Shoutbox

Before I go away and waste an evening, I'd like a few opinions on what I'm planning.

I've got loads of problems with my computer at the moment and basically I've had enough of trying to fix them (some date back to before Christmas ).  I've decided just to delete everything and reinstall Windows from scratch.  However, there are lots of things I currently have stored on my computer that I don't want/can't afford to loose.  My plan is to move everything I need to keep onto my second hard-drive (F Drive), unplug it, and then format drive C completely.  I'll then proceed to reinstall Windows XP.  My plan then is to reconnect the second hard drive and just transfer all my saved files back over onto C.

Now, I think this plan should work, but too many times in the past I've gone ahead and done something that I "thought" would work, and it turned out it actually didn't work, and I lost everything as a result.  So, if you would be so kind as to tell me in advance whether this is likely to work, I would really appreciate it.

My alternative would be to move all the files I need to keep over the LAN to the other computer, but there are approximately 3-4 GB worth of data and I don't fancy waiting three and a half hours for the files to be moved if possible.

Thanks.

no, it should work fine... but you don't need to unplug your second drive though, you can keep it plugged in (as long as you don't touch drive D by accident with format that is )

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
no, it should work fine... but you don't need to unplug your second drive though, you can keep it plugged in (as long as you don't touch drive D by accident with format that is )

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I wondered if it was necessarry, but I've heard that the Windows XP installer sometimes tries to take over all hard-drives.  It's probably just some over-blown rumour but I just want to be safe...oh and I'm really clumsy, so if I disconnect it I can't delete anything by accident.

Thanks for your reply Cookie.

You still can use Partition Magic for this (or any linux distribution with Partitions assistant, for if you don't want to *buy* partition magic) and create a backup partition.
After this format C, which is the first partition and copy back to C the data in the second partition.

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
as long as you don't touch drive D by accident with format that is

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drive F, if he doesn't change the partitions.

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Originally posted by musicalmidget
but I've heard that the Windows XP installer sometimes tries to take over all hard-drives

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well, that may happen if you have fat/fat32 and ntfs partitions... in some cases windows tries to use the fat/fat32 to boot while it's restarting in the instalation process... Anyway, if you want to be sure your files won't be touched, unplug the drive

It is fat32.

I'll unplug it just to be sure.

wudnt it be better to write it onto a few cds, cos its less likely that u are gona drop the CD, and break it (ive done it with a HDD)

In the past, this is what I have usually done.  However, it seems I under-estimated just how much stuff I needed to save, I've moved over 7GB over to my other hard-drive and I still have a little more to do.  My CD writer isn't exactly the fastest in the world, and it would probably take 10-15 CD's.  I think it's actually quicker this way.

I don't quite know what's taking up 7GB though, it's mostly school work and things.

I like to unplug hard drives I don't want to format, just in case of a fluke and something gets lost/formatted etc

I see no flaws in your plan. Just be sure to copy everything across, as I always tend to forget something and then regret it later

I think I'm going to re-install Windows this week on both of the machines in my house. Thanks to AutoPatcherXP, it should be a smooth and fast process to get upto speed

Well, suprisingly I'm quite organised about this one.  When I decided I was going to do this a couple of hours ago I plowed through my computer looking for things I needed to keep and made a list.  I'm going through the list now and moving files where necessarry.  I'm not usually this organised.

Almost done.