what is the best way to save my files?

[maginoodle]

Hi all,

I am now on my dell that is having problems. When i go to turn it on it doesnt turn on straight away like it should. I am not worried about saving it. I have another puter that i want to start using.

What is the best way to save all my files?
I was planning on re-using the h/d from this poxy dell in the new puter.
Can i just put it in ther and run the xp pro cd and do a repair install or does that lose the files or format.
I do have a media player that i could send all the files to but i think that would take ages to do. I remember once i used the files transfer wizard i think its called, will that save everything on this comp onto the media player(it has plenty of h/d space).
I dont want to lose anything if possible as i have done mine and some of my families taxes and my cert 3 and cert 4 modules on this comp.


Any help and ideas appreciated.

Cheers Shane

[Pub247]

does your other pc have a hard drive??
if so it will be as simple as setting up your new one and add your old hdd as a slave then start it up and copy the files over .
Preferably after youve done that format old hdd (once you have EVERYTHING you want) and then leave it there.
If you dont have another best to copy all your files to removable media ie media player or blank disks
Then format hdd and install in your new one and install windows

If bpoth your pcs run same processors ie intel pentiums or amds you may get away with the hdd working in the pc but it might not i know when mine died my new one wouldnt work as it was going from petium to amd and i had to transfer all my files then reformat and install windows again

[holdensupporter2005]

If both your pcs run same processors ie intel pentiums or amds you may get away with the hdd working in the pc but it might not i know when mine died my new one wouldnt work as it was going from petium to amd and i had to transfer all my files then reformat and install windows again

I have a way of transferring windows xp from an Intel to AMD processor without formatting. It has worked everytime for me. I have succesfully transferred more than a dozen from Intel to AMD or vice versa. Best of all, customer doesn't lose their data and programs.

PM me if you want the details.

[ruggj]

i'd say the safest way would backup all your most important files to a flash stick. Find another hard drive that is the same or of a bigger size than your current one. Get a copy of symantec ghost and ghost your data accross (if you decide to do this way i can explain how to use the program).

Or i usually do an xcopy (you do this from the command prompt), get another drive the same or bigger size than your current drive.

Go to your user files on your main drive and delete all the tempory files (this is because xcopy has a problem with long file names and these locations tend to have lots of long file names in a long directory structure).

Then go into the command prompt and type xcopy C:\*.* D:\backup\*.* /c/h/e/r/k/y

that will copy everything in the C drive, to a new folder called backup on the D drive. (If the new hard drive has a different drive letter, simply change D to that drive letter).

That is the ways i usually use, i generally use ghost if i want a backup that will work with that same pc if the original hard drive dies or i'm installing another operating system side by side the original and want to be safe. and i've used xcopy whenever ive upgraded my pc and want to copy all the data off my old hard drive to my new one.

If you are not confident with doing any of the above on your PC, i suggest you talk to someone you know who knows a bit about computers. Do not do any of the above if you are not sure about any of the steps.

[pow3rslave]

Hi all,

I am now on my dell that is having problems. When i go to turn it on it doesnt turn on straight away like it should. I am not worried about saving it. I have another puter that i want to start using.

What is the best way to save all my files?
I was planning on re-using the h/d from this poxy dell in the new puter.
Can i just put it in ther and run the xp pro cd and do a repair install or does that lose the files or format.
I do have a media player that i could send all the files to but i think that would take ages to do. I remember once i used the files transfer wizard i think its called, will that save everything on this comp onto the media player(it has plenty of h/d space).
I dont want to lose anything if possible as i have done mine and some of my families taxes and my cert 3 and cert 4 modules on this comp.


Any help and ideas appreciated.

Cheers Shane

if you want to put the hdd in another computer (i'm assuming it's a desktop) you can't install windows on the dell lappy and then pull out the hdd and put it in a new computer. the windows install will only have installed what it needs to work on the dell and it won't recognize the hardware on new machine it's in (espesh if you use the windows that came with dell, from what i hear they have crazy propietary hardware). the best option is to get a new hard disk for the other computer, pull out the one from the dell laptop and put it in an external enclosure. (get a good brand, not an ebay cheapy) then you can pull the data you need off it, format it to get rid of dells repair partition and have an external.

desktops use 3.5" hdd's and laptops take 2.5 and sometimes 1.8 depending on what it is, so putting it in a desktop would need mounts and maybe adaptors depending on its connections.

[maginoodle]

Bit of an update, the dell came good so i kept using it. It died again earlier tonight. So i got the other comp back out.
So far i have installed windows,trend micro and firefox.
I have slaved my old master into this new comp.
I know that all my files are on the slave(D drive).

Can i import my bookmarks etc that i need?
Can i run my old programs from that drive or do i need to re-install?

Cheers Shane

[ari666]

I have a way of transferring windows xp from an Intel to AMD processor without formatting. It has worked everytime for me. I have succesfully transferred more than a dozen from Intel to AMD or vice versa. Best of all, customer doesn't lose their data and programs.

PM me if you want the details.

lol, you mean right click on my computer, go

properties/
hardware/
device manager/

right click on ide/ata managers and uninstall everything in there dont click restart, click shut down then when its powered off take your hdd out and install it into anything you want. (the ony drivers windows will need so it doesnt blue screen is the hdd drivers, whether they be sata, ide or whatever, all the rest of the drivers will just pop up as 'unknown device' and you reinstall them through windows update or te disc they came with)

easy

bookmarks should be in a folder somewhere like c:/documents and settings/*username*/favorites. take that file and copy it into your windows directory, overwriting the old file and they should all come up.

some programs will require an install onto the drive you are now using so they can add to the root directory, but a lot of programs like games etc can just be copied into c:/program files. then all you do is create a shortcut onto desktop.

[edals]

Ok, Best way you want to save your Files. There are many options.
I Use mac, We have time machine, automatic backups every hour to a external or internal drive.
Your on windows, So you can get another hard drive, drag and drop files on to it and keep a extra copy.
Add another same size drive, make a RAID 0 (this makes 2 drives as one, it Mirrors the data)
You could get a external hard drive, portable, backup to it, take it with you, in the event your computer is stolen or your house burns down, you have a copy.

[ari666]

i hate to be one "of those" people, but mirror is raid 1 stripe is raid 0

[holdensupporter2005]

lol, you mean right click on my computer, go

properties/
hardware/
device manager/

right click on ide/ata managers and uninstall everything in there dont click restart, click shut down then when its powered off take your hdd out and install it into anything you want. (the ony drivers windows will need so it doesnt blue screen is the hdd drivers, whether they be sata, ide or whatever, all the rest of the drivers will just pop up as 'unknown device' and you reinstall them through windows update or te disc they came with)

easy

bookmarks should be in a folder somewhere like c:/documents and settings/*username*/favorites. take that file and copy it into your windows directory, overwriting the old file and they should all come up.

some programs will require an install onto the drive you are now using so they can add to the root directory, but a lot of programs like games etc can just be copied into c:/program files. then all you do is create a shortcut onto desktop.

Nah, thats one way of doing it.
My way involves a program called WinMBoardMig and a few other things. Never had any problems doing it this way and always works.

[edals]

i hate to be one "of those" people, but mirror is raid 1 stripe is raid 0

My bad, Always get the 2 mixed up as i always reefer to it as Mirror or striped, But Yes RAID 0 VERY BAD!! seen to many people loose everything due to it as i work in IT, It is how ever fantastic for video editors for speed that the drives all working as one.