hard drive upgrade. how to keep settings?

[Richard]

I'm about to switch to a larger, faster hard drive and
just use my old one for a backup in case hell freezes
over. What I'd like to know is how (or if) I can keep my
windows settings when I reload windows? Is there a
general "settings" file I can just drop back in when
windows is loaded?

Also, I'm trying to make CD backups of all of my files,
data, etc, and it is just really overwhelming and I'm
paranoid I'm missing something important. To all those
who have performed this task, any advice on what things
to not forget to backup (ie: Favorites, emails, etc)?
Little things that tha vg user wouldn't think of.
Speaking of emails... where does OE store all of the
emails on file?

Thanks in advance!

Richard

[Earl F. Parrish]

"Richard" > wrote in message
...
> I'm about to switch to a larger, faster hard drive and
> just use my old one for a backup in case hell freezes
> over. What I'd like to know is how (or if) I can keep my
> windows settings when I reload windows? Is there a
> general "settings" file I can just drop back in when
> windows is loaded?
>
> Also, I'm trying to make CD backups of all of my files,
> data, etc, and it is just really overwhelming and I'm
> paranoid I'm missing something important. To all those
> who have performed this task, any advice on what things
> to not forget to backup (ie: Favorites, emails, etc)?
> Little things that tha vg user wouldn't think of.
> Speaking of emails... where does OE store all of the
> emails on file?
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Richard

Most new hard drive include a utility for copying an image of the
old drive onto the new larger drive. I did that when my 20 GB drive
started making a clicking sound. I upgraded to a 30 GB drive. That
is not much of an upgrade but that was all I could afford at the
time. I was afraid that my drive would fail before my next pension
check arrived.

The copying goes faster if you temporarily connect the new drive to
the secondary IDE channel. It takes a while so support your drive
on a book or something so you will not have to hold it while it is
working. Once you can boot from the new drive, change the jumpers
on the old drive to slave and put the new drive in its bay.

Backups will not work because you cannot restore or backup a file
that is in use. Unless you have backup software on the new drive,
you will not be able to restore anyway. They way I described does
not require re-installation of the operating system or programs.

--
Earl F. Parrish

[Richard]

Earl,

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually WANT to do to
clean install, just to get things running smoothly againa
and get rid of all the crap that's lingering around
causing problems. All I need to do is back up the
windows settings, the files and programs will be
reinstalled once XP is up and running. Any other advice?

Best,

Richard

[Earl F. Parrish]

"Richard" > wrote in message
...
> Earl,
>
> Thanks for the suggestions. I actually WANT to do to
> clean install, just to get things running smoothly againa
> and get rid of all the crap that's lingering around
> causing problems. All I need to do is back up the
> windows settings, the files and programs will be
> reinstalled once XP is up and running. Any other advice?
>
> Best,
>
> Richard

If that is what you wanted, you should have stated that in your
question. I would not have wasted my time giving unneeded advice.
You are aware that you will have to download all the updates and
Service Pack 1 again. Any hardware drivers which you downloaded
will have to be backed up and reinstalled or downloaded again. You
will pretty much end up with the same system you had before with a
larger hard drive. Most of the problems are hardware problems. You
will have the same hardware as before.

--
Earl F. Parrish

[sqr]

Get Norton's Ghost or PQ Drive Image to copy the drive to the new one.

Install the software and have it make boot floppies
Install the new hard drive with the jumper set to master and the old to
slave
Boot with the floppy and follow the prompts to transfer the contents from
the old to new
Erase the contents of the slave drive.

--
Sqr
Overseer: alt.os.windows-xp
--

http://sqr.servebeer.com
ftp://sqr.myftp.biz


"Richard" > wrote in message
...
> I'm about to switch to a larger, faster hard drive and
> just use my old one for a backup in case hell freezes
> over. What I'd like to know is how (or if) I can keep my
> windows settings when I reload windows? Is there a
> general "settings" file I can just drop back in when
> windows is loaded?
>
> Also, I'm trying to make CD backups of all of my files,
> data, etc, and it is just really overwhelming and I'm
> paranoid I'm missing something important. To all those
> who have performed this task, any advice on what things
> to not forget to backup (ie: Favorites, emails, etc)?
> Little things that tha vg user wouldn't think of.
> Speaking of emails... where does OE store all of the
> emails on file?
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Richard