Topic awaiting preservation: File Loss Likelihood (Page 1 of 1)

So according to my college's user and coverage agreement - they want XP Professional, while I only have XP Home. So we bought the software - at a student rate - and now I'm ready to go about installation.

How possible , or is it likely, that something could go horribly wrong and that I'd lose files (music mostly)?

Does saving mp3 files as data files on a CD and not a playable disc work? work as a possible temporary backup method?

Saving MP3 as a file onto a cd as files won't do anything wrong to them. In fact that is what I do so I can play them on the mp3 player in my car. And you should backup anyway, I always ALWAYS backup when I install Windows, sometimes it goes flawlessly, but there is always a chance something will go wrong.

Ya you should be able to just toss everything into a data CD - but don't just take my word for it, try it out.

When in doubt, backup, don't delete - even if it takes a long time. It sucks more if you wake up the next day and think "Oh, crap...I deleted {insert priceless data}!".

After all that, tell your college they're total idiots (or just greedy scam-artists). They're requiring you to purchase another version of the exact same OS, and an OS that sucks in any version. With the proper amount of bitching I'm sure you could get out of it, but it may take a whole lot (basing this on the idiocy of colleges I've experienced).

If the college isn't actually going to check up on you, and you don't know of any specific reason why it matters that you have Professional instead of Home, you might consider waiting on the upgrade to see if it's actually necessary.

Definitely burn important things to CD before doing anything as big as an OS upgrade. Test the CDs after burning, too.


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and you don't know of any specific reason why it matters that you have Professional instead of Home

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One possible reason is authenticating through a Windows domain.

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Does saving mp3 files as data files on a CD and not a playable disc work?

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Of course. It's all just data. Data doesn't care where it's stored. And I too play "raw" mp3s on my diskman.

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Definitely burn important things to CD before doing anything as big as an OS upgrade. Test the CDs after burning, too.

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Best advice you'll hear all day!

Thanks, that's all what I expected to hear I guess. Its not even so much my college necessity as it is my father insisting on the software (its already sitting next to me on my desk).

I will burn the 500-600 some files as data, I can save about a fourth of them on a flash drive too I guess. But yes, I should be backing up anyway, very little of my rightfully paid for music collection is on a random Mix CD.

Thanks - I will report back to let you know how my first stupid OS "upgrade" goes. - Ryan

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