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Hey Paizonians, I'm looking for advice.
I've got a PC that's a couple years old (Compaq Presario SR5410F running Vista). This week, a friend is giving me her old external hard drive. What I'd like to do is use the hard drive to back up all my important files, and then reformat my PC back to factory settings to get a fresh start, and then transfer stuff back from the hard drive an an as-needed basis.
Now, I'm not ignorant when it comes to tech, but this is the first time that I will be backing up to an external drive and the first time I will be resetting a box, and the prospect of me doing something stupid and accidentally losing all my files has me worried.
So, do you have any tips, tricks, or advice for someone attempting this for the first time?
Short answer*; back up just the files you need (documents, emails if not storing on server, contacts, bookmarks and browser settings, savegames?), reinstall the rest. ;)
I'd say most of what you need will probably be in documents/library and for some programs in the users\username\AppData folder.
If you're unsure backup all of it so you can pick and choose what to copy over to your clean install.
*someone else can post a longer answer. :)
I can't recommend a good program for this but what you want to look at a drive cloning program. One that will copy the whole drive as is from your current drive to the external. If worst comes to worst you could boot from it or clone back.
While I don't use Windows much, but I did do this with my Mac. Cloned my increasingly space full 350 GB main drive over to a new 2TB drive. I also keep a 1 TB backup external drive (running Apple's TimeMachine as my incremental backup program).
Data paraiod people these days tend to run an incremental backup, a weekly clone backup stored away from the computer, and now possibly various levels of data in "the cloud".
I use Acronis with incremental backups for photos and such, but one can just as easily do it manually...it just takes more time. There are also free programs out there.
Just how organized are you? If you're like me, you've gots lots of folders called "Desktop Crap"... Best thing to do is check your Desktop (if you put anything there) and then go Computer and check your Libraries (short cuts on the right.)
Personally, I blow up my box every 6 to 8 months and start fresh.
Hum, replace your hard drive with the external drive and install on this "new" drive? Use your old HDD as the new external drive? Instant backup!
Hum, replace your hard drive with the external drive and install on this "new" drive? Use your old HDD as the new external drive? Instant backup!
If the external drive is USB, that would be a very slow solution to the problem. Old school internal PATA offers better transfer rates and access times than external USB.