My Documents on separate drive - XP reinstall

cookie_365 · 03-12-2006, 15:22

Hi all

Anyone know much about what happens to files in 'My Documents' when you reinstall XP?

At the moment I've got the 'My Documents' folder on XP Pro on the root of my D: drive (using the right click on My Documents, Properties, Target = D:\ method).

The contents won't fit on the C: drive.

I want to completely reinstall XP but am worried about losing my data.

What I'm thinking of is this:

1. Create a folder on D: called 'Temporary My Docs'
2. Change the My Documents target to point to that folder.
3. Create another folder on D: called 'Safe Store'
4. Copy the entire contents of 'Temporary My Docs' into 'Safe Store'
5. Reinstall XP

I'm assuming that when I reinstall XP the contents of 'Safe Store' won't be connected to my XP account as it's not a special folder, so will be safe. And also that steps 2 and 4 won't take any time as the source and destination drives are both the same.

And of course I'll back up to removable storage first, but that'll take ages.

Am I on the right lines here?

Or am I being a

??

Thanks

MadGamer · 03-12-2006, 15:31

If D is a seperate drive & XP is Installed on C then i dont think it will affect it. The same goes for partitions, if the documents etc are on a different partition to XP then again i dont think it will affect it.

swoop101 · 03-12-2006, 16:12

When you reinstall, just right click on the 'my documents' Icon and change the drive letter from C to D in the target window and you will still have all the contents from before.

cookie_365 · 03-12-2006, 16:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by swoop101

When you reinstall, just right click on the 'my documents' Icon and change the drive letter from C to D in the target window and you will still have all the contents from before.

Thanks

greencreeper · 03-12-2006, 17:04

I would still have a backup of the documents, just in case something goes wrong. I don't entirely trust Windows

r00t · 03-12-2006, 17:32

Start-My documents folder-right click-properties-select move. Simple.
I did this a few days ago and had no problems.

Hope this helps

cookie_365 · 03-12-2006, 17:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by greencreeper

I would still have a backup of the documents, just in case something goes wrong. I don't entirely trust Windows

Just doing it now