Backup question

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Sometime in the next month I want to wipe my main C: drive and install XP pro (currently using home), so my plan is to backup important data and game saves to an external hard drive.

What is the best way to do this?

and do I need to purchase something like Norton Ghost to do it?

 

is the upgrade from oem home to oem pro stable?

 

Personally I would do a new install of the OS unless your current os was just installed.

 

I would prefer to do a new install, I just don't want to loose anything.

If I use the windows backup program and save stuff like games, my video and pictures and some word processing documents will it just transfer back to the C: drive with out any hassle once I have the new OS installed?

 

cool, not sure if I should do a full install or upgrade, I would personally like to do a full install but as I said I want to back up stuff so I don't have reinstall everything or start games from the beggining.

 

Or..

Do a parrallel install.. ie, install windows to another directory (eg XPPRO). It will be a clean install and yet all your data will still be on the HDD.

 

Never done one of those before. Am I right in thinking I will have two OSs running then an get an option which to launch on bootup?

 

GBL,

If you do an upgrade it should preserve your profile. That inlcudes things like favorites, cookies, shortcuts, etc. On top of that it will keep all your data safe that is if everything goes to plan. However, I would still back everything up onto an external or other hard drvie just incase. Always do backups no matter what, whether you're upgrading or not.

 

If you're doing an upgrade I don't think you'll see two operating systems, but I may be mistaken. I've never done that kind of setup before.


Edit: I didn't see sparky's reply when I wrote this reply. My bad.

 

would xp pro see the files and would I be able to launch them from within xp pro?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong..

Isn't there sometimes compatibility issues with dual booting on NTFS? I'm sure I remember reading that it's better to dual boot with FAT32.

I've only dual boot with xp and linux but if you're planning to do it that way, remember to have a boot loader(You get GRUB with linux, not sure if windows has one by default?).

 

cool cheers guys.

 

Yea, it would be like having another drive, xp pro would be installed in another location and would still be able to access your C drive. You can install progs onto drives outside of your OS drive i.e. you can have your OS on C: and install progs on a D: drive and run them fine.

 

No prob GBL

 

The only time you would need to use FAT32 was if you had dual boot with older OSes that cant deal with NTFS. for example say you wanted to dual boot with 98 and XP but you needed to read the data on XP from 98, you would need FAT32 as 98 cant read NTFS.