For many years, I have made "snapshots" of my windows installation by making a Norton Ghost image of my c: drive. When windows starts acting up, like it invariably does, I restore windows from one of the earlier snapshots.
This destroys everything that I have on the c: drive, but that's fine -- I dont keep hardly any of my personal files there.
But now, I have a new computer with just one big hard drive. I can't just wipe out the c: drive, because I have to keep too much information on it.
Does anybody know how I can do a complete refresh of Windows without wiping the c: drive?
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
Pop in the installation CD. Restart your computer. Hold down F8 or DEL or whatever key you need to use to ediit your BIOS. Set your CD-ROM drive as a boot device. Boot from the CD. You will be given the option to reinstall Windows.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
I've done that, and it doesn't always wipe out the windows problems I've been having.
Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
Start with a bootable floppy-disk or put your harddisk in someone else's computer and just erase the Windows directory. Installing Windows onto an old installation won't usually solve your problems.
Edit: Wait, do you already have ghost of the system or not?
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
I haven't installed Ghost on the new system, but I easily can.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Can you partition the drive?
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Not without starting from scratch, which I don't really want to do. Perhaps I should, though.
Is there any way to make a new partition on a drive without wiping out the data that is on it?
Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
This may not help in your current situation, but it might help in the future.
A while back I got partition happy and tried multiple partitions. I think at one time I had 7 partitions. I got overzealous and wanted 98, xp, mandrake, ubuntu, and some back up partitions. Anyway..I am off track. Sorry.
The point is that after I got the partition bug out of my system, I settled into a set-up I LOVE!!
I created a 20G partition and and 80G partition. On the C:, I only installed Windows and programs. I save all my data on the 60G D:. I have since bought a 300G drive, so now my computer shows 3 partitions.
I use ghost as well. I only ghost the C:. It is a small image, and I keep a back up on a DVD and a back up on my D:. The time I had to reinstall my windows, I could just boot off my DVD disk, and have it reinstall all my programs without loosing any data.
I do make periodic back ups of my files that only reside on C:--like bookmarks. I set up a coworkers computer like mine, and he LOVES it too. He has desktop email, so I redirected his email to save in a folder on his D:. He didn't loose anything the three times he has had to reghost his machine.
My coworker likes to install every program he sees and often gets malicious stuff on his computer.
That is my 2cents. Good luck!
Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :
Rather than reinstalling windows, why not just fix the problem you're having. I haven't reinstalled windows on my PC in a year and a half and it runs just as good as when I first installed it. If a problem arises, I just fix it.
What kind of problem are you having?
Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
You can use this guideto repartition your hard drive without reformatting your drive.
quote: Rather than reinstalling windows, why not just fix the problem you're having.
It sounds like he is looking for a solution. I just threw out the partitioning idea as a clean way to keep a ghost image of your drive without worrying about lost data.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
I'm not having any problems right now, but in a year I probably will.
Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
quote:Does anybody know how I can do a complete refresh of Windows without wiping the c: drive?
I would use the linux cd to create a partition, move all your data to your second partition, and do a complete reinstall on your first partition if you can not find a way to fix it.
What is the problem?
Posted by solo (Member # 3148) on :
quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: Is there any way to make a new partition on a drive without wiping out the data that is on it?
There is. I've never done it, but I have been toying around with making my machine dual boot with Linux and this has come up in some of my searching. I don't know the best way of doing it and everything I have read says do at your own risk. Try searching for "non-destructive partition" and the o/s you are running. I think that the file system may have some bearing on how easy this is (I think FAT is easier than NTFS).
Posted by solo (Member # 3148) on :
Or just take lem's advice as he seems to know more about this than I.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
quote:I would use the linux cd to create a partition, move all your data to your second partition, and do a complete reinstall on your first partition if you can not find a way to fix it.
What is the problem?
I forgot that it's possible to use programs such as Partition Magic or linux installation programs to shuffle around partitions.
I think I'll get work to pay for a copy of Partition Magic.
Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
I just thought of an issue that might arise. If you are going to shuffle your data between the two partitions, you better first make sure you have room on both partitions for your data.
If you have a 40 GBHD, and 30G is filled, if you make a 30G partition, then there won't be enough room to hold all of your data on your first partition (that is now 10G) and you will run into problems. After the partition, all of the data will still be in your C:, so the new C: better be big enough to hold it before you transfer it over.
Just a thought I had.
Posted by Earendil18 (Member # 3180) on :
Usually what I do when I don't want to lose everything before a wipe is to dump all my stuff over to another computer via LAN, do the wipe, then dump it back. I have the benefit of having about 3 other peeps I can dump to.
If that's not an option, you could also completely remove your C drive, put it into another dudes comp, dump to his drive, put it back into your comp and do the wipe. Bit more annoying though,
I'd highly recommend just setting up a network with one of your buddies and letting him act as backup.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:Not without starting from scratch, which I don't really want to do. Perhaps I should, though.
Is there any way to make a new partition on a drive without wiping out the data that is on it?
Yes. Buy PartitionMagic. It's not too expensive, it's easy to use, and it's invaluable for exactly this reason. We find ourselves repartitioning things often on our Windows machines at work, and PM makes that not only possible but easy. And I've done it at home, too, since -- as Christy will tell you -- I'm pretty anal AND fairly stingy about my partitions, and I don't always guess correctly when I'm trying to decide how much room my "music" partition will take up compared to, say, the partition I'd use for video.
Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
What about that "Settings and Files" conversion tool from one system to another? I never trid it, but after installing windows you can copy files and settings from one to the other, says MS.
I, personally, burn what I need and copy.
quote: Not without starting from scratch, which I don't really want to do. Perhaps I should, though.
I would. Been there, done that.
quote: Is there any way to make a new partition on a drive without wiping out the data that is on it?
I favour qtparted on the Linux "Rescue Files" disk. It's much faster and more versatile in UNIX partitions, and faster and equally unctional in Windows partitions. However, if you don't want to fool around with UNIX on-disc ones, use PartitionMagic.
So basically I second TomD only if you don't want to mess around with UNIX at all.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Crap. I bought Partition Magic, and it's not working. I'm trying to decrease the size of c:, and it says that it needs to reboot in order to do it, but when windows comes back up, the partitions haven't changed.
I wonder if it's because the drive is SCSI, or possibly because I'm using Windows XP 64.
Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
From what I hear, software is OS specific if it is different--ie 32 to 64. Kim Commando reccomended that people don't switch to Windows 64 until more software is set to work on it.
I would try my unix link if you can't get partition magic to work.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
I tried your linux link, but I couldn't get it to download.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
quote:I would use the linux cd to create a partition, move all your data to your second partition, and do a complete reinstall on your first partition if you can not find a way to fix it.
I tried this once.
It ended up a complete disaster in that I lost everything and had to start from scratch with a reformatting of the drive.
Okay, it was an older machine and it was already having problems, but the LINUX side-by-side thing was not good to me. It made a minor problem into a "hey, guess what, you have to reformat your drive and start from scratch" kind of problem.
I would never do this again on my own. Maybe someone who knows what they're doing could help me, but I'll never try it solo again.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Installing Windows onto an old installation won't usually solve your problems.