"Upgrading" Media Center

[amarine88]

I currently have a Sony Vaio runnign at 3.2 Ghz i think about 512 mb ram and a 140 gig hardrive. It currently has XP Home and I think i am gonna get Media Center. I know i have to back-up and pretty much delete the hard drive for this to work. I have a couple questions:

1. What should I use to back-up? (I have an external HDD just need to know what program is the best, i need one that will allow me to move the files back individually without using the program so i can move some documents back but not all.)

2. I have alot of programs and saved things liek saved games that i want. I alos have some spyware and stuff that i od not want. Will i be able to decide what i want re-installed or will i have to keep everything on the hard-drive. Re-install the programs i want, and move all the saved files individually?

Thanx-
-Marine


*EDIT*: My computer also came with some pre-installed soft ware and an internal video capture card. Will I be able to keep all of that, will i need to get the drivers for the card, and will it be possible for media center to work with the card? (Right now only Giga-Pocket will access it and i need to stream TV to my 360.)

 

[jac006]

From my experience, reinstalling a new OS will delete all stored info. Including all those preincluded softwares. I would back up all video on an external, and then go and install them later on. I would use norton's ghost or some other program like that to help you transfer pc's. But yeah, I think the programs would disappear.

 

[TeleFragX]

norton's ghost - NO! Check with your manufature first i know some sony and packard bell laptops screw up with it and i mean screw up as in currupts ya HDD! It did to me i had to RMA it back!

 

[jac006]

Fine, then pcbackup or something like. There are plenty of programs out there.