Backing up before a clean install


  1. flojito
    Posts : 6
    Windows Vista/Windows 7
       New #1

    Backing up before a clean install


    Hey guys, I just found out that I can get a free copy of Windows 7 Professional through my school's MSDNAA subscription, so I'm going to do a clean install over Vista this weekend.

    Do you guys have any tips for what I should make sure to back up that I might otherwise forget? I don't want to realize that I forgot to do something after I've already reformatted my drive.

    So far, I've backed up all of my important documents, pictures, movies, saved games, etc. I also backed up my Firefox profile and my data for my IM client. Can you guys recommend anything else that I might overlook?
      My Computer
    Quote Quote

  3. Tews
    Posts : 11,840
    64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro
       New #2

    Why not just the Windows Easy Transfer program and you wont have to worry about it.. See Brinks tutorial --==> here
      My Computer
    Quote Quote

  4. DocBrown
    Posts : 9,606
    Win7 Enterprise, Win7 x86 (Ult 7600), Win7 x64 Ult 7600, TechNet RTM on AMD x64 (2.8Ghz)
       New #3

    Read the Tutorial on Windows Easy Transfer :)

    Windows Easy Transfer - Transfer To & From Computers

    Tews beat me by 0.00001 sec
      My Computer
    Quote Quote

  6. flojito
    Posts : 6
    Windows Vista/Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       New #4

    Ah, thank you! I had no idea that existed.
      My Computer
    Quote Quote

  7. flojito
    Posts : 6
    Windows Vista/Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       New #5

    I'm having a problem. I'm trying to use Windows Easy Transfer to backup my files onto an external drive (1 TB of space total, 500 GB free), but the program says that the drive doesn't have enough free space to proceed. My laptop's hard drive is only 160 GB, so I don't understand how Windows Easy Transfer can possibly think my external drive doesn't have enough space to copy everything. Any idea what could be wrong? I have tried multiple times, but I always get the same error.
      My Computer
    Quote Quote

 

  Related Discussions
I'm doing a clean install of windows, I want to know if it's possible to back up my data using a HD partition
Hi, I'm interested in testing out a clean install of Win7 HP, and get rid of the bloatware riddled OEM Win7 version. (Got that advice from *GreGrocker* and I'm beginning to experience I should follow that lead.) Win7 SP1 Clean Install should be able to detect all details of my hardware and...
Hi,i own 2 HDD's one for installation and a media drive. Last time i reinstalled i had huge issues gaining permissions to my media and ended up deleting about 600gb of data. After recently trying out windows 8 i was stupid enough not to data my data and thought win8 would install onto a partition i...
I have a huge honking 1TB of space on my C: hard drive and only use less than half of that, but every time I want to do a system backup and create a system image (to restore to in case everything else goes wrong, which has occurred 3 times this year) is to backup to a USB drive of only 300GB, which...
Hi! I want to do a clean install of my purchased Win7 from Win7 RC. The problem is I have a lot of data that I want to keep and since it is about 500GB in size, i have no cheap way of backing it up (obviously considering buying another HDD, but i'd rather not for now). I was thinking that maybe...
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

 © Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:25.
Find Us