Backup with 2 Internal hard drives?

M

MistaVistaFowla

New Member
hey guys, this may seem like a stupid question but I am travelling and I cant really afford an external hard drive.

I need to back up my laptop and reinstall windows... Is it possible to put evrything from C: onto D:, format C: and reinstall without losing anything off D: ?

I have a Toshiba Sattelite 600 with two 300GB hard disks, running vista home premium 32bit...
 

My Computer

System One

MistaVistaFowla said:
I need to back up my laptop and reinstall windows... Is it possible to put evrything from C: onto D:, format C: and reinstall without losing anything off D: ?

I have a Toshiba Sattelite 600 with two 300GB hard disks, running vista home premium 32bit...
Click to expand...

Simple answer - Assuming "D" is a seperate hard drive, no, you won't loose anything.

However, if "D" is on the same hard drive then, you'll need to make sure you just overwirte "C" drive partition and not the "entire" hard drive containing both "C" and "D" partitions.

The other part of your questions is a little blured as I'm not sure what "everything" means? If you're including the operating system as part of "moving everythig" then that can be a bit tricky.

Let me know.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Built
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel D975XBX2
    Memory
    Corsair TWIN2X4096-PC8500 (2x2GHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 4890 (1GHz)
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium - Fatality Pro Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    hp w2207h (22" widescreen)
    Screen Resolution
    1680 x 1050
    Hard Drives
    One 750GB, 2x500GB Western Digital Caviar Black Hard Drives (32meg)
    PSU
    Antec Neo HE 550
    Case
    Antec P182
    Cooling
    Zalman CNPS9500 AT
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Revolution
    Internet Speed
    "High" Speed DSL? Is that like low speed FIOS?
    Other Info
    Q6600 B3 Revision OC to 3.0GHz
What size is the D drive/partition? If it is anything less than 10-20 GB I wouldn't be putting anything on it as that will be the recovery partition.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Me
    CPU
    Athlon x2 7750 BE
    Motherboard
    Asus M4A78 Pro
    Memory
    2x2gb Kingston
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire HD 4830
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Xtreme Music
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer P221w and Acer 1916w
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050 and 1440x900
    Hard Drives
    2x80 GB Seagate 7200.10 in RAID0, 500 GB Seagate 7200.12
    PSU
    Antec Earthwatts 500W
    Case
    Antec Sonata III
    Cooling
    AC Freezer 64 Pro and a couple of 120 mm case fans
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech G5 v2
    Internet Speed
    10000/1000
MistaVistaFowla said:
how can i be certain if its a partion orr not... in system its listed as seperate but i dunno...


and no, not OS, just files...
Click to expand...

start button > administrative tools > computer management. click continue on uac prompt. on computer management window, select disk management. if your drives are partitioned, it will show c and d on the same disk. if they are two separate drives, then it will show c on disk x and d on disk y.

on the picture, c is a separate drive; d is a separate drive; e and f are on the same drive.
 

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My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Garage PC
    CPU
    Intel Pentium E3300 @ 2.5GHz
    Motherboard
    BioStar G41-M7
    Memory
    A-Data PC2-6400 (2 X 2GB)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Diamond Radeon HD 4650
    Sound Card
    Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP Mx705 (CRT)
    Screen Resolution
    1152x864
    Hard Drives
    320 GB Hitachi - System Drive /
    100 GB Maxtor - Diagnostic Application /
    PSU
    LOGISYS PS480E12 480W
    Case
    Generic Barebones Case
    Cooling
    Stock Intel HSF
    Keyboard
    Generic PS/2
    Mouse
    Logitech
    Internet Speed
    10 d / 1 u
MistaVistaFowla said:
how can i be certain if its a partion orr not... in system its listed as seperate but i dunno...
Click to expand...

To see if your hard drives are partitioned...

1- Right click "Computer"
2- Choose "Manage"
3- Click on "Disk Management" and you will get the window below...

Hard Drive Partitions.JPG

In this image there are 3 hard drives (HD) installed. All three are partitioned because they contain more than one drive.

Disk 0 (HD1) contains drives C, F, D, E
Disk 1 (HD2) contains drives H, G, I
Disk 2 (HD3) contains drives J, O, N

Notice that my hard drives are also named. This helps in identifying drives when formating or installing an OS. You can name your hard drives by...

1- Clicking "Computer"
2- Right clicking the drive
3- Choosing "Properties"
4- Clicking the "General" tab and typing a name in the name box. Try to use simple names.

Naming hard drives.JPG



MistaVistaFowla said:
and no, not OS, just files...
Click to expand...

Then just move the files to the seperate "D" drive, wipe "C" and move the files back after reinstalling Windows on "C" drive.

Hope this helps
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Built
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel D975XBX2
    Memory
    Corsair TWIN2X4096-PC8500 (2x2GHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 4890 (1GHz)
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium - Fatality Pro Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    hp w2207h (22" widescreen)
    Screen Resolution
    1680 x 1050
    Hard Drives
    One 750GB, 2x500GB Western Digital Caviar Black Hard Drives (32meg)
    PSU
    Antec Neo HE 550
    Case
    Antec P182
    Cooling
    Zalman CNPS9500 AT
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Revolution
    Internet Speed
    "High" Speed DSL? Is that like low speed FIOS?
    Other Info
    Q6600 B3 Revision OC to 3.0GHz
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