Cleaning off an old WIndows XP System

[Pyro]

I’ve found myself an old Dell XPS 410, it runs windows xp and has some files on it I would like to save before reimaging with a new OS, is there any way to make sure I don’t lose important photos etc? I don’t know if this is the right topic either but I imagined it was?

Thank you!

[jmarket]

Well there are a couple of ways to go about this.

Depending on the amount of data you wish to save, you could simply copy the files you want to keep onto an external drive.

Or you could image your current drive with Macrium reflect free or Aomei backupper free, also to an external drive. Doing this will allow you to later restore any files from your current xp system and also allow you to fully restore xp to your machine later if you wish.

Also make sure your Dell will support whatever os you plan to install on it.

[Pyro]

Well there are a couple of ways to go about this…

I’ve manually copied most all of them, I just want to make sure nothing get lost in case I missed something. I thought about Macrium, but I was unsure if that would work. And I was not aware that windows only worked on certain pc’s, is there a way to tell?

Thanks!

[Bruce]

Budget permitting, I would remove the hard drive and whack it into an external caddy.
Two things: all data is kept as is and then later the external drive can be used as a backup medium.

next I would either get a new, bigger drive or upgrade to a SSD drive for extra speed on that old rig. Then you can install a new OS o to a new, fast, reliable drive.

[Evan_Omo]

Hi Pyro. I would copy any files to an external hard drive and then once the data in copied off the Windows drive, just perform a clean re-install of Windows XP and all of the data that was on the drive will be removed.

[Pyro]

I would quite like to just replace the HDD, possibly runs some servers or something or another off it, since it’s obviously not good for anything that’s too intensive. I just want to make sure nothing is lost, since there’s so many hidden folders and all that.

[Rustys]

Have you backed up you personal data off the system

Why not install a simple version of Linux

The hidden folder and files that you are looking at are probably used only by the operating system only unless you manually created the directory and manually put the files there.

[Pyro]

Have you backed up you personal data off the system…

I think I backed most all of the files up, but I’m not positive, I just wanted to know if there was a way to know for sure, I’ve never run linux but I wouldn’t be opposed to it.

[Rustys]

You could always use the live version of Linux and see which one you like and to make sure that it works with your system before you install.

[jmarket]

@Pyro , do you need any further assistance with this?

[Pyro]

Honestly I have no idea, I can’t work with the computer right now as I have no cables for it, but I’ll be back with a different thread if it doesn’t work. I’ll try Linux Live. Thanks for the help everyone, happy holidays!

[jmarket]

Thanks for letting us know, Merry Christmas to you as well.

Thread closed

[Evan_Omo]

Thanks for the update.