Operating System Change Help With keeping certain files

[Zagubadu? 0]

Hello everyone I've recently decided to drop Windows 7. Its great and all I just find theres too many complications with a bunch of different program compatibility issues and I just don't want to deal with it anymore. This isn't a try and convince me to keep Windows 7 thread. I'm happily done with it. So I'll be switching back to good old Windows Xp. Now my question is and believe me I've been looking around but can't seem to find a simple way to do this. What I want to do is change my OS but at the same time keep certain files that I don't feel like losing. Its a pretty big amount about thirty GBs. I don't have a External HD or freakishly large USB drive. So does anyone here know what a free and easy way of backing up my files and taking them with me to the land of Windows Xp?

[Zagubadu? 0]

Yea I thought of backup online but I mean how long would that take? It must take a while. I'll guess I will give it a shot. So its free? When I was looking online for one of those I seemed to only be able to find ones that cost loads of money. Thanks a lot for the site will post back if I was successful. Thanks again.

[ikoolo 0]

I have Windows Vista and I know what you mean about cluttered OS.
If you are on a desktop computer though, it shouldn't be much of a problem.
If you don't have an external harddrive, maybe you could borrow one from a friend?
Or maybe you could borrow a really big usb drive, but I wouldn't recommend it.

You should probably look for some online sites to store your files.
I have found some sites which could be of some use:
Try: http://www.adrive.com/

ADrive Features FREE 50GB Online Storage
Cloud Storage
Upload & Store Files
Access Files Anywhere
Share Files
Edit Documents Online
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
ADrive Desktop

It could be good?
Try it out. I listed the features above.
Regards,
ikoolo

[Zagubadu? 0]

Thats a negative on the Adrive because they have a maximum limit of files per upload which is a thousand. That doesn't work for me because the things I want to save are in a lot of pieces ranging from 2-8 1000 so its not going to work. Crap thats the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. Any others without a limit like this?

[Semsem 0]

Well, if I were you, I'd take the machine to a computer guy (who has an external) and see how much he'd charge to back up, down-grade OS, and restore files.But, simplest way...just go out and buy an external (it'd be the easiest thing to do).

[munna.raghav 0]

Hi Zagubadu..You didn't tell me the size of your hard disk. I think you must have partitioned your hard disk. So if you have more than one partition then there is no problem in backing up your data. Just copy your data to a partition which is not your system(OS) partition and then then format that system partition and install XP on that partition. I haven't used windows 7, I guess it also uses NTFS file system, so there will be no problem in reading those files in XP.If you have only one partition then, you might have to look for other ways like the above said online backups or external drives or burning to DVDs etc.

Edited January 31, 2010 by munna.raghav (see edit history)

[truefusion 3]

Hard drives are pretty cheap today. If you are just looking for a way to temporarily back up certain files, get a cheap hard drive (e.g. this one (SATA) or this one (IDE)) and use that. Second option could be partitioning your current HDD (after a constant defrag, of course) and placing the files there, assuming you have the space to do so. Third, and perhaps as a last resort, is burning your files to DVDs or something. I would never recommend using any file-sharing or online back-up services for this.

[Soviet Rathe 1]

Your best options is the methods listed above^I always have several partitions on my Hard drive for different files, music, programs etctheres a chance by default you have a partition already made, eg D:// instead of C://

[anwiii 17]

why not just store your important stuff on dvd's....or better yet, create a partition and store them there where you can then just clean out your c:i really don't like vista too much but i love the feature that allows me to shrink the volume of my c drive where then i can create another partition and store files. windows7 should have this feature too in disk management. if you were planning on reformatting your whole hard drive, then this would present a problem, but you said you only wanted to back up your files before installing xp.if it's only around 8 gigs of your important data and programs, the flash drives are cheap. around $20. or, like truefusion said, an external hd with a crap load of storage(between 2-400 gigs) would run about $100.

[evilsmiley25 0]

You would be better off just storing files on your external hard drive, might be the easiest and hassle-free way.If you upload them to a website, then you will need to re-download them, and depending on your download speed, this can take a long amount of time and time consuming process.I am glad I didn't upgrade to Windows 7 now.

[BuffaloHelp 24]

I will admin, I still love Windows XP (any version). It's been working stable for me and it's nice to find administrative stuff. Windows Vista and Windows 7 are all based on similar core technology, but somehow Windows XP still makes it easier to do things.Either that, I've dealt with Windows XP so much I am embedded with how it operates.