RE: Restoring from a Backup and Windows Reinstallation of my Hard Driv
- From: GeorgeW6 <GeorgeW6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2007 20:15:00 -0800
WOW! Thank you from a very spoiled long-time computer user who needed TWO
instances hard drive problems to learn a lesson. Yes, that it true. I say
"spoiled" because at work and home, over the life of many computers, I was
able to keep everything running, sometimes even backing up Very Important
files. The current laptop has, unfortunately, not been as forgiving, and
therefore my problems. Of course, with every passing day it seems as if
software and hardware teeters on the brink of disaster as they become more
sophisticated and complicated.
I do understand the explanations and directions both MVP'S provided here.
They are helpful now and will be more-so in the future. Before receiving the
answers I did move one so-called "program" to my hard drive. Then I finally
discovered it was not a program, but only some GIF and DOC files for the
program. When the backup was done I asked the shop to copy all GIF, JPG, DOC,
WP and similar files that could be saved. So the GIF files for the icons and
the text files for readme files got swept up in the move.
Now, I will start over by going back and get rid of anything useless that I
put on after the reinstall. That won't be much due to my lack of
understanding and my caution with this nice new, cleaned up Hard Drive. Maybe
I will keep IE 7.0 while waiting for the next change. I guess I can learn to
use it as well as I did all the previous Browsers.
Again, thanks very much for your help. Excuse my repeating myself in the
question. Usually, I hope, I write better than that. Verbose is the word, I
guess, for that question.
George (now going back to work finishing the reinstall of programs)
PS I mentioned a Maxtor Backup Program because the external hard drive is a
Maxtor and it came with a backup program, that is meant to backup, not just
to hold copies or to move files for storage. [I only used it once, about a
year ago and promptly stopped backing up]
Also, I mentioned upgrading to a 1 GB memory. That was just something that
was no longer expensive and the opportunity was there to add to performance.
"GeorgeW6" wrote:
I brought my computer and nearly empty 120 GB, stand-alone Maxtor Hard Drive.
to a computer repair place to have them try to backup my nearly full hard
drive (C:/) to the Maxtor and do a reinstall. This was a recommendation from
my DELL. My Inspiron 8600 with Windows XP Professional and IE 6.0 was nearly
completely locked up and I did want to fix the PC, but save my HD data.
Now I want to know how to restore the files to my computer and am confused
because of the way the backup was done and the change done from IE 6.0 to IE
7.0 done by the shop technician.
Initially, the shop told me they would not be able to back up any PROGRAMS
because they could only COPY files. Copying application programs, of course,
would not work. This surprised me because I thought they were going to use a
backup program to save everything. Now it looks like they actually MOVED the
entire contents of my PC hard drive over to my Maxtor drive. I do not know if
this is the same as a Backup and if I can MOVE everything back to my computer
now and it will work. (The shop is closed for the holiday)
I got this PC and Maxtor Drive home and it appears to me that the technician
actually MOVED the entire Hard Drive contents of the PC to the MAXTOR. The
Maxtor is a 120 GB HD, while the computer is 80 GB.
Next, the shop technician found that my PC HD was broken so I had that
replaced. Finally, I agreed the I need to up the RAM to 1 GB.
When I got the computer and the external Maxtor HD home, I discoverd that
the shop had installed Windows XP and Internet Explorer 7.0. I had been
using IE 6.0.
I don't understand why the change to IE 7.0, but I really do not know
anything about IE 7.0 and it is confusing me. Perhaps more important, I
don't know if I should simply move all the contents on the Maxtor back to my
computer, or at least all the PROGRAMS? I really do not want or need
everything, but if it fits I could move everything back and delete the files
I no longer want. Maybe I can just move the PROGRAMS back and then will I
have all my applications back as they were? But what about the registry and
other Windows files that must have been changed by my installing and running
applications for years.
Reinstalling programs from old original discs I purchased does not work
well, as they ARE old versions by now and also missing things like passwords
embedded by me. If I could simply restore my hard drive by using the MOVE
command on Windows XP, it would be great IF it works.
Maxtor has a restore program, but since the original backup was not done
with the software that came with the Maxtor, I suppose the restore is not
going to work now.
Thanks for your help.
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