Question about reformating

scorp132 · #1 03-23-2006, 10:21 PM

tomorow im planing to reformat my comp, and ive got a question. when i used to have windows 98 i remember my friends used to make a folder where i put in everything that i did not want to get delted.
so my question is how can i make that same folder so that i could put in the stuff i dont want to get deleted? basicly when i reformat my comp tomorow i want only this folder to stay.

snowmonkey · #2 03-23-2006, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scorp132

tomorow im planing to reformat my comp, and ive got a question. when i used to have windows 98 i remember my friends used to make a folder where i put in everything that i did not want to get delted.
so my question is how can i make that same folder so that i could put in the stuff i dont want to get deleted? basicly when i reformat my comp tomorow i want only this folder to stay.

Are you sure that you remember it correctly ? If you format a drive then all the data will be deleted !! so make sure you save them on a separate drive of CD , DVD first.

Cheers

Blazeix · #3 03-23-2006, 11:04 PM

Thats not possible. When you format your hard drive everything is gone. Are you sure the folder wasn't on a floppy, second hard drive, or a network?

scorp132 · #4 03-23-2006, 11:13 PM

i remember correctly in windows 98 he did reformat my comp, but he left this one folder where i put my stuff that i wanted to stay.
now im not shure if this is possible in XP so thats why im asking.

snooker · #5 03-23-2006, 11:26 PM

Hi ... Could it be possible your friend partition your hard drive into 2 drives where one was the c drive and the other drive for storing ? Then all he would do is format the c drive , reinstall windows , while leaving the other drive intact

scorp132 · #6 03-23-2006, 11:39 PM

hmmm i believe your right. i think he reformated drice C first, and then he moved that folder to drive C from drive D. and then he reformated drive D. hmm i guss that could be done in XP right?

scorp132 · #7 03-23-2006, 11:45 PM

i was thinking maby i can just back up files i want to leave. how would i backup my files though? i belive your suppose to put them in the "My Documents" folder?

sp_100 · #8 03-23-2006, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scorp132

i was thinking maby i can just back up files i want to leave. how would i backup my files though? i belive your suppose to put them in the "My Documents" folder?

No, you didn't

Please tell us you didn't say that.

scorp132 · #9 03-24-2006, 12:17 AM

ye i guss that did sound retarded. but acording to what i have read it said: "Make certain that you back up all files that you wish to keep (papers, pictures, etc.) because they will be lost when you reformat. These are typically stored in the My Documents folder, although may reside in other locations depending on where you save files."

sp_100 · #10 03-24-2006, 12:48 AM

Just as SNOWMONKEY said:

If you format a drive then all the data (including anything and everything you see on your computer right now) will be deleted !! so make sure you save them on a separate drive or CD/ DVD/etc. first.

Even if you have two physical drives, backup to one of them, and then remove it from the box prior to doing anything else.

All The Best!

links

snooker · #11 03-24-2006, 01:09 AM

When you double click your " My Computer " What do you see in there ? How many drives ? Tell us whats in there ?

scorp132 · #12 03-24-2006, 01:34 AM

Floppy (A), Local Disk (C), Local Disk (D), CD-RW Drive (E), DVD Drive (F), and all those document folders.

snooker · #13 03-24-2006, 01:55 AM

Ok good , What you now want to do is save everything that you want into your local disk drive D , Make sure once you have that its all in there , Then afterward place your XP cd disk in your cd rom drive , reboot your computer and go into the bios screen to make sure your boot order is set to boot off the cd rom drive , Once that is correct , just save that option and let your computer start the process of loading , You should see a screen saying something about hit any key to install windows , Do so , Now when you start the process ? Make sure you only to format the local disk C drive , don’t do anything with the D drive , If you do this right ? you should see a new install of windows with all your data stored on your D drive

Have a look at the website below for more info on how its done

http://michaelstevenstech.com/

scorp132 · #14 03-24-2006, 02:00 AM

alright but wouldent i need to reformat drive D then? i was thinking that i after i reformat Drive C, then i can go in windows and move the folder do drive D since im not leaving everything in drive D. and basicly then reformat drive D. what do you think?

snooker · #15 03-24-2006, 07:41 AM

First make sure that your backup data is stored on D drive , Then do the reformat on C drive and reinstall windows , Once windows is install and you are back up and running your computer ? You then can transfer your data from the D drive onto the C drive , Once that is done you can reformat the D drive from within the Computer Management / Disk Management area , If you right click the " My Computer " select " Manager" , Expand the Storage area , you then will see the Disk management area , You will notice your drives and in your case you would right click on the D drive and select format , But reformating the D drive isn't necessary if you just want to reformat windows ? You can if you feel like it ... If I was you ? I would burn onto dvd disc your back up data , Just to be on the safe side ...