Which files to save when reformatting?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mel
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M

Mel

My hard drive may be reformatted when I send my HP m7250n to HP for
some warranty work.

I have saved "My Documents" and "Favorites" and the Outlook Express
files and the .jpg/.mpg files that I care about.

Are there any other groups of files that would typically be worth
saving? I don't have enough room on my other computer to save all the
stuff. There is only about 5 GB of space left for any more backing up.

Thanks for any tips,..

Mel
 
If you are "Mechanically" inclined, I would just remove the drive
before sending it in for repairs. However, HP's aren't the easiest
of desktop machines to disassemble. For notebooks removing
the drive is much easier - 2 screws and slide the housing out of
the unit. It might be worth the investment in Acronis True Image
to create a 'High Level" compressed image of the computer.~$50.
Using maximum compression the output .tib file should be around
45% of the original contents - but the imaging time will be longer.
 
Mel said:
My hard drive may be reformatted when I send my HP m7250n to HP for
some warranty work.

I have saved "My Documents" and "Favorites" and the Outlook Express
files and the .jpg/.mpg files that I care about.

Are there any other groups of files that would typically be worth
saving? I don't have enough room on my other computer to save all the
stuff. There is only about 5 GB of space left for any more backing up.

Thanks for any tips,..

Mel
Click to expand...
Only you know what you will miss when it's gone. Burn the data to CDs
(or DVDs) if your other harddrive is too full. Or go out and buy an
external USB or FireWire hard drive -- they're pretty cheap these days,
and it's always a good idea to have one of these for your regular backups.

If your drive is re-formatted and Windows reinstalled, all your
applications will also have to be reinstalled, so if you downloaded and
saved any installation exe files, you'll probably want to save those.
Same with any update/patch files. Do you have any regularly-used
application that saves its output to someplace other than My Documents
-- such as Quicken or MSMoney or a tax program?

Finally, consider whether YOU want to delete anything on your hard drive
before you let hp have it. Is there anything there that you would
rather not have someone else see? If you do delete files, remember to
empty the recycle bin. This alone won't conceal deleted data from hp
techs who really want to get at it, but I'm not so paranoid to think
that hp will really go rummaging around in the drive.
 
Mel said:
My hard drive may be reformatted when I send my HP m7250n to HP for
some warranty work.

I have saved "My Documents" and "Favorites" and the Outlook Express
files and the .jpg/.mpg files that I care about.

Are there any other groups of files that would typically be worth
saving? I don't have enough room on my other computer to save all the
stuff. There is only about 5 GB of space left for any more backing up.

Thanks for any tips,..
Click to expand...

Check your applications--office, games, accounting software to make sure
that there no data files produced hiding in the programs' folder in
C:\Program Files instead of in My Documents. Repoint them to My Documents
before backing up that folder.
 
Mel said:
My hard drive may be reformatted when I send my HP m7250n to HP for
some warranty work.

I have saved "My Documents" and "Favorites" and the Outlook Express
files and the .jpg/.mpg files that I care about.

Are there any other groups of files that would typically be worth
saving? I don't have enough room on my other computer to save all the
stuff. There is only about 5 GB of space left for any more backing up.

Thanks for any tips,..

Mel
Click to expand...

Another option is to get an external usb drive and disk imaging
software. Save an image of the drive to the external drive. Then if
there is something you need, you've got a copy of it, or you can restore
the image.
 
R. McCarty said:
If you are "Mechanically" inclined, I would just remove the drive
before sending it in for repairs. However, HP's aren't the easiest
of desktop machines to disassemble. For notebooks removing
the drive is much easier - 2 screws and slide the housing out of
the unit. It might be worth the investment in Acronis True Image
to create a 'High Level" compressed image of the computer.~$50.
Using maximum compression the output .tib file should be around
45% of the original contents - but the imaging time will be longer.
Click to expand...

That pre-supposes a mechanical problem other than the disk drive. Removing
the drive may create a no fault found, in which case a repair bill for no
good reason. Leave the drive in it unless you know it's OK or it isn't the
boot drive.
 
Mel said:
My hard drive may be reformatted when I send my HP m7250n to HP for
some warranty work.

I have saved "My Documents" and "Favorites" and the Outlook Express
files and the .jpg/.mpg files that I care about.

Are there any other groups of files that would typically be worth
saving? I don't have enough room on my other computer to save all the
stuff. There is only about 5 GB of space left for any more backing up.

Thanks for any tips,..

Mel
Click to expand...

Back up folder
AddressBook
Desktop
Favorites
Inventory
Money/financial
OEAccounts
OEFolders
 
Lem said:
Finally, consider whether YOU want to delete anything on your hard drive
before you let hp have it. Is there anything there that you would
rather not have someone else see? If you do delete files, remember to
empty the recycle bin. This alone won't conceal deleted data from hp
techs who really want to get at it, but I'm not so paranoid to think
that hp will really go rummaging around in the drive.
Click to expand...

I put the SATA drive from the HP into an enclosure, and copied a bunch
of stuff from it to the hard drive in my back-up computer. When I look
at Windows Explorer on the back-up computer, the SATA drive shows up as
G: with the whole file structure there, except for the recycle bin. The
only recycle bin showing is on the C: on the back-up computer's C:
drive. How do I get to the recycle bin that existed on the SATA drive
when it was in the new HP computer?

When the SATA drive was hooked up to the back-up computer as G: drive,
I did delete some files from it.

Another curious thing,.. When I try to go to my own documents on the
G: drive, I can get into any file on it EXCEPT my own documents!! I
have to go to the Safe Mode to get into my own folder. How is it that
I can get into anyone else's documents on that drive, but not mine?
(unless I boot up in Safe Mode)
 
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