Keeping Files After A Reformat

Dorsk 81 · Post by **Dorsk 81** » 2006-07-01 09:55am

I'm going to try and reinstall Windows and start over with my comp, see if that helps with my DCing problem, but I want to know if it's possible to not erase some files. I've got about 50GB of stuff I'd rather not have DL all over again, but I haven't got anywhere to store it, no external HDD or anything like that.

Post by **Edi** » 2006-07-01 10:29am

The standard thing that we did at my workplace in cases like this was ghost the whole drive to another disk, reinstall and then copy the files back. Not having a second hard drive sort of buggers that option right off.

What you could do is use PQ Magic or other similar partition manipulation program to alter your hard drive's partitioning scheme so that you have a primary partition for the operating system (about 30 GB should be enough) and have all the actual data on the other partition. That way you can nuke the OS whenever you want and there's no problem with data backup. This is why you should ALWAYS have at least two partitions on any Windows installation. Because sooner or later you are going to have to nuke the OS.

Or if you have extra money, buy a second hard drive. A 200 GB hard drive costs around €95 here, and I imagine it'd be simialr over there. Smaller drives cost less, but you'll pay more per GB of storage. Install the OS on that, and make sure you do have the two partitions. Then copy over whatever you want from the old, nuke it completely and put it in as a slave drive. Presto, no more problems with backup options after that. Buying the second drive, or an external hard drive, is often well worth avoiding the aggravation when something goes to shit. You'll end up using so much effort and getting frustrated trying to find a workaround that may or may not work that it evens out anyway.

Or borrow an external drive from a friend for a while.

Edi

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2006-07-01 11:59am

Destructionator XIII wrote:Well, I'm not sure if you can do this with XP (I've never tried), but with 98 it is possible to keep a folder of the files you want to keep but not formatting the hard drive, but rather selectivly deleting the system and application folders, then reinstalling on top of that.

This takes considerably longer than just nuking it though.

You can do this with XP, and 2000 Professional. You simply select the Upgrade option when doing the installation instead of a clean install, that way it will install itself over the current Windows install. I've done this a few times on my own laptop without much in the way of problems so far. Although if you're running 98 you won't be able to do this with XP, since it only lets you do that from 2000 Professional and other XP installations.

Post by **Edi** » 2006-07-01 02:08pm

Destructionator XIII wrote:Well, I'm not sure if you can do this with XP (I've never tried), but with 98 it is possible to keep a folder of the files you want to keep but not formatting the hard drive, but rather selectivly deleting the system and application folders, then reinstalling on top of that.

This takes considerably longer than just nuking it though.

It should be possible to do that, and I don't see why it wouldn't work. Booting the machine up with Knoppix or some other Linux version that can run completely off a removable media and nuke everything but the files you want to keep by deleting them from the hard drive, then reinstall XP without formatting the HD. Though I'm not sure if a clean XP install requires formatting even existing partitions. If it does, it's back to using PQ Magic or other such things.

Edi

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2006-07-01 02:19pm

Edi wrote:
Destructionator XIII wrote:Well, I'm not sure if you can do this with XP (I've never tried), but with 98 it is possible to keep a folder of the files you want to keep but not formatting the hard drive, but rather selectivly deleting the system and application folders, then reinstalling on top of that.

This takes considerably longer than just nuking it though.
It should be possible to do that, and I don't see why it wouldn't work. Booting the machine up with Knoppix or some other Linux version that can run completely off a removable media and nuke everything but the files you want to keep by deleting them from the hard drive, then reinstall XP without formatting the HD. Though I'm not sure if a clean XP install requires formatting even existing partitions. If it does, it's back to using PQ Magic or other such things.

Edi

Yep. The whole point of a clean install is that it erases everything in the partition you install it to. So, the only way of keeping the files is to do an upgrade of a pre-existing Windows installation, assuming there's a compatible Windows version already there.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-07-01 02:30pm

In the future, consider keeping a separate system/apps partition of maybe 20 gigs, which you can reformat safely without affecting the rest of your data.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2006-07-02 01:26am

Uraniun235 wrote:In the future, consider keeping a separate system/apps partition of maybe 20 gigs, which you can reformat safely without affecting the rest of your data.

And hope you don't just start piling on the data on a one-giant-partition hard drive in an OEM computer before you realize your mistake, like I did with this one. I think I need to get another HDD though...

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-07-02 01:28am

Hard drive prices are very good right now. A 300GB drive purchased online should run you around $100.

Shortie · Post by **Shortie** » 2006-07-02 07:32am

If you've got a good enough connection you could try using a bunch of Gmail accounts and Gmail drive. Or if you've got the time then just burn it all to CD, they're not exactly expensive, and then you've got a proper backup.

Post by **Edi** » 2006-07-02 07:40am

Shortie wrote:If you've got a good enough connection you could try using a bunch of Gmail accounts and Gmail drive. Or if you've got the time then just burn it all to CD, they're not exactly expensive, and then you've got a proper backup.

Uh, burn 50 GIGAbytes of data to CD? What are you smoking? That'd be 100 CDs (well, not quite, but around 80). It'd take a dozen DVDs or so, which is also a fuckload of trouble to go to. Easiest way is to buy a new HD, do a proper two partition inatll on that and then copy the stuff over before wiping the old drive and putting it in as a slave.

Edi

Dorsk 81 · Post by **Dorsk 81** » 2006-07-02 02:32pm

General Zod wrote:You can do this with XP, and 2000 Professional. You simply select the Upgrade option when doing the installation instead of a clean install, that way it will install itself over the current Windows install. I've done this a few times on my own laptop without much in the way of problems so far. Although if you're running 98 you won't be able to do this with XP, since it only lets you do that from 2000 Professional and other XP installations.

Ok, trying to do this now, but I get the message that and error occured trying to copy "H:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\vaxscsi.sys", it says it's being used by another process, can I skip it, or try starting over?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2006-07-02 03:08pm

Dorsk 81 wrote: Ok, trying to do this now, but I get the message that and error occured trying to copy "H:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\vaxscsi.sys", it says it's being used by another process, can I skip it, or try starting over?

It appears to be an Alcohol 120% system file. Unless you use virtual drives, you should be able to skip it without any hangups.

Shortie · Post by **Shortie** » 2006-07-02 03:25pm

Edi wrote:
Shortie wrote:If you've got a good enough connection you could try using a bunch of Gmail accounts and Gmail drive. Or if you've got the time then just burn it all to CD, they're not exactly expensive, and then you've got a proper backup.
Uh, burn 50 GIGAbytes of data to CD? What are you smoking? That'd be 100 CDs (well, not quite, but around 80). It'd take a dozen DVDs or so, which is also a fuckload of trouble to go to. Easiest way is to buy a new HD, do a proper two partition inatll on that and then copy the stuff over before wiping the old drive and putting it in as a slave.

Edi

Like I said, if you've got the time (DVDs would be a lot better, it's true). Either is a cheap option though.

Dorsk 81 · Post by **Dorsk 81** » 2006-07-02 03:49pm

...No it's not. An 80GB external HDD is about £55 from OCuk, a pack of 10 CD-RWs cost me £7.99, £7.99x8=£63.92, and it would take a stupidly long amount of time to do.

Dorsk 81 · Post by **Dorsk 81** » 2006-07-02 05:39pm

I've just finished doing the upgrade and I'm having a bit of a problem connecting to the net, it gets up to verifying my username and password, then I get "Error 721: The remote computer did not respond.", any ideas?

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2006-07-02 05:52pm

Call your ISPs tech support, thats why they are there. Should be a free call.

Dorsk 81 · Post by **Dorsk 81** » 2006-07-02 05:58pm

It's not an ISP problem, I'm using the same account to sign on with my old computer.

EDIT: Solved now, for some reason it didn't work the first time when I tried it last night, but uninstalling and reinstalling the modem stuff worked just now.

Just have to hope this solves my DCing problem...

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2006-07-02 06:27pm

Still, call them, they will probably be able to fix it for you faster then troubleshooting over the forum, and it IS why they are there - in fact, they usualy assume you are incapable of taking care of your connection rather then something being wrong on their end. But after a minute of going thru their checklist they usualy manage to locate the problem. At least my expiriences so far. Of course, it varies with various ISPs.

Ypoknons · Post by **Ypoknons** » 2006-07-02 10:40pm

That's why a nice, extra hard drive of 250GB is always convenient. You should really consider an extra hard drive - it's worth the dough when it comes to reformatting and backup. Or a cheaper solution would be a DVD burner + about 15 DVD's. With DVD+-R's, the advantage is that you'll always have a backup around, even if your computer simultaeously burns up and your extra hard drives fall out the window. With 16X DVD burns all it should take a one afternoon.