[th3]

Ok following on from the trauma's of the girlfriends computer failure it's driven home the importance of backup

So I am going to sort out my PC before it all goes belly up.

My PC currently has an 80G HD with 1 full partition which isn't ideal, but I have a brand new identical 80G HD which is currently unformatted I don't have loads of stuff on the PC so these drives will give me all the storage I'm ever likely to need.

My plan is as follows...........(unless somebody has a better idea).

Format the new drive into partitions (PageFile 5G, Docs 15G, ImageBackup 15G, Programs 15G, remainder unallocated). I plan to purchase Acronis Disk Director 10.0 to achieve this (unless someone has a better suggestion).

Having done that I then plan to obtain a full backup image using Acronis True Image 9.0 and store this in the back up partition.

Then I can resize/reformat the partition on the original drive to say 10G(?) for the OS and 70G unallocated for the time being, with the benefit of a backup on the other drive in case it screws up

But this is where I could do with some help, assuming it all went ok how do I get just the OS on the new partition and everything else on the other drive without reinstalling everything? If indeed that is possible

Anybody have any other suggestions or tips on how best to accomplish this?

I have used the following sites for reference Tweakhound and TheElderGeek

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moving programs in windows xp is a perilous, often fruitless exercise. You will need to reinstall them, during installationg, choosing a folder other than the default

[gerryf]

moving programs in windows xp is a perilous, often fruitless exercise. You will need to reinstall them, during installationg, choosing a folder other than the default

[th3]

Hi gerryf, thanks for the prompt response!

Ok so having created an image backup, if I copy the data/mydocs to the other drive. I might as well reformat the original disc, create the partitions I want and do a full reinstall?

I assume the moving program files stuff is to do with registry keys and the like....

I can then move the relevant my docs / program files folders into the new partitions for future use, right?

[gerryf]

Yes, but you also might just consider running trueimage and creating a differential image to the second disk...and schedule backups say, every other day.

That way, you never lose more than two days of data

[th3]

Ok thanks,

I guess I'll order the software then get all the programs downloaded to CD.

I have some work to do.......