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Thread: Reformatting Hard Drive

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    Senior Member ajbrun's Avatar
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    Question Reformatting Hard Drive

    I am going to be reformatting my parents hard drive soon. There is enough information on the internet to tell me exactly how to do it, but I'm just worried about what to backup/keep. We've aready backed up all the obvious stuff, such as 'my documents' and favourites etc, but is there anything else?

    As the computer was shop brought, then I had the idea that we might not have a disk for the mouse driver. This can be downloaded from the internet though (i think ). Is there anything else that you think should be kept, before the lot is deleted?

    Thanks

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    HEXUS.social member Agent's Avatar
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    The mouse drivers are built into all modern OS's.

    As its a shop built PC, ill assume its just a bog standard generic mouse.
    If its a MS / logitech one, you can get the all singing, all dancing drivers with a google search
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    Funking Prink! Raz316's Avatar
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    download drivers (or make sure you have them) before you reformat, a lesson I learned early on at work when dealing with formatting prebuilt systems

    Tis a pain trying to find the drivers for a graphics card when you dont actually know its exact model. I made a point of going into device manager and noting what drivers were used for all peripherals.

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    Resident abit mourner BUFF's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ajbrun
    I'm just worried about what to backup/keep. We've aready backed up all the obvious stuff, such as 'my documents' and favourites etc, but is there anything else?
    internet/email account setup & messages.

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    Senior Member oshta's Avatar
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    i just Download maxtor's Powermax

    - the app makes a bootabel floppy
    - boot off that
    - it does a scan for what drives you have
    - select the one you want to scrub
    - the you doa full or quick wipe
    - and its blank, ready for the OS

    - i did thit tonight actually

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    "Are you local?" Ravens Nest's Avatar
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    For me what i would back up was anything in the My Document folder, Bookmarks, Saved games, Any saved documents, i'd check all the programs that are installed in the Program files folder and see if you have a copy of them so you can re-install them once you have formated.

    But to be honest i never re-format i just delete the Windows folder, Documents and settings, any programs im not bothered about re-installing that are in the program files folder, any old files lying about as well.

    Then i backup the parts of the registry to do with games and applications i want to keep.

    Then i do a new install of windows into that drive, and run the registry files i imported back into it and most games and programs will just work, some dont but then i just reinstall them.
    "Mmm... I want you for my wife!"
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    zim
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    If you use outlook express or something you can do a seach on the drive for any *.dbx and/or *.wab files. These are your inbox, sent messages, etc. and your address book respectively. I do this all the time at work when having to backup someone's profile.

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    Senior Member oshta's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zim
    If you use outlook express or something you can do a seach on the drive for any *.dbx and/or *.wab files. These are your inbox, sent messages, etc. and your address book respectively. I do this all the time at work when having to backup someone's profile.
    also, when i just did this, i couldnt copy the "folders" file (Warning, file is in use....)- and i had to paste it there while i was in safe mode!!

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