jay Posted May 6, 2009 Report Share Posted May 6, 2009 I am considering doing a reload on my PC ie taking it back to "out of box" status. I have an external drive (350 gb) but have never done a backup before. Can I save everything including games that are halfway through being completed? What problems am I likely to encounter and do the files, games, and documents reload easily?Also what if I changed the graphics card before reboot? Sorry for asking 3 questions in 1 post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 Please explain a little bit more what you want to achieve.It sounds like you want to reinstall Windows; right? What is the reason for reinstalling Windows?You also want to do a backup before this, for what? If you restore the backup over the reinstalled Windows, then you will have the same situation as you have now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dencandy Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 Regarding question 2: can you save everything, including part completed games?In theory yes, but you have to locate the relevant files and save them first. You can use the excellent built-in Files & Settings Transfer Wizard to do this, you don't need any third party software. You can save them to external media (CD, DVD, pen or hard drive, etc) OR you could save them to a separate partition on you hard drive & they should be accessible after you re-install Windows (if that is what you are going to do). However, if you also change your graphics card there may be some problems related to graphics intensive data such as games.Regarding 3: see above, plus if you change your graphics card and re-install Windows you may have to re-activate Windows with Microsoft as Windows may behave as if it's being installed on a new computer. Don't worry about that it's quite straightforward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jay Posted May 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 My PC came with a reload CD which takes it back to out of the box state, that is, with Widows preloaded. The reason for doing this is that things are a bit messed up (small things, too many to list) and I want to have a good clean up. Then I can choose which items I want to reinstal. I have used this CD before and it works well, giving me a like new system,(with Windows XP installed) of course I loose all programmes I had. This time I am trying to be more organised and do a backup first. I would then leave photographs,videos and music on the external drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dencandy Posted May 8, 2009 Report Share Posted May 8, 2009 So the back up is of all your data, pictures, etc. That seems very sensible. After you'vr re-installed Windows, you may want to consider using a product like Partition Magic to divide your hard disk into 2 partitions: one for Windows & programs, and the other for your personal data. You could then use your external hard disk for back ups.Partition Magic is a paid-for utility but I think there are other free partition applications available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jay Posted May 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2009 So the back up is of all your data, pictures, etc. That seems very sensible. After you'vr re-installed Windows, you may want to consider using a product like Partition Magic to divide your hard disk into 2 partitions: one for Windows & programs, and the other for your personal data. You could then use your external hard disk for back ups.Partition Magic is a paid-for utility but I think there are other free partition applications available.Thank youBelow is copied from my PC user guide. Does this mean that the hard drive is already partitioned? I have never done a back up before and I am not sure how to save things like uncompleted games.A small area of your hard disk drive has been reserved to hold a copy of the Windows Operating System and all the software that was pre-loaded on the PC. This area is invisible to the user and so it cannot be deleted or overwritten. The copy has also been compressed so that it takes up as little space as possible. When you use the Reload CD the software on the hard drive is removed and replaced with the copy so that the software on the PC is returned to its 'out of the box' state Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted May 8, 2009 Report Share Posted May 8, 2009 A small area of your hard disk drive has been reserved to hold a copy of the Windows Operating System and all the software that was pre-loaded on the PC. This area is invisible to the user and so it cannot be deleted or overwritten. The copy has also been compressed so that it takes up as little space as possible. When you use the Reload CD the software on the hard drive is removed and replaced with the copy so that the software on the PC is returned to its 'out of the box' stateThis means that your hard drive has 2 partitions - the main one + a "hidden O/S restore" partition - unless you have further manually partitioned your hard drive yourself.To check - look in "My computer" - does it just show you having a C:\ Hard Drive plus your other optical drives ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jay Posted May 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2009 A small area of your hard disk drive has been reserved to hold a copy of the Windows Operating System and all the software that was pre-loaded on the PC. This area is invisible to the user and so it cannot be deleted or overwritten. The copy has also been compressed so that it takes up as little space as possible. When you use the Reload CD the software on the hard drive is removed and replaced with the copy so that the software on the PC is returned to its 'out of the box' stateThis means that your hard drive has 2 partitions - the main one + a "hidden O/S restore" partition - unless you have further manually partitioned your hard drive yourself.To check - look in "My computer" - does it just show you having a C:\ Hard Drive plus your other optical drives ?Yes, it just shows hard drive C plus opticals and external drive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted May 9, 2009 Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 Of course you cannot see the "hidden O/S restore partition", as it is hidden. You need partitioning software to see it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dencandy Posted May 9, 2009 Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 Below is copied from my PC user guide. Does this mean that the hard drive is already partitioned? I have never done a back up before and I am not sure how to save things like uncompleted games.A small area of your hard disk drive has been reserved to hold a copy of the Windows Operating System and all the software that was pre-loaded on the PC. This area is invisible to the user and so it cannot be deleted or overwritten. The copy has also been compressed so that it takes up as little space as possible. When you use the Reload CD the software on the hard drive is removed and replaced with the copy so that the software on the PC is returned to its 'out of the box' stateRegarding data relating to saved games, etc, whether it will be still there after you use the Reload CD depends on where the game stores that data. Some games will put it on another partition (if there is one) some will store it in My Documents, and so on. Before you do the re-load you could try a computer search using the name of the game & look for files called "saved games", or just search on those 2 words, then back up the files. But it's all hit and miss, and it may not work.You could also try going to some forums or user groups related to the particular computer you are using and see if anyone else has raised this question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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