3 partitions, 1 w/XPPro: Help me save the other 2 partitions!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tony Laudani
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T

Tony Laudani

Greets:

I've just spent about 4 hours pouring over every conceivable Google
search on the subject to no avail and am hoping someone has a direct
answer for me.

To make a long story short, I have three partitions on my drive:

1st: OS Only (WinXP Pro) - 10gig
---------------
2nd: Programs Only (All programs/games installed to D:/Program Files
except for those that the OS requires to be installed to C... you get
the idea) - 60gig
---------------
3rd: Data Only (This is where my 'My Documents' folder is located and
XP knows it) - 50gig

All partitions are NTFS, the system is completely bootable.

Here's what I want to do.

Due to some major screwups and some frequent problems I'm experiencing
with Office 2003, I want to simply re-install the OS: Windows XP Pro.
Ideally, I would simply like to reinstall the OS on the C partition (I
don't care that I will lose all registry settings and am fully
prepared to reinstall the programs I currently have installed on the
D: drive.), but NOT lose one single bit of data on the D & E
partitions.

What is the absolutely SAFEST way of doing this? I'm simply trying to
avoid having to backup all my data from the E partition and would hate
to have to go through ALL the folders on the D partition to backup all
the "little items" that might fall through the cracks (custom
Photoshop brushes, various game saves,.... you get the idea).

Having never done this, I'm hoping (assuming?) that I could simply
reboot to DOS (??? using the XP recovery console???) and somehow
reinstall JUST the OS without re-formatting the C partition. But I'm
deathly afraid of destroying the data on the D and E partitions since
I've heard that there is critical data somewhere on the boot partition
(in this case, "C") that, if wiped through a re-format, would render
the D and E partitions unusable.

Again... any simple, straightforward advice on this thing? Anyone?

I originally set up my partitions in the above fashion for just such
an occasion: to effect an easy "re-load" of the OS without having to
backup all my "data" (documents, pics, etc.).

One last caveat: my CD-ROM refuses to let me boot from it (even
though my BIOS lets me set my system up to boot off of it... go
figure.). So any solution that would require booting from the XP
Pro CD would have to take that into account.

Thanks for reading this laborious explanation, but I thought I'd save
time in having to fill in all the gaps if any replies come in.
 
Have you looked at using the system restore feature to go back to a time
when things were nice and stable?

Cheers
Kiwi
 
I think you can just run setup from the CD Rom drive and re-install to your
C: partition without touching any of the data on the other partitions. When
you install you need to select the destination drive so you need to be
carefull to select the correct one. Obviously you will need to reinstall any
applications.

HTH
KIWI
 
This message consitutes a belated thanks to all in this thread who
helped me resolve an issue that was extremely important to me:
re-partitioning my drive and re-installing XP Pro.

All of the extremely informative replies to my questions helped me get
through the whole process of reformatting and re-installing XP Pro
without damaging any of my precious other partitions.

For KIWI & DAVETEST, who gave me some important hints on starting out
on the process.

For ALEX NICHOL & MICHAEL STEVENS, two MS-MVPs who gave me the lion's
share of responses and were patient in the extreme with all of my
oft-pedantic questions.

And for DURAND who "followed the thread with interest" (in his own
words) and gave me some final hints on undertaking the task at hand.

I just wanted to wrap up this thread with some unabashed *gratitude*
for those out there who often go unrewarded for their pains in dealing
with the thousands of questions fielded to them, and who go to great
lengths to assist those of us in need of information. Hats off to
*all* of you.

While I'm unable to reward any of you directly, I can only hope to pay
back some of your kindness by remembering to help someone else in need
in the future -- without promise of reward or remembrance. You guys
really brightened my week!

Again, kudos to all who helped me. You won't be soon forgotten.
 
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