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Backing up hdd for mobo upgrade

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  • Backing up hdd for mobo upgrade

    I read in the motherboard forum that the best way to upgrade your mobo/cpu and still keep your hard drive is to back up your hard drive, format it, reinstall windows, and get your stuff back. This seems like a dumb question, but how exactly do you back up your hard drive in order to upgrade your motherboard and cpu? I've never done a backup before either.

  • #2
    Firstly, how big is the hard drive you wish to back up? or, more importantly, how much data is on the drive?

    Secondly, you don't necessarily have to back up the whole hard drive. What most people do is simply copy all the files they know they want to keep to some other format (CD, disks, another HDD, etc) and then when the HDD is up and running again on the new motherboard, they reinstall the operating system and simply copy all the files they need back to the HDD.

    Also, depending on how different your new motherboard is to your old one, you might not have to do anything. But it's usually better to freshly install everything with a new MB anyway.

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    • #3
      Well I have a 40GB hard drive that's about half full, but I wouldn't want to back up everything. My computer is from Hewlett Packard so the only thing I know about the motherboard is that it's from ASUS. I plan on upgrading from my P3 733 to an Athlon XP 1800 with an Epox motherboard. I gotta switch cases too cause the one that came with the HP has no space inside to maneuver.

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      • #4
        Well, the best thing to do would be to just go through and make a copy of everything you want to keep (that can't be installed again). Everything like documents, Internet favorites, saved games, anything you've downloaded, etc... that you want to keep. If you've got either a CD burner or a spare HDD, that's the best way to make a copy of it all.

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        • #5
          I have a burner I can use so that's pretty easy, but does Windows XP have a program that can back up specific things easily and correctly or do I have to find the correct files myself?

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          • #6
            You'll probably have to go through and find everything yourself.

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            • #7
              Every time I back up vital files, I just copy them to another drive, or at least another partition on the same drive. That allows me to format the C drive and get a fresh install of Windows.

              Like Beefy was saying, get all your important stuff and burn it or save it off in a safe place. And don't forget to copy the email files and the address book. I forgot to save the address book one time and it was a royal pain!
              Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
              My Toys

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              • #8
                XP's backup proggy is for settings within windows that you'll want to recreate on the new install, thats called files and settings wizard. The program called "backup" is for compressing large programs you dont have the install media for, or a large amount of files you want to move to the new install. Its not really backup, its windows XP compression. Both are rather useless if you know what your doing in a fresh reinstall. Files and setting transfer wizard could come in handy if you want to recreate the exact same XP environment due to a f'up in the system, but i'd still recommend building it yourself as you get used to knowing what you do adn don't like on a pc, and where to change what.

                Do what Beef and Darth have said. Backup save games, music, documents, downloads, install exe's, address books, ie favs, and any easily disectable program settings from acommonly used program. (like a "save" folder for games, or a "user settings" dll for a program.

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