Clean Install on Windows XP

[John]

Would doing a clean install touch personal data on Windows? I am not
sure and have given out technical advice to others using the mac defs.
On a Mac a clean install would just create a new system folder but would
not touch personal documents. I told a user having problems to do a
clean install and not to backup her documents. Perhaps I gave you left
field advice.


John

 

[Alias]

Would doing a clean install touch personal data on Windows? I am not
sure and have given out technical advice to others using the mac defs.
On a Mac a clean install would just create a new system folder but would
not touch personal documents. I told a user having problems to do a
clean install and not to backup her documents. Perhaps I gave you left
field advice.


John

A clean install will delete *everything* you have on your computer right
now unless you have your data on a separate partition. In any even, back
up is a computer user's best friend and you should back up your
important data regularly as your hard drive will die some day. All your
programs will have to be reinstalled.

 

[choro]

Oh, my God! You did what? In Windows a clean install wipes the slate
clean, personal documents and all. Nothing remains!

choro
*****

 

[Alias]

Oh, my God! You did what? In Windows a clean install wipes the slate
clean, personal documents and all. Nothing remains!

choro

Not true. If XP and the programs are on the C partition and the data is
on the D partition, installing XP on the C partition will not wipe the D
partition clean. That said, backing up data is always the prudent thing
to do.

 

[choro]

Not true. If XP and the programs are on the C partition and the data is
on the D partition, installing XP on the C partition will not wipe the D
partition clean. That said, backing up data is always the prudent thing
to do.

But of course! I would have thought that would be taken for granted! But
how many computer users configure their their computers to save user
documents either to a separate disk or partition.

And as far as backing up user files is concerned, it is NOT good enough
back up user files to another partition on the same disk but to a second
hard drive or a partition on a second hard disk. And better still also
save them to an external hard drive too.

Just think what would happen if user files are saved onto a different
partition on the same hard disk and the HD gives up the ghost! You've
lost everything then unless you can afford to have your stuff
professionally recovered from the failed HD's platter. And that would be
a very, very expensive operation indeed.

 

[Alias]

But of course! I would have thought that would be taken for granted! But
how many computer users configure their their computers to save user
documents either to a separate disk or partition.

Best is to have the data on a separate partition and back it up to
external media regularly.

And as far as backing up user files is concerned, it is NOT good enough
back up user files to another partition on the same disk but to a second
hard drive or a partition on a second hard disk. And better still also
save them to an external hard drive too.

I know.

Just think what would happen if user files are saved onto a different
partition on the same hard disk and the HD gives up the ghost! You've
lost everything then unless you can afford to have your stuff
professionally recovered from the failed HD's platter. And that would be
a very, very expensive operation indeed.

Note, I wrote in my first reply to the OP:

"In any event, back up is a computer user's best friend and you should
back up your important data regularly as your hard drive will die some day."

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

But of course! I would have thought that would be taken for granted!

Note that although your attribution was to Alias, *I* wrote the
paragraph above you quoted.

My view is that next to nothing on forums or newsgroups should be
taken for granted. Some people here know a lot, others know next to
nothing, so telling them the obvious things is often very valuable to
them.

But
how many computer users configure their their computers to save user
documents either to a separate disk or partition.

Some, but as you suggest, most do not. Most do not have a separate
disk or partition.

And as far as backing up user files is concerned, it is NOT good enough
back up user files to another partition on the same disk but to a second
hard drive or a partition on a second hard disk.

I am very much against backing up to a second internal drive because
it leaves you susceptible to simultaneous loss of the original and
backup to many of the most common dangers: severe power glitches,
nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks, user errors, even theft of
the computer.

However, in this case, if the backup is only meant to be kept for the
duration of the clean installation (which I do *not* recommend), it
would be OK.

And better still also
save them to an external hard drive too.

I completely agree, except for the word "also" in that sentence.

Just think what would happen if user files are saved onto a different
partition on the same hard disk and the HD gives up the ghost! You've
lost everything then unless you can afford to have your stuff
professionally recovered from the failed HD's platter. And that would be
a very, very expensive operation indeed.

Yes. And also note that professional recovery may or may not work. It
is far from being always successful.

You might want to read my thoughts on backup in this article I've
written: http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=314

 

[Alias]

Note that although your attribution was to Alias, *I* wrote the
paragraph above you quoted.

NO, you didn't.

 

[MyNews]

John
Get a News 130 GB HDD if you have a 130 gb go bigger!
And Make Two partition's
First one partition for your XP, in NTFS format
The Sec. one 10Gb partition in Fat32 it for your Back up file!

Copy entire hard drives only those areas partitions on the destination
drive.
Remove the Old HDD and put it in the New HDD Box and put it away for safe
Keeping
Boot the new Hdd
backup her documents On D:>
And do a clean install OF that XP
is the right way of do it ........

 

[Peter Foldes]

NO, you didn't.

Alias

LOL. It was Ken. You are far from using words like "prudent thing to do" He wrote
that before and yes, Ken wrote that paragraph and not for the first time either
--
Peter
Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Alias]

Alias

LOL. It was Ken. You are far from using words like "prudent thing to do"
He wrote that before and yes, Ken wrote that paragraph and not for the
first time either

Must be something wrong with your newsreader. I am fully aware of what
"prudent" means have used it plenty of times.

 

[MyNews]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudence

Must be something wrong with your newsreader. I am fully aware of what
"prudent" means have used it plenty of times.

The word comes from Old French prudence (13th century), from Latin prudentia
(foresight, sagacity), a contraction of providentia, foresight. It is often
associated with wisdom, insight, and knowledge. In this case, the virtue is
the ability to judge between virtuous and vicious actions, not only in a
general sense, but with regard to appropriate actions at a given time and
place. Although prudence itself does not perform any actions, and is
concerned solely with knowledge, all virtues had to be regulated by it.
Distinguishing when acts are courageous, as opposed to reckless or cowardly,
for instance, is an act of prudence, and for this reason it is classified as
a cardinal (pivotal) virtue.

Hmm in here in the 21 century we use Info!

 

[choro]

Note that although your attribution was to Alias, *I* wrote the
paragraph above you quoted.

My view is that next to nothing on forums or newsgroups should be
taken for granted. Some people here know a lot, others know next to
nothing, so telling them the obvious things is often very valuable to
them.




Some, but as you suggest, most do not. Most do not have a separate
disk or partition.




I am very much against backing up to a second internal drive because
it leaves you susceptible to simultaneous loss of the original and
backup to many of the most common dangers: severe power glitches,
nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks, user errors, even theft of
the computer.

However, in this case, if the backup is only meant to be kept for the
duration of the clean installation (which I do *not* recommend), it
would be OK.




I completely agree, except for the word "also" in that sentence.





Yes. And also note that professional recovery may or may not work. It
is far from being always successful.

You might want to read my thoughts on backup in this article I've
written: http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=314

Had a look at that web page of yours. Nice. Well done! Actually I
personally use the xcopy command to make incremental backups of my user
files. I find it extremely handy. xxcopy is a more advanced version of
xcopy but more complex.

xcopy can be used to copy all files in a particular directory as well as
its sub-directories OR it can with a slight modification of the
switches, be used to make incremental backups or rather copies of the
user files. And the good thing is that it actually copies the files
rather than doing a one-file backup of the whole directory and its
sub-directories.

Recently built myself another desktop with the W7 O/S. I am happy to see
W7 continue supporting those lovely and simple DOS commands.

But one thing I didn't mention is the importance of periodically copying
all user files also onto CD or DVD. External hard drives can also be
prone to going kaput for all sorts of reasons.

 

[John]

A clean install will delete *everything* you have on your computer right
now unless you have your data on a separate partition. In any even, back
up is a computer user's best friend and you should back up your
important data regularly as your hard drive will die some day. All your
programs will have to be reinstalled.

thanks

 

[John]

John
Get a News 130 GB HDD if you have a 130 gb go bigger!
And Make Two partition's
First one partition for your XP, in NTFS format
The Sec. one 10Gb partition in Fat32 it for your Back up file!

Copy entire hard drives only those areas partitions on the destination
drive.
Remove the Old HDD and put it in the New HDD Box and put it away for safe
Keeping
Boot the new Hdd
backup her documents On D:>
And do a clean install OF that XP
is the right way of do it ........

Thanks

 

[philo]

Would doing a clean install touch personal data on Windows? I am not
sure and have given out technical advice to others using the mac defs.
On a Mac a clean install would just create a new system folder but would
not touch personal documents. I told a user having problems to do a
clean install and not to backup her documents. Perhaps I gave you left
field advice.


John

Yep

a clean install will wipre out *everyting* on the drive
you probably meant "repair install"

Google for help if you need instructions on how to perform one

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Had a look at that web page of yours. Nice. Well done!

Thanks for the kind words.

But one thing I didn't mention is the importance of periodically copying
all user files also onto CD or DVD. External hard drives can also be
prone to going kaput for all sorts of reasons.

Yes. I don't go into details about that in my article, but I do say
"Even better than a single external drive is having two or more such
drives, and using them alternately. With a single drive, every time
you do a full backup, you also destroy your only backup by overwriting
it. That leaves you vulnerable to a problem occurring while the backup
is in progress. Alternating between two backup drives overcomes that
problem. And you can go back one or more generations of data if you
need to restore. Not every home user needs that extra layer of
protection (and extra cost), but almost every business does."