When you back up a hard drive, and later restore it on a empty hard drive, do you have to reinstall windows?

Question

I want to install Linux on my computer and make a multi-boot system (Linux/Windows), but it says that I have to add a new partition to the hard drive, therefore formatting it. I have an external hard drive that I can back up to, but when I copy everything back, do I have to reinstall Windows, and will the registry be the same as before?

Answer 1

Your best bet is to format of the hard drive then create two partitions: one for windows and one for Linux. Next, decide how much memory you will be using for each operating system and create the partitions to your individual needs . On the windows partition choose to do a clean install under the advanced section of the windows xp install disc to the partition you would like. Next to a clean install of Linux on the other partition. As far as backing up your current files and folders, just save all those personal files and folders (not the windows ones) like your music, movies, text documents and so on. Then in your newly installed windows place your personal files and folders back. Transferring all the windows files and folders is not recommended and would not be something i would personally do. I wouldn't trust the files to work properly and would worry about,losing valuable information and time. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Why do that, put the Linux on the external drive, install a boot manager, and there you go, Windows remains the same it will boot and ask you which one you would like to boot to, etc. Partition Manager has a real good Boot Manager. Good Luck

Answer 3

yes you can but be careful in the option of backup and restore