleshoot and fix the boot problems and operating system/registry problems.
Sometimes access denied can be fixed.
Sometimes missing dll files can be fixed.

If you clean install, it can be performed in the shortest time however the files will be cleaned.
If you boot rescue the files can be backed up to another drive.

If you troubleshoot these are the initial steps.
The next steps will be based on the results displayed from these commands.

Perform the following steps:

1) Find a flash drive that you can format: ( > or = 8 GB)
2) Create a bootable Windows 10 iso (now Windows 10 build 1803)
Download Windows 10
3) Insert the bootable Windows 10 iso flash drive into any USB port
4) Power on the computer and click the applicable keyboard key or modify the BIOS boot order so that the USB external HD is on top
List of PC brands with their corresponding hot-keys
5) It may take 5 - 10 minutes for the iso to load while viewing the Microsoft Windows icon
6) Select the language, time, currency, and keyboard, or click next
7) Click troubleshoot
8) Click command prompt > Administrator: X:\Windows\System32.cmd.exe > X:\Sources>
PLEASE USE A CAMERA OR SMART PHONE CAMERA TO TAKE PICTURES AND POST IMAGES OF ALL OF THE FOLLOWING STEPS:
Type all of these commands.
Comments are in parenthesis.

9) bcdedit /enum
10) bcdedit | find "osdevice"
11) C:
12) dir
13) D:
14) dir
14) E:
15) dir
16) diskpart
17) list disk
18) list volume
19) select disk 0
20) detail disk
21) list partition
22) select partition 1
23) detail partition
24) select partition 2
25) detail partition
26) select partition 3
27) detail partition
28) select partition 4
29) detail partition
30) select disk 1
31) detail disk
32) list partition
33) select disk 2
34) detail disk
35) list partition
36) sfc /scannow /offbootdir=B:\ /offwindir=B:\windows
(change the letters B to the drive letter displayed in steps #10)
37) chkdsk /r B:
(change the letter B to the partition drive letter seen in step #10)
(This may take many hours and typically displays ETA.)
38) (reboot as needed)
39) (reopen command prompt > Administrator: X:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe > X:\Sources>
40) bootrec /fixmbr
41) bootrec /fixboot
42) bootrec /scanos
43) bootrec /rebuildbcd
44) (reboot)