1. I am glad you got confirmation that I did not give you false information - that's good.
2. Your data is much more valuable than your OS. You should periodically copy it to as many media as you have available (external disk, USB stick and even CD/DVD which is the safest place).
3. Get rid of the password for the system. It is pretty useless and at best will get you into trouble. A good security setup is much more efficient.
Thank you WHS. It's not that I didn't trust you! I just didn't understand is all and was confused.
I have a password on my Admin account. You suggest that I remove it?
TheTalker,
When you say you have a password on your computer, could you please elucidate?
The reason for the question is that different people have different understandings of what a computer password is and just want to be 100% certain that we give you the correct advice.
I had my voice to those suggesting getting an external drive for backup and, as already said, your data is more important than the OS. Restoring an OS is relatively simple but recreating the data can be difficult if not impossible.
Window 7 Backup and Restore is marvelous, functional, works, is fully compatible with Windows 7 and allows you to backup just your system, just a drive, just a library, just a folder. You choose and you can store backup after backup until the external drive is full.
You may be confused.
If you have an L drive within your PC and your C drive (operating system partition) fails, you have no way to get at ANY files on L until and unless you can first boot the PC. That typically means restoring or rebuilding the C partition (reinstalling Windows) somehow.
If that L drive happens to be an external drive, you should be able to connect it to a separate PC with a working operating system and access it that way. But not on a PC with no OS.
Or if the L drive is a separate internal drive, you should be able to remove it from your PC, place it in another working PC, and then access it.
Ignatzatsonic,
Let's assume that using Backup And Restore, that it makes a System Repair CD.
A system repair CD actually contains a modified WIN PE.
If he boots from the CD, chooses "command prompt", then shouldn't he be able to see his L files and even copy them to a USB stick?
If that doesn't work, then booting from a PuppyLinux CD should give him access to his L drive.
Either way, internal or external, it requires a functioning OS to access the files on another drive. Any programs installed on either another internal HD or external HD will probably have to be reinstalled so that they are registered in whatever OS is being used. Therefore, what is being protected is just files of various sorts. Personally, I have never seen the need for an external HD, except that it would protect against a massive hardware failure within the PC. However, I have had some pretty bad failures due to power supplies or motherboards, and while that has caused me to have to replace video cards, I haven't lost a harddrive that way. There is one more possibility that I haven't had to deal with, being a massive power spike due to weather, but then I also have an UPS, so hopefully that would prevent that kind of damage.
Karl:
Yes, there are ways to get at the data files.
But it wasn't clear to me what she (Talker is a female) actually meant by "still be able to access the items on L".
Without a way to boot, she can't access anything as far as I can see. But a repair disc or a Linux disc should work as a short term workaround.
Having said that, if my C drive failed, my first task would be to get Windows back ASAP, presumably on a fresh or known good hard drive.
SeekerMeister,
You might find interesting making a System Repair Disk using Windows 7 Backup and Restore, booting from the System Repair Disk, choosing Command Prompt.
I know I am going to get an argument from my friend Karl. But if you want my advice, DO NOT VENTURE into this Win7 Backup/Restore malware. This is an absolute pain in the neck, hard to understand, you cannot mount or look at your backup files and half of the time it does not work. I already had a lot of trouble with it in Vista and trying it out in Win7 just confirmed it.
Take the easy and transparent route and just copy your folders to an external device. That is sooo much easier.
whs,
I can agree with you regarding Vista.
I have been very pleasantly surprised and pleased with the the performance and capabilities of Backup And Restore in Windows 7 which incidentally, I have used extensively and tested all features thereof extensively.
There are many fine third-party products available to accomplish backup and restore.
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