Noob OS install Q:

[Trifid]

I've always had partitions on my hard drive but now I am starting to get annoyed by having to move data around all the time so I wish to have a single partition with the OS on (Vista or XP (not and)) but one thing I have wondered is, can you reinstall these OS's without losing all the data present?

Thanks, Trif.

 

[KSoD]

Technically you can. But you will be causing more damage than good. Basically there will be 2 Windows installs on the same drive then and that is nothing but trouble.

 

[Trifid]

The .old for the old files? It would end up with more than one. I usually reinstall every 3 or 4 months.

You can partition RAID arrays though?

 

[KSoD]

Well you would only get the windows.old if you upgraded from XP to Vista or isntalled Vista to the same drive as XP without formatting first.

Yes you can partition RAID Arrays. They are still technically hard drives. Just a bunch of them grouped together. but they are still hard drives.

 

[forrestcupp]

You're going to have to do it like the rest of us. Back up your data onto an external hard drive, DVD, or CD, then install the OS, then put all of your data back on to your primary hard drive.

Sorry, but you can't have it both ways. Either you have partitions, or you have to transfer files through some backup source.

 

[EricB]

you can do it, but it requires an I386 folder on your C or 2 cd rom and a bart pe cd. after you boot with bart. you would rename your C:\Documents and Settings to old, then delete every other folder in there except your drivers and the i386 folder. then you would start the winnt32.exe file in the i386 folder or setup.exe on the xp cd.

when you are done, copy the files back to the C:\Documents and Settings folder

 

[Yek]

Backup, reinstall and copy.

 

[w00dw00d]

Backup, reinstall and copy.

Yes. Backup. Repartition, reinstall, copy back. Only way. You don't want to move around data on different partitions and merge them together. Pain in the ars

 

[EricB]

Yes. Backup. Repartition, reinstall, copy back. Only way. You don't want to move around data on different partitions and merge them together. Pain in the ars

it isn't the only way. it's a simple way