Backing up prior to upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro

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I need to upgrade for training purposes.
I am knowledgeable on a very limted range of topics, and am ignorant of some
of the most basic procedures - as you will see.
What exactly do you mean by "Perform a backup of your important documents
and files to a CD"?
Okay, I understand documents, that is straightforward.
But files? How do I determine which files would be lost? Where would I
locate them? The PC is about 18 months old and has been used for study,
games, letters, information storage etc., I've used Outlook Express to manage
my email addresses and so on.
Please could you direct me to a "Which Files To Save onto CD for Absolute
Dummies" post/article/site?
I'm not dim, just get confused when out of my comfort zone. Once it clicks
I'll feel even more daft than now for not getting it.
 
Erika said:
I need to upgrade for training purposes.
I am knowledgeable on a very limted range of topics, and am ignorant of some
of the most basic procedures - as you will see.
What exactly do you mean by "Perform a backup of your important documents
and files to a CD"?
Okay, I understand documents, that is straightforward.
But files? How do I determine which files would be lost? Where would I
locate them? The PC is about 18 months old and has been used for study,
games, letters, information storage etc., I've used Outlook Express to manage
my email addresses and so on.
Please could you direct me to a "Which Files To Save onto CD for Absolute
Dummies" post/article/site?
I'm not dim, just get confused when out of my comfort zone. Once it clicks
I'll feel even more daft than now for not getting it.
Click to expand...

When some one says "Perform a backup of your important documents
and files to a CD" this usually means the contents of your My Documents
folder, including My Pictures and My Music etc., it also means that
important personal files such as photos, music, email, addressbooks
etc. that you may have should also be backed up to cd. Use the Export
facility in OE to export your address books and emails (see Help in
OE). If you have used XP's Encryption facility make sure you either
save the files unencrypted or you make copies of your encryption keys
(see http://www.nacs.uci.edu/security/New_Pages/EFSforWindows.html )
 
Erika said:
Thank you so much. No I've never encrypted so that's not a problem.
I found this
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/getstarted/bott_fstw.mspx
about using File and Settings Transfer Wizard. After a good clear out of
files and programs I no longer use, I ran this to have a 'looksee' and it
sayd I'll need 10 CDs to save onto.
Is this the best way for a total novice like me to go?
Again, thanks for taking the time to help.
Click to expand...

I have not used the F&STW utility so I can't really comment on it.
There are a number of free backup utilities available (just do a google
search) that may be easier to use but again I cannot coment on their
capabilities, personally I do manual backups the CDs at regular
intervals for my documents and the like.

What ever you decide to do just make sure that you can recover your
data from the backup.
 
THANK YOU SO MUCH! (PS sorry so long to respond - couldn't get this reply
window to open til I figured out the bit about pop-ups! Learning a bit at a
time!)
 
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