[rizzle]

Originally Posted by SeanGAR

Great advice. As long as the drive is readable, you should never reformat if you have important files on the drive, rescue them first.

Another option is to have a linux live cd around that you can boot to and use as a rescue disk. Boot to cd, copy important HD files to usb, verify them, and only then do the fdisk/format.

What I also do is to clone the hard drive after all of the software and updates are installed on a clean installation. That way you can quickly get the computer up and running with very little work. I clone to an HD in an external enclosure, so a simple swap will get the computer running again.

File backups are something else, I backup modified files daily and take a backup home weekly. Old school, I run xcopy as a scheduled task or manually for the external.

I also have a portable at home that has the same software installed so if my desktop burned I would be able to work.

Wha??