Gotta reinstall XP but have no external HD - suggestions?

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geekcognito

geekcognito

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Nov 19, 2006
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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?
 


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?
 
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.
 
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.
 
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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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.
 
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.
 
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threehundred said:
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)
Click to expand...


Kind of smacking my head because I never even thought about that. Doh! Thanks for the great idea.
 
blackthought286 said:
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.
Click to expand...


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...
 
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.
 
geek, you know you can buy external enclosures seperate from hard drives... just buy an enclosure and slide a hdd in it...
 
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.
 
krazyjosh5 said:
geek, you know you can buy external enclosures seperate from hard drives... just buy an enclosure and slide a hdd in it...
Click to expand...


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.
 
jchunk said:
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.
Click to expand...


No roommates. Just the dogs. And they're pretty stingy with their hard drive space. Bastards.
 
i know you have a DVD burner though, right? thats almost 5gb of space right there.
 
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