FreeAgent Products

[hilliard_w]

 I recently purchased the  500 G  FreeAgent Go. I intend to use it as a temporary hard drive so that I can clean my

hard drive. I have numerous programs/files that have fragmented my HD and the defrag system maintenance, nor

removing old programs,  will help my comp. run any faster.

How do I use the FreeAgent to backup actual programs, such as "The Print Shop", which I no longer have the install

cds.

Or can I only use it for documents/pictures?

Thanks for any advice.

[Paul H]

You should be able to use your external drive to back up programmes in the same way you back up other files: just copy the files (which will probably be located in your Programs directory) onto your Seagate.

Once you've reformatted your drive, you should be able to copy the files back. You will then need to run the install programs in order to get them useable. Remember, you'll also need the key codes or other registration codes in order to complete the installation.

How are you planning to "erase" your hard drive? Reformat or simply reinstall your OS? I would recommend the latter first because you may find you can do it without losing your data files.

I've been doing the same myself recently (which is why I also bought a Seagate).

Good luck.

[MrButkus]

You can't "backup" programs just by copying the directories... they are installed with all kinds of extra files placed in "Windows" directories and items added to the registry.

You can create and "image" of a HD and have that copied to the external.  That copies everything on the HD, should the HD die or get corrupt.  There is Acronis True Image  that can do that.

You can't use that image to restore to another PC as the hardware codes are copied.  Nor restore to your PC if you change the motherboard (hardware).

Hence if you are "cleaning out" the old HD, you would just be restoring the same junk and problems.

To "reinstall" Windows, you can copy your data (all files, E-mail and address book)

I would suggest you purchase a new HD and reinstall your data (from the copy on the Segate) on the new XP install.  That would require you to reinstall (with all the codes and settings) any software.