Possible to keep data when upgrading?

[Greenboi]

Hey all, i have purchased a Gigabyte DS3 and an EVGA Superclocked 8800GTS 320mb! And i cant wait to get them in my pc.

I have a problem though, when i upgrade my motherboard and gpu, i know i need to either reinstall xp, or clean drivers, not too sure how to clean the drivers efficiently, so i think ill go for the xp install, but there rises another problem.. i need to keep all of the data on my pc, and theres 8gb of important stuff that i have no way of backing up.

My question is this: Is it possible to basically overwrite my current cp pro install, with another xp pro install over the top? Without losing everything on my pc, also, will it work if i do that and then install new chipset / gpu drivers etc etc will i have any problems?

Thanks in advance - Greenboi

 

[lay-z-boy]

dvd's
external hard drive
create a small partition on your hard drive and drop the data there


you really should have backups of data you regard as not replaceable.

 

[Greenboi]

Ah dvd's of course! jesus im in slow mode tonight.

Time to run to pc world in the morning methinks, pick up some dvds

Thanks! This topic can be closed now!

 

[titaniumx3]

Probably would be better to buy another hard drive and just backup your data there.

To avoid having to do this in the future it's best to partition your hard disk so that the C: drive only contains the windows installation, whilst the other drives contain everything else. That way when it comes to reinstalling windows you just need to format the C: drive whilst everything else remains intact.

 

[Zefan]

This is sort of the wrong forum aswell, might want to ask to get it moved to Hard Disks or software (to find some decent backing up applications).

 

[easyrider]

Simple answer:

Hardrive with windows on.

Partition for data

That way you can fanny about with hardware to your hearts content.Reinstall windows and your data is safe.


TIP:

Anyone who has DATA on C: windows drive is a Noob.

DONT STORE DATA ON YOUR WINDOWS PARTITION

 

[Zefan]

Anyone who has DATA on C: windows drive is a Noob.

Absolutely, can't actually emphasise how much trouble this can save you when windows goes *boom* now and again as well.

 

[infernal]

if your machine is well set up then i dont think storing data on c: is a problem. but if you know your installations are tempremental id invest in a external hdd or just backup to dvd often

Russ.

 

[lay-z-boy]

Simple answer:

Hardrive with windows on.

Partition for data

That way you can fanny about with hardware to your hearts content.Reinstall windows and your data is safe.


TIP:

Anyone who has DATA on C: windows drive is a Noob.

DONT STORE DATA ON YOUR WINDOWS PARTITION

Not really....It's all down to what kind of data you have on your boot drive and your style of backups.

For me, all my data is on c drive, but then again, it then gets automatically backed up to a central server when switched on. Server has a raid 1 array and my critical data is also backed up onto a mobile hdd and dvd.

 

[a1ex2001]

Not really....It's all down to what kind of data you have on your boot drive and your style of backups.

For me, all my data is on c drive, but then again, it then gets automatically backed up to a central server when switched on. Server has a raid 1 array and my critical data is also backed up onto a mobile hdd and dvd.

I'm with you I have absolutely everything on my PC on the C: drive I find partitoning it all out to much like hardwork! The important stuff is backed up to my file server regularly.

When ever I do a new PC build or Upgrade I just but a new Harddisk do the clean build on that and copy everything over keeps my drive capacity upto date!

 

[Zefan]

Not really....It's all down to what kind of data you have on your boot drive and your style of backups.

Backing up takes time and processing power, why not just put it all in to different pots to begin with :\?

Honestly, paritioning takes about 5 seconds when you're installing windows, it's the first thing any sensible user should think about when it comes to their discs.

 

[lay-z-boy]

Backing up takes time and processing power, why not just put it all in to different pots to begin with :\?

Honestly, paritioning takes about 5 seconds when you're installing windows, it's the first thing any sensible user should think about when it comes to their discs.

Partitioning does jack if the drive dies, considering in my main rig i have 4 drives in raid 0, its not going to do any good for me.
Backing up for me takes about 40 seconds depending on how much data has been changed on my machine so that argument is mute.

My main point is, you could take my computer and vaporise it and i would have all my data intact.
You could do the same to my server and i would just loose a few non essential things.
Leaving your data on another partition would require partitioning tools and would still leave you with data loss if your hard drive died or something happened to your pc.

 

[Vogon]

Back up data as mentioned as a safeguard.
Then you can attempt a reapir install for XP, saves re-installing the other stuff if it works, if not you have lost nothing as you already backed up
I have done this for the last 3 mobos without problems, and windows is as stable and reliable as ever.

Uninstall all chipset and graphics drivers and any CPU drivers as well as any motherboard specific utilities from Windows add/remove.
shut down PC and remove old hardware, re-install new.

Boot up XP as if doing a clean install, at the "welcome to setup" screen it says:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

Press ENTER at this point.

after the license agreement it will shortly show your old windows install, at this point highlight the old windows install and when press R.

Then hopefully it will all go smooth