Achieve a fresh setup in 10 steps.
Achieve a fresh setup in 10 steps.
You're considering whether a fresh installation of Windows 10 is necessary. It's natural to feel uncertain about data loss, especially after previous issues with your HDD. You mentioned having around 3 terabytes of files—games and videos—and wanting to avoid losing everything. Since you didn't back up before and lack spare drives, a clean install might be the safest choice. Disconnecting your other drives and using just the SSD where your games are stored could help. Regarding Steam progress, it's likely saved on their servers, so you should retain your achievements even after reinstalling. Let me know if you need more details!
Steam stores certain games in the cloud, like Skyrim, but others don’t unless you enable cloud synchronization. If it’s not set, you’ll need to back them up yourself.