Desperately in need of help reformatting and reinstalling OS on my friend's PC.

[azterix_]

Basically my friend has had her PC for about 4yrs(Sony Vaio) and it's loaded with malware and god knows what, so she wanted me to do a clean reformat and upgrade from win 7 to 10. I have a day at her house, what disk drive utility do you recommend to clone the 2 500GB HDDS on her computer to my external 2TB WD drive so i can re add her files and stuff to the computer post-reinstall(and incase of screwup.) I got windows burned to my USB and just need to clone the two internal 500GB HDDs.

Also: what do you recommend I do for reformatting the computer post-backup so I can reinstall windows. (what software/procedure) Since this is my first time doing this, any advice on the matter is also welcome(how to backup drivers etc. etc.)

THANKS ALOT!

 

[nigelivey]

Just follow the on screen instructions, you cant really go wrong. Also, you dont really want to "clone" the 2 drives as much of it will be discarded, I would imagine you would get away with her "user" folder. You will need to take ownership of the folders in order to copy but this will pick up "documents" "pictures" "downloads" "music" and her "app data", this is important if she is using MS Office as he mail will be in there. All programs will have to fresh installed due to the change in OS.

 

[USAFRet]

OK, you can't do both (all 3, actually)
Install a new OS, and clone 2 x 500GB drives into a 1TB drive, and then somehow merge everything. And in the middle of this, upgrade to Win 10.

Doesn't work like that.

So, to proceed:
From the original VAIO system, this is what you need to save to your external drive
Any and all personal files.
All username/password combinations. Save these in a word doc or txt file
All serial numbers/licenses for any applications
All the relevant drivers for that Sony
All application install files for whatever she uses.

Now...the added complexity here is going from Win 7 to 10.
You do realize this involves buying Win 10, right? The free upgrade period ran out in July.


So, purchase Win 10
Install it.
Drivers and OS updates.
From the stuff on your external, install all the relevant applications.
Copy over all the personal files you saved.

 

[azterix_]

OK, you can't do both (all 3, actually)
Install a new OS, and clone 2 x 500GB drives into a 1TB drive, and then somehow merge everything. And in the middle of this, upgrade to Win 10.

Doesn't work like that.

So, to proceed:
From the original VAIO system, this is what you need to save to your external drive
Any and all personal files.
All username/password combinations. Save these in a word doc or txt file
All serial numbers/licenses for any applications
All the relevant drivers for that Sony
All application install files for whatever she uses.

Now...the added complexity here is going from Win 7 to 10.
You do realize this involves buying Win 10, right? The free upgrade period ran out in July.


So, purchase Win 10
Install it.
Drivers and OS updates.
From the stuff on your external, install all the relevant applications.
Copy over all the personal files you saved.

Hey yeah, I already have a spare copy of Windows 10 I was going to install to my PC(ended up going 7) that I ripped the iso from and burned to a USB.

I suppose I'll manually pick through her computer with her and pick out all the files she says she needs then from there use a driver backup utility(any suggestions?) reformat the drive(again, suggestions on doing this?,) boot up from my Win 10 USB and install windows. Sound ok you? =D

 

[nigelivey]

OK, you can't do both (all 3, actually)
Install a new OS, and clone 2 x 500GB drives into a 1TB drive, and then somehow merge everything. And in the middle of this, upgrade to Win 10.

Doesn't work like that.

So, to proceed:
From the original VAIO system, this is what you need to save to your external drive
Any and all personal files.
All username/password combinations. Save these in a word doc or txt file
All serial numbers/licenses for any applications
All the relevant drivers for that Sony
All application install files for whatever she uses.

Now...the added complexity here is going from Win 7 to 10.
You do realize this involves buying Win 10, right? The free upgrade period ran out in July.


So, purchase Win 10
Install it.
Drivers and OS updates.
From the stuff on your external, install all the relevant applications.
Copy over all the personal files you saved.

Hey yeah, I already have a spare copy of Windows 10 I was going to install to my PC(ended up going 7) that I ripped the iso from and burned to a USB.

I suppose I'll manually pick through her computer with her and pick out all the files she says she needs then from there use a driver backup utility(any suggestions?) reformat the drive(again, suggestions on doing this?,) boot up from my Win 10 USB and install windows. Sound ok you? =D

If you are just picking through files there is little point using a utility, just copy and paste. Reformatting again is very simple just use the built in tool when installing windows 10, it will walk you through it.

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Usually it is just her 'profile' the user name she uses when logged in under USERS directory that has her MY DOCUMENT, MY MUSIC, etc. BUT if she si on W7 x32, that changes alot and you would need to manually 'drag and drop' the contents you 'copied to the TB drive' to the new install (drag My Documents to Documents, drag My Music to Music, etc.).

Programs are NOT copyable at all and if she a Gamer there is a cheat for those on STEAM. You copy the folder over then after installing steam, close steam, drag the 'saved' steam folder (google how to move my steam folder for specifics) to the new install then select the games to 'install' and it will find the files there already after a while and 'complete the install'.

Alot of variables here to deal with and things to go wrong. It be best to start with the clean install with a good Antivirus (Avira, avg, Avast, etc.) and antimalware (Malwarebytes) installed BEFORE copying any files to the CLEAN system or your just going to 'reinfect it all over again'.