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 M¢25  Funded By Mahalo ? |  June 17, 2009 01:20 AM

If i reinstall my operating system will it erase my hard drive?

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June 17, 2009 04:57 AM
No. But you may still have problems with lost files...

If you install Windows (XP or Vista) you have an option to FORMAT the drive. Format will nuke everything on the drive. That's probably the best thing to do when installing a new OS.

However, if you do not want to format your drive, and you reinstall the OS you will have duplicate folders (in XP its under Documents and Settings, Vista is different) and your files/music/photos that were in My Documents will not be there, you'll have to navigate to the D/S folder and find them.

One way to make sure nothing important is lost would be to take everything you want to keep, put it in a folder directly on C drive (or whatever your main drive is called) titled "KEEP ME" (or whatever) reinstall the operating system and then put the files back where you want them after the new os is installed and ready to go.

an even better way would be to copy everything you want to keep to a CD/DVD (most modern computers have at least one) then format and reinstall the OS.

PM me if you need any further assistance...


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June 17, 2009 01:35 AM
not if you don't do a clean install. but i would just back up everything just in case

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