So I decided to build server 2016 about 3 months ago on a physical machine, seeing as though my other machines were Windows 10. I had a stack of hard drives and thought I’d use it for a storage server/NAS box. Then I decided to use it as a desktop machine. To cut a long story short, as much as 2016 works pretty well as a desktop, seeing as though it’s similar to W10, there were a few reasons that made me want to move back to W10.

But… I’d put in a few drives, set up storage spaces (it’s really easy) and as I was re-installing an OS (onto a different SSD as well), I cleared down everything on the drives and moved elsewhere, stupidly deleting some stuff that I thought I’d copied off in the midst, but doing so because I couldn’t find a straight answer whether the virtual drive I’d created within Storage Spaces, would carry to another OS. Most people said no. Most people were wrong.

Rebuilt with W10, lo and behold, my drives pop up, exactly the same, sans the files I’d deleted (Dammnit!).

So, moral of the story? Shifting from W10 to/from 2016 is probably going to keep your files, but I still probably wouldn’t risk it! 😉