Fresh Windows Installation

Question

I am planning today to fresh install my Windows 10 Laptop, I have 2 Partition which is the [OS C:] and [DATA D:]. I want to backup all my Important Data on C: to be pasted on [DATA D:]

Will [DATA D:] be also cleaned after Windows Fresh installaton?

Answer 1

Short Answer:
No, If you don't format the D: drive.

Long Answer:

For a system already running Windows 10
If your computer already run Windows 10, the the easiest way to refresh the machine is to reset it.
Step 1: From the Windows 10 Start Menu, click on Settings.
Step 2: On the Settings page, click on the button that reads Update & security.
Step 3: Now on the update and security page, click on Recovery, then under Reset This PC, click on Get Started.
Step 4: Choose the provided option to Remove everything (It's delete the all documents, profile, settings and so on that on C: not on other drives. Alternatively, you can choose to retain your personal files (such as those in the Desktop and Documents folders) which will keep the files in your profile intact.

• Note that the last option, Restore factory settings, is only available in certain machines and will re-install the original Windows system which was on your computer when you purchased it. You don't want to choose this option, unless your computer originally came with Windows 10.

Step 5: You will be presented with the option to Just remove my files or to Remove files and clean the drive. Basically, if you intend to keep the computer for yourself, pick the first option. If you intend to give it away or sell it after the reset, choose the second option.

After choosing an option, click on the Reset button and that's it. The computer will restart and after somewhere between 10 minutes to half an hour, or maybe longer depending on the speed of the machine, you will have yourself a computer with Windows 10 freshly installed. Note that resetting your machine in this way means you'll lose the option to roll back to the previous Windows.

For a custom-build computer (advanced users)
If you've built your own computer, you can install Windows 10 on it using the flash-drive creation method in the section above. Choose to boot the computer from the flash drive and the installation process will start. Note that this method is quite involved (though self-explanatory) so make sure you know what you're doing (or are willing to learn a few new things).

Also note that installing Windows 10 fresh on a computer by booting from the installation media will require you to buy a new Windows 10 license. If you already have a Windows 7 or 8 license and want to take advantage of the free upgrade offer, it's a better idea to install your licensed version of Windows on the new computer first and then do an upgrade as shown above.

For more information about clean install windows 10 you can refer to How to do a Clean Install of Windows 10, the Easy Way.

Answer 2

During a fresh installation of Windows 10, you will reach a step similar to the following screen:

_{Credit HowToGeek}

In this screen, you can format or delete the partition you wish to install Windows to. If you have a drive label set, in your example this is likely 'DATA', it will be more obvious as to which partition you wish to clear. Be very careful, verify the 'Total sizes' are as you expect.

After this process has occurred, it will be very difficult to recover any data that was left on the partition. Theoretically, some data may still be available and not yet overwritten, however it is very unlikely you will be able to.

With all this in mind, you should always be keeping a backup off the machine as well, as with this process alone a simple miss-click could cause you to lose data. Assuming your C and D partitions are both on the same physical disk, any issue with this process, or even a physical drive fault, would result in a loss of data.