Do all drives get formatted when I install new windows?

Question

I have Windows 8 32 bit and want to change it to 64 bit. When I try to do that, it says that all my files and programs will be deleted. I have 3 drives. C is full of programs and documents. D and E have other important data. I know that if I install Windows 64 bit now then my C drive, where windows is installed, will be completely erased! But can anyone tell me whether my data in the other 2 drives will be safe or do I have to make a backup? P.S all my drives are almost full, my external hard drive is also almost full.... so to make backup, I will have to ask help from a friend!

Solution

You can go ahead and upgrade/install. Installation will not touch your files on any other driver other that the drive where windows will install (in your case is C:/) .

Until you decide to manually delete partition or format partition , windows installation / or upgrade will not touch your other partitions.

Comments

[Admin]

In previous versions of windows, the operating system only installed itself on the drive that you specified, the other drives were left untouched

[Gizmo]

if there is enough disk space, at least in my case, windowsi nstalled itself and just moved all the files to Windows.old

[Ishpreet]

They are something like everything I downloaded or made for the past 10 years! Although they ain't top secret agency stuff! :P But Can I be sure that my data will remain safe?

[daraos]

You store your data without backups, so no, you can not be sure it is save. Upgrading your Windows 8 from 32 bit to 64 will be as save as installing a completely new OS on your C: drive. It will not touch your other partitions unless you tell it to do that.

[Frank Thomas]

-1. I'm more than a little sick of the sarcasm that always accompanies these "you must have a backup, cause your not an idiot right?" responses.

[daraos]

That is quite an interpretation. Although I was using sarcasm, I never implied that the OP was an idiot. However, it is a bit odd when someone suddenly starts worrying about data he's storing for 10 years (probably 90% of it never touched after downloading it) without any backups. It's not idiocy, it's hoarding.