Backing up before format

I am going to format my hard drive today, however, I have 1.5GB of files that I need to keep. What would be the best way to do this?

Is it not possible to create another drive on window98 and store the files there? If it is How would i do that?

Thanks for any help or suggestions
CP

 

Hi CP,

Is it correct that you have one hard drive C:\ ?
How many gigabytes is this disk ?
Do you have a partitioning app such as Partition Magic ?

You say "I am going to reformat my hard drive reformat today"
have you already done so.
regards

 

Is it correct that you have one hard drive C:\ ?
Yes

How many gigabytes is this disk ?
20GB

Do you have a partitioning app such as Partition Magic ?
No

You say "I am going to reformat my hard drive reformat today"
have you already done so.
No not yet, I am still trying to figure out a way not to loss my important doc that add up to 1.5 gig

What would you recommend

 

You could buy or borrow a 2nd HD to copy the files to .

No need to bolt the drive in , just cable it & let it hang outside the case .http://www.infohq.com/Computer/adding-second-hard-drive-review.htm
Installing a Second Hard Drive; Demonstrated
with the Maxtor 13.6 GB DiamondMax Plus .

Also , a well written site which shows this step with good illustrations onadding a 2nd Hard Drive.
http://members.aol.com/mbs1058/2nd_hd.html

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/idedrv1.html
http://pcsupport.about.com/compute/pcsupport/library/weekly/aa010300a.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6883/newide.html
http://www.epinions.com/content_917086340?sp=ink
http://www.dansdata.com/sbs1.htm
http://www.tech-review.com/review.pl?id=75&page=1
http://www.footslog.com/articles/Hardware/ha0001.htm
http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/howto/story/0,24330,3322450,00.html

How to Prevent Drive Letters from Changing After You Add a Hard Disk or a CD-ROM (Q282530)
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 95
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q282530

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

xxcopy ( freeware ) from ,
http://www.datman.com/xxcopy

Forum
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xxcopy/

Info
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=x...f&scoring=date&as_drrb=quick&as_qdr=&filter=0

Start > Programs > MS-DOS Prompt .
Copy a command from the selection below & click paste in MS-DOS , then click Enter .
No need to close any programs down .

1st command , you get a copy of everything .
2nd command excludes Windows .
3rd command copies Windows only .
4th command excludes Windows Temporary Internet Files .

Adjust drive letters to suit .

1 . XXCOPY C:\ D:\ /CLONE

2 . XXCOPY C:\ D:\ /CLONE /Xwindows\

3 . xxcopy C:\Windows D:\Windows

4 . xxcopy C:\ D:\ /Clone /x\windows\temp*\

 

What would you recommend

I would recommed getting Partition Magic. And seing as how we are in the Win98 Forum to use it to create a partiton at least large enough to hold the the required amount of data.

Get the data copied over to it.

Resize things again to get the C: drive down to a MAX of 2.5gig.

And then put just the OS and it s required items on it and EVERYTHING esle on the D: drive.

And if anybody try to tell you that his slows the system down tell them to come talk to me. The benifit of not losing EVERYTHING and having room to store backups far out weighs and * POSSIBLE * slowdown.

And another thing. Unless things have changed drasticly, any thing over 8gig in size WASTES a lot space.

Or if you have a CDR drive you could burn the stuff onto a few CDR disks. That is a GREAT way to make backups.

BillyBob

 

Do you have a burner ?
I have 1.2gb of stuff that I backup regularly to two cds.
A long time ago I found the best way to keep track of all my important files ( and back them up )was to have only 1 folder with many subfolders.
Docs
Family
Jpg Bmp
drivers
pdf
mp3
etc....

Then when I need to backup my files all I need to do is just copy one folder with my burning software and it's done. Now that I've gone past 700mb I use two cds.
I think the mistake that many people make with respect to their important files is they spread them out all over their HD when they should have just one Main folder with subfolders.

Unlike alot of people out there I don't have my drive partitioned into different drives. I know it waste HD space and if you need to reinstall windows it could cause issues but thats just my setup and besides I clone my HD once a month.

A burner is a nice thing to have if you don't have one, kinda like broadband, once you have it you wonder how you ever lived without it.

 

The suggestions by jmatt do also work.

I think they area pain. But that is my problem.

But I still recommed that the C: drive be no more than 2.5 gig for using Win98.

ME may need a little more.

XP I believe may need more yet.

So I would suggest that be taken into consideration also when sizing the C: drive.

But no matter what OS is used I do HIGHLY recommed more than one Partition. Actually I recommend two HD. With the Master being a small as possible.

In other words do a little planning NOW and save the aggrevation of having to change things AGAIN later.

BillyBob

 

Billy Bob has it right with a 2nd partition.
regards