Lately Ive been having a ton of problems with my computer, all of which could be attributed to:

A) Corrupt Windows install.
B) Dying hard drive.
Or C) The fact that my power supply has about half the power my PC needs.

Because Id rather not dish out $100 for a new HDD or $200 for a new PSU, I'm going to hope with all ym little heart that it's a corrupt windows install, and try to deal with that for now.

So as of now, the situation is this; I want to format but I have about 200 Gb of data that needs backing up, I don't have and external drive to do this with, or a spare hard drive laying around. The partitioning tools int windows, along with Partition Magic, fail when trying to split my drive.

As far as I can tell this would suggest a dying HDD, but as I said, I'm trying to avoid it being that, or rather, trying to avoid thinking about it being that. So now I'm looking into options of fixing windows without formatting. The repair option on my Vista CD doesn't work, it's grayed out, or else I'd try that. Because of this I was thinking of just reinstalling Vista over my current Vista, or 7 over it, whichever is more recommended.

While I know that this can cause many issues, I have no further option right now. I don't have the money for an external drive to backup my files and, I have a TON of work that I really need to get done, so I can't wait any longer to fix this thing.

So I was just wondering, if I do this, would all my programs still be installed, or would I have to install them again? Would it dick about with any of my files? And finally, Vista or 7? I know everyone will say 7 in a normal situation, but I don't know how it works when installing it over another version of Windows.

Thanks d00ds, sorry for the longwindedness.

First of all, is all your stuff backed up? I'd hate for you to lose everything if it is a dying HDD. You can get 1TB drives for about $60, or less space for less... I'd really recommend that if you need to back up or if your drive is dying.
I'm pretty sure you'll have to reinstall your programs. If you upgrade from Vista to 7 using the "upgrade" option, I don't think any of your files will be touched, but I'd make sure they were backed up first. And yeah, I'd go with 7. I've never tried Vista, to be fair, but I don't really care to.
Hope that helps.

I really doubt you'd regret this: https://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...e&promoid=1267

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-stwert

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-->How to Effectively Ask Questions on Forums<--

but buying a harddrive is cheaper than buying windows 7....

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that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

Computer skills I should have:
Objective C, C#, Java, MEL. Python, C++, XML, JavaScript, XSLT, HTML, SQL, CSS, FXScript, Clips, SOAR, ActionScript, OpenGL, DirectX
Maya, XSI, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Motion, Illustrator, Flash, Swift3D

That sucks. Storage is actually pretty cheap these days. Can you bum one off a buddy temporarily? Installing Win7 over another Win OS without formatting will just tuck the old OS files into a folder, I don't remember any files getting messed with (don't quote me on that though lol). However I believe a fresh format is ideal. Yes you will have to reinstall your programs, its a fresh OS after all.

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- Genny
__________________
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::|| My Maya FAQ ||::

but buying a harddrive is cheaper than buying windows 7....

Originally Posted by Chirone

You can get free educational OS's sometimes if you're a student.

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-stwert

Website - Blog - YouTube - Vimeo - Facebook - Twitter

-->How to Effectively Ask Questions on Forums<--

oh true... yeah i forgot i didnt pay for mine either. got it from IEEE

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that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

Computer skills I should have:
Objective C, C#, Java, MEL. Python, C++, XML, JavaScript, XSLT, HTML, SQL, CSS, FXScript, Clips, SOAR, ActionScript, OpenGL, DirectX
Maya, XSI, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Motion, Illustrator, Flash, Swift3D

I've managed to dig one of my old hard drives out of my closet, a 160 Gig, and I've ordered another SATA cable off eBay, so I guess when that cable comes I'm gonna try to cut out 50 gigs from the crap I need to back up...

I'll probably be back with more problems once that's in my mailbox :p