i have about 34gb of music and don't won't to lose it , when i install vista

hiya thanks for taking the time to read!
i have over 30 gig of music on my computer,i had vista preinstalled on my hard drive! anyway, little problems were happening, it bascially went faulty. so microsoft have sent me a new windows vista disc to install.
its took me 5 mths to get the disc from them, as you can see i have alot of music. i have lost it 3 times before now since march.
now i have it back to where i won't it my collection, i when i install windows vista, am going to lose all my music again! i really don't won't to do that. i don;t mind losing everything else, just not losing my music collection again!!

so please,if there is a way to save my music on the computer before i install the new windows vista and lose everything, it would be really great to hear from you. thanks for reading this and i do hope you can help!!

thank you arnie!

 

Does the computer still boot up? If it does and you have an external hard drive then save it to there before you re install. Also I don't think re installing windows will erase your drive unless you are going to re format (not sure about that). If you had the resources you could take that hard drive out of the computer uses it as a slave on another computer then copy the files to another drive.

 

For 34gb I would consider just burning the music to DVDs as data. It would only take 9 DVDs at about 3/$1.00 that's $3.00 and 2 hours. You could then install Vista on a clean HD and copy back the music.

Messing with a partition manager to resize the Vista partition to make it smaller and create a new partition for your music is another option but complicated (to find a good freeware partition manager) and riskier to your data.

 

Partition the hardrive and save it to the partition.

 

ok m8 thanks for the help , but not sure on how to partition the hard drive!! thanks for the help though!!

 

how do i reply waaaaaaaaaaaaa??

 

ok m8 thanks for the help , but not sure on how to partition the hard drive!! thanks for the help though!!

 

ok m8 thanks for the help , but not sure on how to partition the hard drive!! thanks for the help though!!

 

not 3 for a dollar here m8 the pound is here , thanks though , i think i get the idea though! clean the whole thing off , then start from new. thanks m8!

 

thanks for answer me m8, its a brand new windows vista, the old vista on the computer is buggered. so hence i need to format with the new disc.
am just sick of losing all my tunes. i don't mind the other stuff i can find that again.!!!

 

No need for a third party partition sofware to make a Vista partition SMALLER.

Check out my Tip at : From today's MajorGeeks front page-Sep 2008.
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=168572&page=3

Beware: This is for smaller only. Make sure you have backups of all your vital stuff in case something goes wrong.

Bazza
PS: I haven't tried it.
Baz

===

 

Arnie, take a look at Bigbazza's post on changing the partition size in Vista. This would be the simplest way if you have at least 35gb of free space on your HD.

How much free space do you have?

 

ok m8 thanks alot , i didn't read your thingy where you was from its aussie land so gday, first my nic arnie my real name is aka lee!
big word m8 for me!
so i can shrink my hard drive,then put the music in the shrunken bit,
then install the new windows vista disc?,and the music will still be there on my hard drive after i load the vista disc?.
is that my understanding m8 ??!!
thanks for getting back to me so quickly to !!

 

Say you have a 120 gb drive. You have one partition C: that is 120gb. Your C: drive has 70gb of data and 50gb free space.

You would shrink the C: drive by 40gb. So now you have 120gb HD with 80gb C: drive and 40gb of unallocated space.

In Disk Management you would now create a new partiton from the unallocated space and format it.

Then copy your Music from C: onto the new partition where it will be safe so you can reinstall Vista.

 

As far as I understand this tip, it is to shrink your existing Vista OS partition, so you can put data on the other partition. I haven't tried it, and I would only try it on a fresh install of Vista to see if it works OK. Any other stuff would be backed up twice by me, before I attempted it on a working Vista drive. Use at your own risk.

Bazza

===

 

thanks m8 , my hard drive is 250, so i would say after deleting everything apart from the music, 190 ish. tanks for replying m8!

 

thank you m8, i will give that a go and see if it works, if i mess up then i just have to find the music again, just sucks after losing it 3 times due to vista not working, i would like to keep it. its a brand new disc which microsoft have sent themselfs! thanks again m8!

 

If you can afford it, I would recommend buying an external drive and keep all your music on that. Hard drive prices have fallen dramatically recently. We purchased a 1 Terabyte (1000 gigs) Hard drive for #1 sons girlfriend at AUD$196 less than 2 weeks ago.

320 gig drives were AUD$94, if I remember correctly.

Saves a lot of stuufing around and possible data loss on your C:\ drive. :-D

Bazza

===

 

i cannot offered it m8, am on disabilty benefit here. so its not enough for me to go out and buy one! the computer was bought for me. only had it since the end of march. i just won't to install the new disc and before i do save the music whats on the computer, so i don't have to keep looking for music what i have lost! hope that makes sence?. cheers m8. its nice that people do try and help!!

 

If you decide to partiton. I would allow some extra space to keep backups of not only your music but important files you dont wanna loose.

An expample, I use xp on a 120 gig hard drive. I have a 80 gig partion for keeping files and such backed up. I reallly don't use vista, So please ask the guys and gals what they would suggest for vista and such.

Hope that helps. But again. Pleas ask someone with more knowledge of vista on how best to partition vista and how much to allow for vista to run.

I also think?? you can back vista up to a another partion?? Ask someone with more knowlege how to best back it up. You could save your back up of vista on the partion you make.

 

Arnie -

When you select to reinstall, don't reformat the whole disc - that will erase everything on the drive including your music.
You need to create a new partition from within Windows setup, the format this new partition using NTFS quick format. Just whatever you do don't format the whole disc!

You could create a new partition that's only 50gb or so for the install of Windows and leave the rest of the drive untouched. Your music and documents will still be there.

 

<<<< i don;t understand what you have said on the above m8

thanks m8 , i just not sure how to do the partition, how will i know i have saved my music?? how do i partition to be honest m8. ive read something on here in my messages, i got the partition up to showing how much space i was using , i just don't know, how to do it. is it in the partition, when i shrink it? or do i have to put it in the partition myself??.
lastly if i do manage to partition it, when i install the disc will thats be esy to find and will it be safe??. thanks for any help m8 much kudos for anything you can do to help!!

 

thanks m8 , i just not sure how to do the partition, how will i know i have saved my music?? how do i partition to be honest m8. ive read something on here in my messages, i got the partition up to showing how much space i was using , i just don't know, how to do it. is it in the partition, when i shrink it? or do i have to put it in the partition myself??.
lastly if i do manage to partition it, when i install the disc will thats be esy to find and will it be safe??. thanks for any help m8 much kudos for anything you can do to help!!

 

thanks m8 , i just not sure how to do the partition, how will i know i have saved my music?? how do i partition to be honest m8. ive read something on here in my messages, i got the partition up to showing how much space i was using , i just don't know, how to do it. is it in the partition, when i shrink it? or do i have to put it in the partition myself??.
lastly if i do manage to partition it, when i install the disc will thats be esy to find and will it be safe??. thanks for any help m8 much kudos for anything you can do to help!!

 

thanks m8 for your help. i have got a external hard drive and do it that way, so i have installed the new vista now, so thanks for your help m8.

 

Good to see you got it sorted.

 

thanks mate . its just starting all over again now lol!!. cheers

 

Tried to send you a PM yesterday, but it was stopped as "member has elected not to receive PM's", or similar message. Glad you got it sorted. Bazza

 

thanks for getting back to me m8, yeah just need to get everything back to normal now, its like starting again!
thanks again!!