Hi, im a bit of a begginer when it comes to computers. I have recently added a another 40GB hard drive to the 10GB i already had, i was wondering weather i could store all my important thinks like windows and my broadband modem drivers and graphics card drivers etc to the smaller 10 GB hard drive and put a password on this hard drive so that nothing else could be saved to it withouut my permission, as i keep getting alot of viruses and unwanted things so i have to whipe my hard drive. If i could do this i could then store all the day to day files and downloads to the larger hard drive and if it got too infected i could jus whip the larger hard drive and i wouldnt need to reinstall windows.

please could someone help, i have posted threads on other sites and no one will help me as i am only 15 and dont realy no what im doing when it comes to computers


thanx.

what operating system?
and yes you can store the drivers on the 10 gig drive as far as password protecting it not sure about that, but if your 40 gig drive gets corrupt than all your drivers and stuff on the 10 gig shouldn't get corrupt, they are 2 different drives. try running adaware se and spy bot search and destroy 1.3,
spy bot also has a program built in called teatimer it helps block things coming into your system. download AVG antivirus it is free and so are the updates.clean your PC once amonth at least with these programs.

If the drive is attached to a running OS then it has some degree of vulnerability.

I would suggest you clone the drive with your base OS and drivers...

You could also create a compressed image of the OS if your base system is over 10gig...

You can physically unplug the data cable until you have a problem and want a backup or you can configure your coms to NOT autodetect and tell it you dont even have a second drive...

Just a couple of suggestions....

I personally have my base OS burned onto a DVD...
A clean fresh install takes less than 15 minutes...

I also have a linux partition that I keep an image of my base Windows OS on for safe keeping.

I also have two bootable livecd Linux OS, (Mepis as well as Knoppix)

Hope this helps...

Can i ask what program you use to burn /chost you os to dvd as this is what i would like to do the next time i reinstall winxp SP2 .

Hello,

I like the idea of placing that infomation on removable media, such as a CD-ROM or a DVD. I would make a second disk, and store that information in another location, in the event of a fire, or misplacement.

As long as you are running as the root/administrator of the computer, you cannot lock down the file system, aside from some encryption schemes that are beyond the scope of what you are trying to do. If you had a server, you could make a private share for that information, and then unmount that sharepoint when not in use, but that is not very practical.

Christian

Caperjack, Sorry I didnt respond sooner but I have been busy with Linux...

I am hooked... I still keep windows for games and keeping it fresh in my mind when helping others...

To answer your question Nero 6 will make the backup to DVD.... Norton Ghost 7 will also make an image but the process is not quite as automated... Making the disc bootable and having ghost 7 run... Norton 6.5 will do up to NT but not XP...

Again, sorry I didnt answer sooner...
Paul

thanx guys, great help