geekcognito

My XP install is getting to be around 8 months old and as anyone that uses Windows can tell you, that's really pushing it's functional life span.

I don't have an external HD here (left it back at the parents' house) but I want to get this done during my down time late this afternoon.

Does any one have any good experience with an online external HD? I figure that I'll need about 80 gigs of space for the weekend. Any suggestions?

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"Never confuse movement with action." ~Ernest Hemingway

"While you have lost some money, you have also gained some knowledge. So in the end you may have not lossed at all. Good luck bro." ~ Sumitdhawan09

sleepylee

Is it a laptop or desktop? Do you have any spare internal hard drives lying around? Do have a few hours (or days...?) to transfer the data to a online file storage thingy? Care to take the risk of partitioning your drive with the windows install on it?

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geekcognito

It's a laptop and I have no internal HDs laying around. I wouldn't mind it taking a while to upload to the online HD. I'm looking into partitioning the HD but that does seem risky. I really need my data to be safe.

I may just bite the bullet and buy another external HD.

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"Never confuse movement with action." ~Ernest Hemingway

"While you have lost some money, you have also gained some knowledge. So in the end you may have not lossed at all. Good luck bro." ~ Sumitdhawan09

CLKeenan

Just buy one and then return it.

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geekcognito

LOL! I was just looking at Staples.com at their HDs to do that with.

__________________

"Never confuse movement with action." ~Ernest Hemingway

"While you have lost some money, you have also gained some knowledge. So in the end you may have not lossed at all. Good luck bro." ~ Sumitdhawan09

projectv3

just use partition magic to split your space its never failed me before

these days i always have a drive for my O/S and another for files etc.

threehundred

if you're going to spend money, I'd upgrade your own hard drive (the cost of an external is sometimes pricey), then put your current hard drive in an external case ($20). Now you solve your problem and come out with a newer better hard drive for your new install, plus you now have an external hard drive (your current one)

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blackthought286

I use to do reinstalls every 6 months but there are a lot of tools out there where you can keep it running a lot longer than that without a reinstall. Have you tried a defrag, then a registry cleaner before you do this.

a reinstall is fine but if you are really short on space then just a simple windows tune up can have it running fresh several more months until you can install it.

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krazyjosh5

I always make a DVD full of programs I know Ill need (WinZip, Photoshop, AIM, PeerGuardian, Limewire Pro, etc) and their associated 'addons/patches' and then backup my documents to another DVD and scrub it and reload it. That way, when your back up, its as easy as reinstalling everything and copying your documents back on.

For the past 3-4 times Ive reformatted Ive always told myself that I want to make a mirror of the drive at this point but Ive been too lazy. Just an idea. A mirror and your 'essential programs' DVD could possible clean things up in a jiff.

geekcognito

Kind of smacking my head because I never even thought about that. Doh! Thanks for the great idea.

__________________

"Never confuse movement with action." ~Ernest Hemingway

"While you have lost some money, you have also gained some knowledge. So in the end you may have not lossed at all. Good luck bro." ~ Sumitdhawan09

geekcognito

I'm pseudo-good about defragging and cleaning my registry. But I could be better. I usually defrag around once a month, which should be enough, but...

__________________

"Never confuse movement with action." ~Ernest Hemingway

"While you have lost some money, you have also gained some knowledge. So in the end you may have not lossed at all. Good luck bro." ~ Sumitdhawan09

smash

Hard drive is the way to go. Uploading 80Gigs will take you a while.............. But as some of the other members here suggested I always run just my OS and program files on one partition now. Keep everything on another drive or my documents so it's easy to move.

If your updating your laptop drive then get one of the newer 5400RPM drives. It makes a HUGE difference in the performance.

krazyjosh5

They make 7200RPM ones as well

geekcognito

Yeah, I'm looking at some 7,200 rpm 100 gig HDs at Newegg.com now. I can hold out until one of those bad boys and an external case for the old one come in.

__________________

"Never confuse movement with action." ~Ernest Hemingway

"While you have lost some money, you have also gained some knowledge. So in the end you may have not lossed at all. Good luck bro." ~ Sumitdhawan09

smash

Wow, hadn't seen those yet. Last time I looked was a year or two ago. I'm gonna have to check that out.

krazyjosh5

geek, you know you can buy external enclosures seperate from hard drives... just buy an enclosure and slide a hdd in it...

jchunk

Don't you have a roommate where you can temp. drop your data? Just make an image and copy it to his computer. After the reinstall you can put the image back on your computer with the same directory structure.

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geekcognito

Yeah, that's what I plan on doing. Like threehundred suggested I'm just going to replace the old HD with the new one, install XP, stick the old HD in the enclosure and transfer everything to the new one.

__________________

"Never confuse movement with action." ~Ernest Hemingway

"While you have lost some money, you have also gained some knowledge. So in the end you may have not lossed at all. Good luck bro." ~ Sumitdhawan09

geekcognito

No roommates. Just the dogs. And they're pretty stingy with their hard drive space. Bastards.

__________________

"Never confuse movement with action." ~Ernest Hemingway

"While you have lost some money, you have also gained some knowledge. So in the end you may have not lossed at all. Good luck bro." ~ Sumitdhawan09

krazyjosh5

i know you have a DVD burner though, right? thats almost 5gb of space right there.

geekcognito

Yeah, but I need a bigger HD anyway. It's no big deal. They're only about $100.

__________________

"Never confuse movement with action." ~Ernest Hemingway

"While you have lost some money, you have also gained some knowledge. So in the end you may have not lossed at all. Good luck bro." ~ Sumitdhawan09

Xrproto

Just get a big magnet and set it on your HD and store everything on that.

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