How Should I Save Data When Upgrading From Xp To Windows 7?
i have windows xp, and i just got windows 7. it says i need to format and reinstall windows 7. what is the best way to save all my bookmarks, programs, documents, music, settings, etc. i’ve customized a lot on my computer. does backing up the hard drive to a dvd-rw work?
If you go into the C: drive and navigate to into Documents and settings folder you should see your username. You then want to go into the tools menu, folder options, view, and turn on the show hidden files and folders option. If you backup the entire %username% folder it contains your Favorites, documents, music, videos, desktop.. as long as you have been saving into the My Documents folder. You will not be able to backup programs. You will have to reinstall all programs. sometimes you can find custom settings in the Application Data folders under the same directory and restore those after reinstalling the program will restore some settings.
Is it worth the upgrade..? Seems good to me.. If you have programs that you depend on you might want to check to see if they are windows7 compatible. you may need to purchase newere versions of some programs..
Bookmarks – Xmarks. http://www.xmarks.com/
Programs – sorry, you can;t back up programs, you have to reinstall them after you install 7.
Documents, music, etc. – CD, DVD, flash drive, anyplace you can put files.
Settings – you can’t. You’ll be installing a new operating system, so the settings will be the default ones. Program settings will be what they are when you reinstall the programs.
The only way to not have to go through all that is to upgrade XP to Vista, then upgrade Vista to 7.
(And unless someone gave you a file you shouldn’t have, what you have is the 7 release *candidate*, not the release, so you’ll have to buy a full package soon. Otherwise it’ll just stop working.)
Is it worth the upgrade? If you need things in 7 that you don’t have in XP, yes. Otherwise probably not.
your not upgrading, installing a different operating system on a computer built for Xp is downgrading, but dont worry you still can install vista on it but you might need to download the audio drivers manually from your comps website, simple way to backup up your personal files like photos, videos, favourites, text docs, audio is copy them to media like a dvd or external harddrive
DVD-RW will be fine if you dont have that much to back up. An external hard drive would be preferred. Or if you could transfer it over a network to another computer in your house that would be good also.
Flash drives will also work if you have a small amount to backup.
Here are your backup options- http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windo…
Cheers,
Jeff
Windows Outreach Team
yes it’s worth to upgrade you OS
you can backup all you personal files to a DVD
mozy.com