windows OS install?

Question

I'd like to install windows on a harddrive that has no OS installed, but a lot of precis data which i cannot back up.

thanks.

Answer 1

If you have a lot of data on that drive and you can not back it up I would leave it alone.

However...if you really want to put windows on it and you want to take the risk that I would not personally take...and if that drive was originally formatted as a primary partition, not an extended and logical drive...then you can actually install windows on it and not lose your data.

Just make sure you do not choose to format that drive during the install process.

I think you are wreckless if you do this but it can be done.

Answer 2

i presume the disk had certain partitions in which your data was kept if your data was kept in different drives try geting it done in a single drive...... this can be done by connecting in parralel your hard drive to an exisiting computer. Now once your data is in one certain drive. Insert the hard disk in your system and insert windows disk. now when stup menu comes format the drive only in which you want to install windows prefer C: drive the other partition remains intact!

IF YOU CANNOT CONNECT YOUR DRIVE IN PARALLEL
partition the existing drive of around 5 GB and install windows there.

Answer 3

Boot from the Windows Install CD. During the partioning phase, explicitly choose not to repartition the drive. That way after Windows Setup -- your files are still intact.

Answer 4

First, install the hardrive with no OS as a slave. then off-load your data to the C: drive or dvd, cds, whatever. Once you've off-loaded your data, you can install the windows OS as you wish.

Answer 5

The data will not be wiped if you choose "Leave current file system intact" at the start of the Windows setup process.