Filed under: Windows
Reinstall Windows without the risk
by Jordan Running May 22nd 2006 at 3:00PM
Though I've had a pretty good run, I know in my heart that I really ought to reinstall Windows. As anyone who has gone though that particular ordeal knows, however, it's much easier said than done, and getting back into your carefully-tweaked workflow after a reinstall can take, quite literally, months, and the day you realize you forgot to backup that one Really Important File is a sad day indeed. So how can you reinstall Windows without the risks? Virtualization. Now, we featured a similar tip a few months back, but Márton Anka has written a handy tutorial that teaches you how to back up your entire system to a VMWare image that you can load, without a reboot, every time you need something from your old Windows install. Now, if only I had the spare hard drive space for this...
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Resort said 4:12AM on 5-23-2006
Using other software will most likely get the job done as well.
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Claudiu Spulber said 4:32AM on 5-23-2006
Well it's not like you keep the important files all over your hard drive, so using a backup program to backup your documents would be good too (plus you spare some space as you don't backup the system files too). Don't know if this is recommended, but when I reinstall the system I only format the partition where it will be installed, and I keep all the important files on the other partitions.
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Peter said 6:44AM on 5-23-2006
Claudiu - As the article says, it's not about the data it's about the applications. When you can't find the install file for that great app you downloaded from somewhere it really doesn't matter if you have the data file or not. That's the whole point of this. You can boot the VM run the app and look for the install file later.
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Richard said 6:55AM on 5-23-2006
What I do is use Partition Magic to shrink the current partition down as small as possible, create a new partition BEFORE the currently used one (which is as big as possible) and then install Windows XP into that.
Once you've done that, you can install all the missing applications and files and then, once you're totally happy you have everything, blow away the old partition and resize the current one to take up its space.
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Claudiu Spulber said 3:09AM on 5-24-2006
Peter - You're right, the full article refers to applications not data (I initially read only the DS article). On the other hand, I always download using FDM and have it pointing to the D: partition (not on the desktop). This way if I like the application I also keep its installer.
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