Reformating without loosing files? - Printable Version
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Reformating without loosing files? by albert on 03-29-2005 at 06:15 PM
hey.. im trying to reformat my CPU because of viruses and adwares and well i think it would help, also wanna change my windows version..
the only thing is that i wanna keep some files.. like my songs.. i got 5 gbs of files and i wanna keep em..
so as u can guess well forget the cds..
i heard there was a way of doubling your partitions.. so you can have like 2 drives instead of one.. and when you installing well you reboot only one part and keep the other intact.. now how can i do this..??
ne one can help? appreciate it!
l8er
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by .Roy on 03-29-2005 at 06:17 PM
but what if the files that u want to save have the viruses? But what u said is true. But i think u can only do this at the beggining when u format ur computer.
I suggest u get like one dvd disk cuz its like 4.8 gigas and u can put all ur files there.
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by albert on 03-29-2005 at 06:19 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Hobbes
but what if the files that u want to save have the viruses?
no my songs are from cds, theyre not infected im sure at a 100%
quote:
Originally posted by Hobbes
I suggest u get like one dvd disk cuz its like 4.8 gigas and u can put all ur files there.
I dont have a dvd burner.. would it still work?
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by M73A on 03-29-2005 at 06:19 PM
can i just ask when you format your computer do you format all partitions?
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by Concord Dawn on 03-29-2005 at 06:19 PM
quote:
Originally posted by lp15
hey.. im trying to reformat my CPU because of viruses and adwares and well i think it would help, also wanna change my windows version..
the only thing is that i wanna keep some files.. like my songs.. i got 5 gbs of files and i wanna keep em..
so as u can guess well forget the cds..
i heard there was a way of doubling your partitions.. so you can have like 2 drives instead of one.. and when you installing well you reboot only one part and keep the other intact.. now how can i do this..??
ne one can help? appreciate it!
l8er
Bah, PartitionMagic let's you. Although I'd just get an external harddrive and backup to that then reformat.
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by albert on 03-29-2005 at 06:19 PM
quote:
Originally posted by may73alliance
can i just ask when you format your computer do you format all partitions?
well I only got 1 now so yes..
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by albert on 03-29-2005 at 06:20 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Chaotic_Shield
Bah, PartitionMagic let's you. Although I'd just get an external harddrive and backup to that then reformat.
I tried that once didnt know how to create new partitions..
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by .Roy on 03-29-2005 at 06:23 PM
cds are really cheap. They are like 5 bux for a lot of cds. I suggest u just burn all your songs to 7 cds and then format.. It doesnt cost much. 7cds are much less then 1 dollar
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by albert on 03-29-2005 at 06:25 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Hobbes
cds are really cheap. They are like 5 bux for a lot of cds. I suggest u just burn all your songs to 7 cds and then format.. It doesnt cost much. 7cds are much less then 1 dollar
.. ye but thats long to do.. cant i burn songs on a dvd cd?
even if i dont have a dvd burner?
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by .Roy on 03-29-2005 at 06:32 PM
I am not sure..
Plus 7 disks is cheaper then one dvd disk.
Actually it doesnt take too long if u store them in disks. Just dont store them as audio files but as data files. Like save them as mp3. Because if u store them in the disk as audio files then u can put up to like 12 songs in a disk. Which isnt good. But if u put it as data. You can put it as the actual size. But it wont play in more music players
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by The Napster on 03-29-2005 at 06:38 PM
If you want to back em up on a DVD, u need a DVD burner. So forget that, unles ur gonna go out and by a DVD burner. BTW DVDs (4.7Gbs) only fit around 4.4Gbs of raw data 
I'd do what Hobbes said, put all ur music on a normal CD, as data. Like this u can fit 700MB music per CD. Thats about 7-8 CDs.
Anyways the Partition Magic would prob take just as long, anyways then there might be som complications...
Edit: Do you have another PC, where you could temporarily save the 5Gbs of Music on?
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by Sunshine on 03-29-2005 at 06:39 PM
quote:There are wizards at the bottom left side...you use those...when you're finished making changes you click the "apply" button and PM will do the rest (don't interfere the process).
Originally posted by lp15
quote:
Originally posted by Chaotic_Shield
Bah, PartitionMagic let's you. Although I'd just get an external harddrive and backup to that then reformat.
I tried that once didnt know how to create new partitions..
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by .Roy on 03-29-2005 at 06:40 PM
quote:Yep.
Originally posted by The Napster
If you want to back em up on a DVD, u need a DVD burner. So forget that, unles ur gonna go out and by a DVD burner.
I'd do what Hobbes said, put all ur music on a normal CD, as data. Like this u can fit 700MB music per CD. Thats about 7-8 CDs.
But it depends how much mb he has in a cd. You should stick with what u have right now. It doesnt take that much time and its really easy and simple. Do it while you do your homework so you wont waste time.
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by Anubis on 03-29-2005 at 06:47 PM
quote:First of all it isn't your CPU you're formating it's your hard drive. They are two totally different things.
Originally posted by lp15
hey.. im trying to reformat my cpu
quote:I'd back it up onto CDs, you can get a load of blank CD-Rs cheap now. And 5gb isn't that much to back up onto multiple CDs.
Originally posted by lp15
so as u can guess well forget the cds..
Just so you know, before you format your drive make sure that the version of windows (probabally XP you're getting) will work on your computers specificaions and that you can install an old version of windows onto your computer that most likely came with it. That way you only have to buy the XP upgrade disk for your computer, rather than the full thing.
quote:You can burn music files onto a DVD as data, but not without a DVD ReWritable drive. And there's no such thing as a DVD-CD.
Originally posted by lp15
.. ye but thats long to do.. cant i burn songs on a dvd cd?
even if i dont have a dvd burner?
quote:Not really, it'll take you an hour, tops to do it. If you get fast writing disks it shouldn't be long at all...
Originally posted by lp15
.. ye but thats long to do..
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by The_Thief on 03-29-2005 at 06:49 PM
Burn whatever files you have on a CD Burner or DVD Burner then reformat
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by ProblemWv Authority on 03-29-2005 at 06:58 PM
On the recovery disk don't they normally have an option to format the drive totally and one where you keep all your document files? It does on mine...
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by The Napster on 03-29-2005 at 07:05 PM
quote:I think on XP you could do that, but it dosent get rid of the Viruses and Ad-/Spyware, as it just re-installs crucial Windows Files. (i Think correct me if im wrong)
Originally posted by ProblemWv Authority
On the recovery disk don't they normally have an option to format the drive totally and one where you keep all your document files? It does on mine...
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by net-cruizer on 03-29-2005 at 07:33 PM
I think the easiest and fastes way would be to create a 2nd partition, and move the files you want saved, to that partition.
I've been usin comps for many many years, and only reformatted due to screwed OS once, and that wasn't from viruses, was from a beta of SP2, lol. Anyways, I already had made an extra partion long befor that, and most of my programs were installed in a folder called "Program Files 2", and all my mp3s, videos, etc etc, were on that partition, so I still had pretty much everything after I reformatted the main partition and reinstalled XP SP1.
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by albert on 03-29-2005 at 09:24 PM
aight well thx a lot to every1 for the answer..
but I had a question to the napster
quote:
Originally posted by The Napster
Edit: Do you have another PC, where you could temporarily save the 5Gbs of Music on?
yes i do i got 2 other pcs and is there a way to tranfer them without using cdsor hardrives or usb cables? like by net.. i heard something about a shared folder once.. how does that work? i tried to do a network thing didnt seem to work..
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by lizard.boy on 03-29-2005 at 10:00 PM
just google home networking... firstly i really dont think you are in the position to be tackleing a big project like this by yourself, asking a knolageable friend would probably be best instead of redoing your compututer yourself.. it really isnt that hard as long as you dont screw anything up though.
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by Striker on 03-30-2005 at 12:11 AM
well, heres another option, although risky, i have done it before when i had only one parition.
I defraged my comp about 3-4 times in hopes that all the files went to the beginning of my hard drive. Then i used parition magic, got the new parition. Formated the parition, then moved the files over. I can't remmeber if i lost any files over that though.. but i do add, it is risky..
other than that.. all the other options mentioned are good.. once you get your hard drive paritioned once,, you'll wonder why you never did it before.. i always parition hard drives when i put together a comp for someon else
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by paperless on 03-30-2005 at 12:29 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Striker
well, heres another option, although risky, i have done it before when i had only one parition.
I defraged my comp about 3-4 times in hopes that all the files went to the beginning of my hard drive. Then i used parition magic, got the new parition. Formated the parition, then moved the files over. I can't remmeber if i lost any files over that though.. but i do add, it is risky..
other than that.. all the other options mentioned are good.. once you get your hard drive paritioned once,, you'll wonder why you never did it before.. i always parition hard drives when i put together a comp for someon else
You call that risky? When you put the OS back and that stuff the files the OS puts on the hard drive may be put over the files he had before. Its very risky.
I dont know if understood well but you telling him to format it (when you people fromat a hd the files dont go away they still there but the access to them is "deleted" and the hd after that, gets the info that the space left by tthat files is free.) and then use a program to recover them? Its very risky...
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by .Roy on 03-30-2005 at 05:34 AM
Does your computers run on the same router?
If so its easy..
You can just log on from both computers on to messenger. And send files that way. It wont take long because its from the same internet connection. It will run at like 5 megs a second.
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by Hank on 03-30-2005 at 06:05 AM
Just by reformatting a Computer's HDD isnt gonna delete or get rid of Viruses, depending on the Virus itself,
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by Pyroteq on 03-30-2005 at 08:51 AM
quote:
Originally posted by lp15
hey.. im trying to reformat my CPU
Borrow someones dvd burner and back it up
Just a note CPU Is centreal processing unit.. IM not sure you want to reformat that
What you mean to say is you want to format your hdd or your PC..
RE: RE: Reformating without loosing files? by CookieRevised on 03-30-2005 at 10:55 AM
quote:No, Striker didn't meant that at all... What Striker said is not risky at all (if you know what you're doing).
Originally posted by paperless
quote:
Originally posted by Striker
well, heres another option, although risky, i have done it before when i had only one parition.
I defraged my comp about 3-4 times in hopes that all the files went to the beginning of my hard drive. Then i used parition magic, got the new parition. Formated the parition, then moved the files over. I can't remmeber if i lost any files over that though.. but i do add, it is risky..
other than that.. all the other options mentioned are good.. once you get your hard drive paritioned once,, you'll wonder why you never did it before.. i always parition hard drives when i put together a comp for someon else
You call that risky? When you put the OS back and that stuff the files the OS puts on the hard drive may be put over the files he had before. Its very risky.
I dont know if understood well but you telling him to format it (when you people fromat a hd the files dont go away they still there but the access to them is "deleted" and the hd after that, gets the info that the space left by tthat files is free.) and then use a program to recover them? Its very risky...
It is in fact the way you should do it when you have nothing to store your files on:
1) Defragment your entire HD (best to do this in Safe Mode!)
2) Make another partition with PartitionMagic which can hold your files you wish to back up
3) Move the files you want to keep from the old partition to the just created partition.
4) Format the old partition.
5) Install OS on old partition.
6) Move your files back from second partition to old partition.
7) Make the two partitions into 1 again with PartitionMagic.
note1: This is just a big outline of the steps you can/must follow. Of course there are smaller steps in between, like rebooting, checking if things are ok, installing PartitionMagic, etc...
note2: This only works properly if your HD isn't full of course. If it is, you can't create another partition (or not one big enough to hold your files you which to keep)
Although deframenting isn't realy necessary, it is highly recommended. But this has nothing todo with overwriting files or data. If you defragment first, then PartitionMagic, or the likes, will not have to do it (or do it less), simple as that...
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by Mike on 03-30-2005 at 11:41 AM
quote:Both of your computers need a network card.
Originally posted by lp15
yes i do i got 2 other pcs and is there a way to tranfer them without using cdsor hardrives or usb cables? like by net.. i heard something about a shared folder once.. how does that work? i tried to do a network thing didnt seem to work..
Do they have one?
RE: Reformating without loosing files? by Anubis on 03-30-2005 at 11:54 AM
quote:Yes it will, I remember hearing about someones plan to make a virus that could hide itself in the BIOS, never actually worked though. As long as the back-up disks don't contain the virus (which they very likely could depending on the virus), he should be ok.
Originally posted by Demz
Just by reformatting a Computer's HDD isnt gonna delete or get rid of Viruses, depending on the Virus itself,