Backup question

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I agree completely... I usually do mine every 18-24 months. Doing so will make your computer seem like it's got new life!!

My first hard drive (SupraDrive on the Amiga 500) was a 40 MB hard drive... with two 20 MB partitions!

...and it STILL WORKS!

 

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Another tip, similar to the 20gb partition one, is to create 2 partitions when you're installing the OS. Make the OS partition small and give it only 1gb free (on top of the OS requirement and service packs). Make the other partition use the rest of the HDD and then when it comes to reinstalling the OS next time you only have the trouble of the OS partition, everything else is on the other partition.

With this method though, it's useful to have partition magic so in the event of driver updates, that require being installed on the OS partition, you can resize it i.e. increase by 1gb.

 

The PC is running fine, I was running comodo firewall which has just updated to newer version which is really buggy. It doesn't seem to work with some AV software and I have been getting (sometimes) a run.dll error on startup but there are no major issues.

what about with game saves will just dragging the save back into the games directory on the C: drive work after reinstalling the game.

 

sorry to be a pain guys but do I need to creat directories or an area on the spare drive to put the games saves etc into?

 

Well, as long as it's formatted you can put them anywhere, they won't(shouldn't) be modified by windows.

I have an external drive with random folders such as Downloads, Music and Pictures etc. but I also have a 2nd partition, which is like a 2nd drive, with the same things as my C drive i.e. Program files, My documents etc.

 

Each game is different. Copy what you believe to be relevant. I'm sure there's some game out there that won't work by copying the saved games... but I've had extremely good luck doing so. The trick is to find out where the saves are stored.

Dude - a drive's a drive... put them wherever you want to put them, anywhere on the drive. A hard drive is no different from a floppy drive or a flash drive.

 

When I grab the directory of the games saves and put in on my spare drive does this not have to go into a certain location or does it just sit on the drive?

And when I move it back will this not overwrite the new install of the games saved directory list.

 

I'll see what happens, am not doing it for a couple of weeks yet, have to wait for the xp pro disc to arrive.

rep left

 

No it's just being stored there.

When you move it back, you should have a fresh install of the game and therefore no save game files?

I would make a note of each game save file location e.g. C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\osp\Demos and jot it into a word doc and put it in with the folder with the files. This way you know exactly how to replace them.

 

good idea rep left

 

I suppose so, but when it comes to something like Oblivion were its taken a 150 hours to finish that would be a pain as intend to get one of the expansion packs and don't want to have to start from the beggining again.

 

I'll look in to all the options you guys have mentioned.

more rep for you

Cheers everyone

 

You might check on the Oblivion support forums (or on the Web) for others who have successfully (or unsuccessfully) copied saved games from one computer to another... they should tell you exactly what you need to copy.

 

another good idea, you guys are full of them today