[deim23]

So I'm fixing to format my hard drive for the first time ever and I have a few questions. I am following tutorial here...http://www.cyberwalker.net/columns/jul99/290799.html

My question is what files/folders to back up and the best way to do it. Remember this will be my first experiance so please be patient.

I have a plextor 40X CDRW using Easy CD Creator, and have saved my Adobe folder, my counter-strike(game), DirectX, My Documents, Microsoft Works, Motherboard Moniter 5, NVIDIA, Outlook Express, and Winzip folders.
I also have around 4 gigs of music I kinda like, its mostly random singles ( I was getting around to orginizing them in to complete albums) so what whould I do?.... Just burn off as much as will fill a CD untill its all saved?
Is there any other neccesary files and folders that I should burn before I proceed to reformat?

Any tips, suggestions, Directions, FYI's, cautions etc.... wanted.

 

[Doonz]

how bout this....


take a moment and post the things that are improtant to you...sounds like you have a good portion of them covered...and well tell you how to save them....when in doubt...burn a bunch of CD with every folder you can find...it might not work on the new system if you just dump it all back on but atleast you have a backup...

 

[Guest]

This should have been posted here...................

 

[freight]

don't do a reinstall if you don't need to do a reinstall. If the pc slows down, do defragmentation processes or run freeware programs that will remove unnecessary codes in your registry.

I repeat, do not do a format-reinstall if there is no problem with the pc. You'll only be giving yourself a huge headache when you realize that you've left something out.

But if there's something REALLY wrong and you need a reformat, what I would suggest is...

If your drive has only one partition - repartition it (use Partition Magic) and divide your physical drive into two drives. Now either you copy everything from Drive C (old half of the newly-partitioned drive) to Drive D (the other 'new' half) OR you use a utility (like Drivecopy) that will do drive to drive copies at very high speeds.

After that create a Start-up Disk. Boot from that disk then do "Format C:" After format completion run the install utility for whatever Windows OS you are using.

But do not do this if you don't need to. Don't just go around believing what others wrote down ("computer bog down" - sheesh!) and doing it as well.

If there's nothing wrong with it, DON'T fix it.

EDIT: And please don't do anything that that article says. It's 3 years old! There are better ways than to remove the 'corrupt' codes from your registry. Use RegCleaner instead.

And take note: You don't just burn the entire Half-Life directory and copy it back into a newly installed Windows OS. You have to do a full reinstall since the installation will add codes into the Windows registry necessary to running the game or whatever application. When you finally understand this you'll see that doing a full Windows reinstall is like rocket science -- one wrong move and you're dead.

 

[Guest]

When you finally understand this you'll see that doing a full Windows reinstall is like rocket science -- one wrong move and you're dead

Gee I never looked at it that way. I can start with a brand new hard drive and have my system back to the way I want it in less than three hours and I'm no rocket scientist..............:no:

freight is right about any software that you have, You will definately need to have the program and install it again on the newly formatted drive after you get everything else working.

And reloading an OS can be a nightmare for a newbie without the proper guidance.

I suppose it depends on whether or not you have the programs freight mentioned or if you need to buy them. His idea seems like the fastest tho.....................