Going legit

[Rubie]

For the past 5 years I've been using leaked or pirated software mainly windows xp at one point i had windows xp media center oem when i purchased my dell but things happened n it got messed up so i reformatted but lately ive run in to problems as you see in my last post so im going to start fresh and legit im going to take MJC's advice and use Dban my drive and purchase a copy of windows xp home


Should I buy

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116511
or
http://www.buycheapsoftware.com/deta...uctID~2514.asp

Or do you guys have a better link to buy legit xp home for a lower price

Also what are good recovery methods what is ghost?
And most importantly i want to back up alot of files and folders what's the best program to use?

thanks in advance

[hockey man]

Neither of your links worked for me. Newegg is the place to shop.

[Budfred]

NewEgg is cheaper than that other site and probably a lot more reliable:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116511

[mjc]

The Buycheapsoftware.com site is probably one of the most reliable of the 'discount' software houses. The one advantage that they have over 99% of the rest of them is that they send you the shrink-wrapped 'real' media...including boxes, manuals, etc...but their prices aren't all that great.

[Sylvander]

"i want to back up a lot of files and folders what's the best program to use?"
1. Begin with the way you partition the drive, and where you store what.
e.g. Move [almost] all data files off C:.
Keep only Windows and Programs on C: [make the partition only slightly larger than the contents] and use an image backup program loaded from a disk other than the HDD [floppy or optical][and running outside of Windows (Windows not loaded)] to make and restore the image files.
Ideally you'd save the images to a folder on a partition on an external HDD.
Image for DOS (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads-image-for-dos.htm) is the prog I normally use; by far my favourite, though I have others. It's simple to use, quick, never fails.
Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/) has a more fancy GUI, does lots, but is less simple to use.
Older versions may be got here or there as a free offer.
e.g. If you have a Seagate or Maxtor HDD:
This Seagate Disk Wizard is Acronis True Image renamed and is FREE. (http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=DiscWizard&vgnextoid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD )
The UBCD4Win = Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (http://www.ubcd4win.com/) is easy to make [I've made and used it], needs the XP installation fileset to be included in the build, provides an XP GUI, includes LOTS of useful utilities including various image backup programs that I've not yet tried.

2. With all your data files held on partitions other than C: it's easy and appropriate to backup those to folders [one folder for each internal data partition] on a partition on an external HDD, using a program [my favourite is the FREE version of SyncBack (http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/)] that runs WITHIN WINDOWS.
There's no need to run a restore of DATA FILES from outside of Windows.
e.g. Assuming Windows won't boot:
When you restore [back to C:] a recent image backup of C:, that would include a working copy of SyncBack, so with a good image restored, you can boot into Windows and then run a SyncBack restore of the data partitions.
This can be used to get back up and running even if the internal HDD has failed and been replaced.

[Paul Komski]

And most importantly i want to back up alot of files and folders what's the best program to use?
What's a lot?

If its a one off copy before wiping the drive you can just copy and paste them to an external drive or burn them to a CD/DVD as they are or compressed into a zip file.