Help plz?

[xxkrnxstylezxx]

dunno if i'm not supposed to post in this section but no one replies in the otehr one....

i wanna reformat my hdd...i have xp home...is there a way to back up my files so that i dont have to install all the programs again?? and how do i back up my drivers and settings and stuff...am i supposed to do this

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/crawford_november12.mspx

what else will i need to back up? ive never done this and its probably gonna take a long time....is there a guide somewhere that teaches you step by step how to reformat?? i heard i could partion my hdd into separate parts so the next time can save my stuff on one part and reformat the other...how would i do this

sorry for so many questions...im kinda in a hurry and dunno how to do this...any help or tips would be appreciated

thx alot!

 

[Toshiro]

I'm sure this is covered somewhere in the forum.

First off yes, that transfer thing would probably work, provided you can store the back-up on a CD or something. You'd also have to back up all your data (documents, pictures, etc) seperately. I've never used it so I don't know really. You can find programs like My Drivers to back-up drivers (but you have to pay for the full, non-trial version of that one... don't know any others).

When I reformat and partition I use a start-up floppy disk with FDISK (google for it, you can find sites that offer little programs that make them for you...), as FDISK is what I use to create partitions. There's probably some better way to do it, but that's what I do (works for me *shrug*). I'm not sure about reformatting partitions but it should be possible.... I'm probably not the person to ask on that stuff...

Anyway simply put find a site that lets you make boot floppies (win98 boot floppy should work fine). FIND ONE WITH CD-ROM DRIVERS, IT HELPS A LOT!! Make sure you know some basic DOS commands. Have the floppy IN the drive when you boot up, type FORMAT C: to format the C: drive (assuming this is your hard drive's letter) and afterwards, you can use FDISK to create partitions.

Meh, you can probably find all this in much more detail with a quick search on Google. Just search 'reformat hard drive' or 'how to partition hard drive' or something.