Urgent idiot question. Now got problems. UPDATE I MUST HAVE MESSEd UP

[leigh6]

Hi all,

I am in the middle of a build for a friend. Was going to use a new Hard Drive. He now wants me to use his Seagate 80 gig from his old computer that had all his music on there.
Can someone let me know IF:

1. I can install xp without losing the files
2. And if I can what do I click on when it asks me to format

Well I installed it and now:

Ok. Now my friend is pissed. Installation went smooth. Only one problem. All the files are now hidden!!!! They seem to no longer exist but the hard drive is showing 40 gigs used.

What is going on????

Thanks,

Leigh

 

[masshass81]

If the drive is partitioned, put everything he wants to keep on drives D, E, etc. When you reinstall XP, do it on drive C and it will leave everything on the partitioned drives alone.

 

[eurovw]

if the harddrive is still in the old computer, get Partition Magic Program, divide the harddrive on 2 partitions, move all music and video files on D: (when you use 2 partitions it should be C: and D:, but may vary ), and install Win XP on C:.

 

[powerMarkymark]

You can install it on the drive you speak of without losing data.......DO NOT FORMAT THE DRIVE BEFORE INSTALLING WINDOWS THOUGH!!

Windows install in its own directory so it should not disurb the data already on the drive.

I have done this before and no data loss occured.

M@rc

 

[leigh6]

The drive with the music has no operating system on it. So I am good to go without formatting it? Just install xp without formatting? I didnt know I could do that.

 

[powerMarkymark]

Sure, so long as you have the minimum required space for Windows on that drive, Windows will install without formatting first.

 

[leigh6]

After xp installs Do I then have to format or it the installation over?

 

[powerMarkymark]

Installation is over, no format is necessary.

 

[leigh6]

Need help again.

 

[leigh6]

Sorry I am such an idiot.

 

[montag451]

Depends if your friend encrypted the folders where his files are stored.
If so, and your friend hasn't backed up his key from the last installation - files lost.

 

[jayoinoz]

A new WinXP install on a HD with XP already on it? Well, XP will probably install OK but where was all your friend's music? Was it in My Documents\My Music? Just a thought I guess - each user in XP gets their own "My Documents" directory.

Basically - just go looking under C:\Documents and Settings\<friends old userid>\My Documents\etc.

A new WinXP install will not use/overwrite existing profile directories.

Sorry if it's something else - this was the Occam's Razor solution that popped into my head.