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53 Comments
- Mike89, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11How's it a reason not to pirate windows? There's no mention of piracy in TFA..
- shimp4eva, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9why don't u just partition the drives...one for data one for os...saves loads of time and is much easier than backing up and restoring.
- chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Partition
C: OS
D: Data (majority of space of the drive)
Create a folder on the D drive titled Documents and Settings
Right-click drag these three folders to D:/
c:/documents and settings/username/application data
c:/documents and settings/username/my documents
c:/documents and settings/username/desktop
When the action comes up, select MOVE. If you receive an error - simply try again.
Now the folder structure remains the same, just the drive letters for those folders are now D:
Set any p2p software to save to D. Sort your data however you'd like. Also I personally keep a Programs folder on my D drive for things like uTorrent, windirstat and other programs that are non-install and will run fine if I need to do a re-install.
This doesn't negate the need for regular data backups. Even if you can't back up all your media, simply burning your bookmarks, text files, pictures and other such things to a CD and writing the data on it can be a real lifesaver. Even if you only back up data every 6 months - it is better than having no backups at all. - TehOompa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I've made a 10gb partition for windows, leaving the rest of my hard drive for everything else. Then use TweakUI to move my documents and stuff. Once you install needed apps take a reg backup. Then you can reformat in peice, retaining all your files.
- thatsiebguy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6How many times do we need to post this tip?
- ronintetsuro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Was hoping someone finally came up with a way to do a fresh install without moving any files. Foiled again.
I'll stick with partitioning. - FunkyWitDaSysTm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3not lies, actually. you can do a reinstall. it's more like an upgrade in how it works, and the end-result is almost always useless, but technically, the mechanism exists.
- Nick_Circosta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3you know you can just insall windows to a new folder on the same hard drive and then boot that install rather then the other, not only do u keep documetns, you keep EVERYTHING that was allready there...
That was posted on digg ages ago and is STILL one of the most dugg stories of last year - foxsynergy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3A quicker way to not lose your data when reinstalling XP is to *not format your bloody hard drive*. Then just whack your old installation of Windows when you're done.
- szembek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is dumb.... just reinstall without formatting. You've always been able to do this with windows. Usually your better off doing a backup/format, but if you want a quicker cleanup you can reinstall windows without doing a "clean install".
- mxcl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It is actually possible using the sysinternals tool junction, to create a unix-style-symlink from c:Documents and Settings to d:doc (or whatever target you like). This way you don't have to change any paths, or reconfigure any apps.
My mate does this on his home computer, I don't use Windows at home personally so I've never tried it. - eightbitz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Here's one that I haven't seen people posting on here. This is what I do at work on the laptops I support and on my home PCs. Works like a champ.
First, I setup three partitions. C: as NTFS, D: as NTFS, and a third partition as ext3.
Install Windows XP by hand. During the install when asked to create a username, create a temporary username that will be removed later.
As soon as Windows is done installing, before DOING ANYTHING, I disable System Restore. After that, I create D:Documents and Settings. I copy C:Documents and SettingsAll Users and C:Documents and SettingsDefault User to the D:Documents and Settings folder. Then, I use the "Run" option in the Start Menu to open regedit. Modify this key and value:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionProfileListProfilesDirectory
Set it to D:Documents and Settings.
Reboot your computer.
Login as admin or your temp account which is admin by default. Create a new user in the Computer Management control panel and the new user's profile will automatically be created in D:Documents and Settingsusername
Reboot the computer
Login as the new user you created (or Administrator if you did not add your new user account to the Admins group)
Remove the temporary account and then remove it's associated C:Documents and Settingsusername folder.
The Caveats:
The Local Service and Network Service accounts will not migrate automatically. They're just fine in C:Documents and Settings
The Administrator account is the ONLY account that will migrate to this new location. Any other account that exists BEFORE you perform this change will not migrate. Thus the reason for the temporary account.
This works on Windows XP Professional. I do not know how to get this working on Windows XP Home. I have very limited experience with Home and it doesn't use the same user account management utilities.
Now, install your Windows updates, applications, etc...
Once you have this done, use the latest Knoppix CD to create an image of your C: drive as a file on the ext3 partition you created before installing Windows. Just load knoppix and use partimage to create your image on the ext3 partition. It will spit out a warning that NTFS support is experimental but is works just fine.
Nice thing about using ext3 for this is that unless you load the ext3 utils for WInXP, the ext3 partition will not be visible in my computer so it helps to reduce the chance of accidentally removing the image of your OS.
Now, when you want to reinstall Windows, just load knoppix and use partimage to restore from image to partition. Works like a champ. Now, before using your "virgin" system, you should update it again with the latest security updates for your OS and all applications, including updating to the latest version of your applications (unless you specifically don't want to) and then use knoppix/partimage to create a new image of your C: drive overwriting your old image. Using this method keeps you up to date and lets you reinstall windows to an "unused" state in a matter of minutes with all of your data intact.
More Caveats:
This will not protect data stored in the C: drive (for instance, Save Game data that is stored in Program Files.) You will still have to back that up. But, you can use Windows Folder Redirection to handle that if you wish. You'll have to do that for every folder you want backed up though.
When you restore your Windows image, you'll notice that there are dead Start Menu and maybe Desktop shortcuts for applications that were installed AFTER you made your image. This is because this info is stored in the profiles of All Users and username. You will have to either reinstall applications that were not installed at image creation time or manually remove the start menu and desktop shortcuts that no longer point to anything.
Hope that helps! - manfesto, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I'd think any of the following would be easier:
1. Keep a separate backup - an external/networked drive, DVDs, etc. You should do this regardless in case of drive failure/theft.
2. Do a repair install of Windows XP - it's built in and accomplishes the same task (reinstall Windows XP without touching your personal files). - Ogopogo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I occasionaly encounter client PC's where the Window Repair install option is not presented as a choice. A full re-install is required. I wish there was a way to avoid re-installing applications, but since everything (OS, App's, malware, etc..) seems to create registry entries, there doesn't seem to be any way to avoid re-installing applications.
- JeffreyAtW, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Chewie67:
You save your FILES. Actual documents and other media that aren't necessarily associated with any program. You have some of those, right? - Kilroy2004, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Quite often for me, the Windows repair option will actually kill the user profile registry and I have to create a new user profile. Mind explaining how that happens?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Having a seperate partition with all your date is alot easier than this way.
Either way, they both get the job done, just having a seperate partition for the date and one for the OS is alot easier. - eightbitz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Ooops! I meant to make it clear that you should absolutely do the profile move BEFORE doing anything other than disabling system restore (if you want to disable system restore.) The reason is that it causes problem moving profiles later. Some apps will break this if the profile is moved after they are installed, but I have never run into an app that will break this if the move was made BEFORE installing the app. Also, some apps just make it a pain to move the profiles because of actively open files, like McAfee which keeps an open filehandle to a log file in the All Users profile.
- Chewie67, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3"why don't u just partition the drives...one for data one for os...saves loads of time and is much easier than backing up and restoring."
I've never understood this theory.
When you reinstall Windows, you lose the registry. That kills almost all commercial software, which then has to be reinstalled.
So what have you saved by putting the software on a partition? - PaulMyo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"using the sysinternals..."
Disk management can do this with NTFS drives. Disk Management can be found by right clicking on "My Computer", selecting "Manage" then clicking "Desk Management"
Right click on the drive you wish to mount (d:) and select "Change Drive letter and Paths...", click add and browse to the folder you wish to replace with the drive (c:Documents and settings)
NOTE: first move your other data out of the way and create an empty folder, i do not know if this will delete anything else in the selected folder
NTFS only, if you have a fat32 drive and you don't use it for dual booting or need the cross platform support you can convert the filesystem with the command
convert c: /fs:NTFS - JeffreyAtW, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Are you serious?
Throwing an old HD into a new PC isn't going to work - you'll have hardware incompatibilities up the wazoo. It's not meant to be used that way, and you're a fool for thinking that a Windows installation is hardware-independent. - sinembarg0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I don't see wy one would go to all this trouble to reinstall windows without backing up files. It is possibly to reinstall without formatting using a windows xp cd.
- xtracto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, my Windows setup is usually
1 partition for Program Files (Windows and ProgramFiles directories)
1 partition for Documents (I create 1 folder of documents for each user)
1 partition for swap (with something like 1 GB of "static" swap file configured ).
Nowadays I do not use the swap partition as I have 2 GB of memory (I turned of swapping and my PC runs incredibly fast!).
But on the other side, my current system has 2 disks, and my partitions are something like:
Disk 1:
C: [thrash] (I used to have Windows installed on this)
D: [Documents] (My documents, e-library, etc)
I: [Windoze] (The partition where Windows is actually installed... it is in an Extended logical partition lol)
Disk :
E: [Media] (My OGG/MP3 music collection, with something like 40 GB of music )
F: [GAMES] (I used to install all the games over there, Sims 2, NFS2, also all emulators and Roms are there)
*: [Linux-boot] (FC4 Linuxboot)
*: [Linux-swap] (FC Linux swap)
*: [Linux-/] (FC linux root partition)
So you can say my hard disks are a mess, :) I have all my documents (the D: drive) backup-ed everything else can be deleted, I think I have some backup of the music, but with today's torrents avaiability it is not worth it (the backup). And I have all the music I *really* appreciate in original CDs.
Anyway, I agree with the person that stated that the best way to "reinstall" windows is using the Repair function in the install CD. - SrLnclt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Been doing this for years. Makes it easier when I create backup images to a removable hard drive - I can easilly backup my media and other files at different intervals from the OS/apps. And if I ever stick some blasted beta software on there that really screws up windows I either restore the latest image or format the partition and reinstall. Either way no loss of any files I care about - virtually every file on my windows partition is recreated when the OS or software is installed.
- 47knight, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There is a much much easier way to do this. All you need is Norton Ghost, download the 30 day trial. Create a partition, put all your files (music, documents, etc...) in that partition. Then boot up with the windows CD, when it asks you which partition you want to format, format the original, leaving the newly created partition untouched. When the install is done, copy all your documents to the freshly installed partition, and install Ghost again, delete the temporary partition, and that's it.
- sailor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't see a swap partition ?
Seems like a overly complicated install process... - xtremesniper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Umm.. Whenever I reinstall Windows I just put all my files into a folder called Backup in the C: directory, and the installer never touches it. *shrug*
- xtremesniper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1To follow up on that, it's because Windows wipes out the Documents and Settings folder where your documents normally would be, but doesn't have any reason to touch the folders sitting in your C: dir.
- Steel_Blue, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2LoL Hax
- pankajramnani, on 12/29/2007, -0/+0my windows has become corrupt and the files needed to run win properly have been mistakeably deleted by me....so i wantd 2 knw how to save the data on my data "D" drive ????????i think i would need formatting isn't it........
- szembek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yep, it did!
- ricktendo64, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Update Windows XP Sp2 with all the hotfixes and device drivers, DIGG these 2 stories:
http://digg.com/software/RyanVM_Integrator_(Windows_XP_post_Sp2_update)
http://digg.com/software/DriverPack_BASE_(Slipstream_Drivers_Into_2000,_XP_and_2003_CD_DVD) - kernower, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I think this a bad practice people should be encouraged to create a second partition or have a second drive and inter backup between the two.
- theotherbastard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I really don't see how this could be all that useful. Just do the work and backup all your data. Besides, its not that data part that's annoying about reinstlaling windows, its the progmrams part for me.
Still waiting for something cool like that which allows system repair on that level without having a complete reinstall. - dlanyerxt, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0i want to reinstall my OS, can i format my system C: without formatting other partitions?
- pankajramnani, on 12/29/2007, -0/+0hi.....my windows is partitioned into C and D and i wanted to know dat if i would format my XP ,the data in both the drives wuld get deleted or not??
please reply!!!!!!! - OakieWan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Four great touches about this method:
1) The linux partition to keep the image on their own drive and yet they can't see the image or accidentally wipe it out.
2) Costs / Licensing / software theft issues ? It's Knoppix and it's free !
3) Quick recovery, no file/ftp/rescue server needed
4) Data AND profile preservation. Nice. - snipes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I kinda a wish I had this a few weeks ago...
But now that I think about it... FTPing to my Xbox wasn't TOO slow. - herm1t, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Nice guide. I use Reatogo at work, which is based on BartPE. It is also good for virus/spyware removal and other computer repair needs. Google "reatogo" and check it out.
- snipes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Yea, it's sort of confusing. And many people aren't very experienced with partitions.
- ww3400, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1I remember back in the day of windows 98... I don't know if it was just some messed up thing, but it only worked sometimes. If I wanted to backup files, I could just put them in the recycle bin. After a reformat the files would still be in there.... Don't really understand how, but it worked a couple times...
- seweso, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2An other way to refresh your windows xp is to simply create a new user account.
- Kilroy2004, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1"It is possibly to reinstall without formatting using a windows xp cd."
LIES. Your user profile directory (i.e. My Documents, My Pictures, etc.) is backed up to a folder, but your Windows directory is overwritten. Anything in there is formatted.
The article is stupid though - its a better idea to keep all of these files on a second harddrive from the very beginning. Then you don't have to worry about reformatting your Windows partition. - lonnieh, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Derrrr!
- bitcloud, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1I just bought a new PC and thought I could put the old HD in the new PC and have it work.
It doesn't. Microsoft are in my opinion *dead*. I'm sick to death of their terrible software, frustrating restrictions, and the constant burden of *reinstalling everything* everytime I upgrade my system.
The only thing that keeps me on XP is some of the most important software I use is only on XP/OSX (don't suggest alternatives, we need to use the correct software for the job)
I'm going to write to every software manufacturer and pleed with them to make linux installations. I'm also going to pleed with anyone who'll listen to do the same.
Please? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Just noticed I put date instead of data. I apologize. And it's too late to edit it.
I'm sure everyone knew what I was trying to say though. :) - macsrbetter36, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0GET A MAC!!
- swollenosterich, on 10/12/2007, -6/+0nifty!
- nozol03, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3Jesus Christ, just make it end. Not to be a condescending *****, but who on Digg doesn't know this ***** yet? And linked to a blog as well..... blah!
/kill myself - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2"I defecated on my windows cds "
That's nice. Troll along, now. -
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