Reformating & Saving Files

[Guest]

Have XP Pro on single partitition 250GB SATA drive (C:\) (80 GB used) connected to Promise SATA/ATA controller card. Having ALL kinds of BSODs so wish to reformat C:\ and reinstall XP. Also have other drive 200 GB ATA Drive (F:\) ( 0 GB used) also attached to the Promise card. Question is: What do I need to do to copy my all existing files including program, data, e-mail files etc. to F:\, completely reformat C:\ and then re-copy all such files from F:\ back to C:\? Are there any files other than C:\Windows that I shouldn't transfer? Detailed step-by-step information, or where to find such information, greatly appreciated. Off list responses appreciated as well

Steve Brown

 

[Guest]

You could approach this from a couple different angles. If you want to create an image of the existing drive for reinstall later you can use Ghost or True Image. TI is my favorite because it works inside of Windows and you don't have to shut the computer down. Failing that you might want to boot from a CD so that the c: drive isn't the active system and then copy everything to the second drive. In Windows this probably requires a command line interface, but if you can tolerate a little Linux, find Knoppix on the internet and download it. It is a stand alone system that a gui that will permit you to see the contents of all of your drives and you can copy from one to another and not lose/miss anything.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Steve,

Use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, that's what it's there for. See:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/fast.htm

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Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Windows
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the responses which led me to the information I needed. This is probably a dumb question, but when you reformat a drive, do you have to reformat the entire physical drive or can you reformat just a logical drive? Thanks

SKB

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

You can format just the logical drive (partition or volume).

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Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Windows
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone