Microsoft Office and others, Would Like to Relocate Them

I apologize if I am in an inappropriate thread/forum but I need advice.

I acquired a nice computer from a company that has recently upgraded their entire network. They moved into a new building and took nothing with them except the large coffee pot.

The computer has a single (large) HD with everything located in a single partition. If the HD fails, absolutely everything goes with it. Can I repartition that HD using Partition Magic (or any other) and then relocate the files and applications to partitions other than where they are currently located?

If I do this would I be putting the OS at risk?

I would even consider just adding a HD and dragging every thing to the rightful location if that was necessary.

Hello there, DWW!

First, don't apologize because you're in the right forum :)

About repartitioning your HDD, it'd still be the same, because if for some reason you can't boot to your OS partition, you won't be able to see your files (even thought they could be OK), you'd have to use another method to save your files (IE: Ubuntu Live-CD)

My PC use to had 1 HDD (80GB one), i had it with 2 partitions: 1 for the OS (40GB), and one for the data (40GB) and nothing happened, besides formatting the C: partition to clean install my Windows.

Now i have 2 HDDs, one for the OS and one for my data, why do i have it like this? because they're 2 physical drives, if something happens to the OS one, i KNOW that my data is safe on the other one.

Now, What files do you need to move to another partition/HDD? You MS Office files (.docx, .xls, .pptx)? or you MS Office installation?

Punkster said:

Hello there, DWW!

First, don't apologize because you're in the right forum :)

About repartitioning your HDD, it'd still be the same, because if for some reason you can't boot to your OS partition, you won't be able to see your files (even thought they could be OK), you'd have to use another method to save your files (IE: Ubuntu Live-CD)

My PC use to had 1 HDD (80GB one), i had it with 2 partitions: 1 for the OS (40GB), and one for the data (40GB) and nothing happened, besides formatting the C: partition to clean install my Windows.

Now i have 2 HDDs, one for the OS and one for my data, why do i have it like this? because they're 2 physical drives, if something happens to the OS one, i KNOW that my data is safe on the other one.

Now, What files do you need to move to another partition/HDD? You MS Office files (.docx, .xls, .pptx)? or you MS Office installation?

OKAY, I understand that if the OS goes south I may have difficulty getting to files located in "other partitions" on that HD. So I am thinking that nothing else should go into those partitions unless it is either sourced else where or backed up. Like my MS Office; I have the disks for that so if I lose the HD I can recover with no negative effect (except loss of time). I also have the disks for my CAD system.

Applications like Google and Sketch up can also be reestablished without using backups so no issue there.

We are then down to copies of excel files, word files, sketch and auto cad files (other than the applications), photos and images, etc.

Can I simply drag these files from where they are now to the new location whether that be a new partition (same HD) or to a different HD?

Can applications be relocated by "cut and paste", "move" or "drag and drop" procedures. My concern here comes from a single bad experience with AutoCad. I was going on a trip and needed AutoCad but the family needed the computer. I solved this problem by moving all the AutoCad (applications and files) to a flash drive. When I got to the destination, I thought I was OK but when needed - nothing worked. I have never understood why. The files (drawings and parts lists) were intact and accessible by a company laptop but my AutoCad never did work on that machine.

Of course, if you're only moving your files (IE: .docx, .xls, .pptx, .cad) there are no problems moving them to a CD, DVD, USB Drive, anywhere, because as long as you have the program on the PC you're opening the files, everything is alright.

About the Applications being relocated by "cut and paste" no, that's not possible (unless it's a portable app), what happened with your AutoCad is that you only see the files let's say in Program Files, but there are a lot of other files in other folders that are important for the app to work.

You can move your projects (.cad files) to another PC that has AutoCad installed and there will be no problem, but moving the whole software no, you need to install it in the other PC for that to work.

So it all comes down to this:

1) You can move your files to another HDD or wherever you want to.
2) You can't move your apps to another HDD without installing them in the other HDD or cloning the HDD.

Cheers

Thank you Seth and Punkster. Now I can reuse that flash drive because it will never work for its originally intended purpose.

One more question, however. How is what I am asking different than what my grand daughter does when she comes here to visit. She brings a flash drive with her and uses my computer for an application that is not on my computer. She operates strictly from the flash drive.

Is she "imaging her computer" on mine? When she leaves, there is no trace that she has been there. Would that be the same as imaging my system as a recovery disk?

No. She probably just have a Portable App on her USB Flash Drive and operates directly from the USB, without needing the program to be installed on your PC.

A Portable App doesn't need to be installed on the system to run and since it's a Portable App, it won't leave traces on the PC once the user is done with it.

seth500 said:

She may have one of those fancy usb's like a sandisk that you can install apps on and use from any computer.

True, like a U3 USB Drive.

But i take my guess and say it's a portable app, there are not too many U3 apps on the market and to be honest, it's a PITA to install them and run them, i had a SanDisk Cruzer with U3, i formatted it completely and started using it as a regular USB Flash Drive

My honest opinion.

Punkster said:

seth500 said:

She may have one of those fancy usb's like a sandisk that you can install apps on and use from any computer.

True, like a U3 USB Drive.

But i take my guess and say it's a portable app, there are not too many U3 apps on the market and to be honest, it's a PITA to install them and run them, i had a SanDisk Cruzer with U3, i formatted it completely and started using it as a regular USB Flash Drive

My honest opinion.

Once again I think those who have commented. I think I now know what I have to do and what I can not get away with.

BTW I have one of those U3 USB thingies and I think I might ave reformatted it. It came with a bunch of stuff that I did not want on my computer so I got rid of it. I did not know that it was a portable app device.