ezzra

You have been to a few techie shops and you speak the language but they don't do as they are told. Buggers!

First point of note: doing a comprehensive backup/restore isn't a while-you-wait activity.

Second point of note: a comprehensive backup/restore needs to be planned and structured and never an 'over-the-shoulder' task with anyone.

I have recovered and restored my laptops and PC's for years. Most have been caused by system upgrades but a few have been forced on me due to technical issues and HD failures but I am still batting 1000. Some of my buddies have asked me if I can do the same for them but they too don't want to lose anything. However, most of them don't help much by being unable to tell me exactly what they want saving and it usually ends up in a pissing contest because 'I am not listening' to them when in reality, they haven't a clue about what they are asking for or don't realize how time consuming and complex it can get. The worst aspect is usually this is their ONLY working machine so they want it done now and be finished in a couple of hours... for a beer.

Since you will forever be at the risk of getting something 'lost in translation', I reckon what you need to do is buy an external USB hard drive, say 500Gb maximum. Then take a long, quiet weekend and sit down with your laptop and locate ALL the stuff that you can't afford to lose by file name and location. Back the files up to the external drive. If you use a regular POP3 or IMAP email client, then you will need to backup your emails too (most of my mates didn't appreciate that email backup aint a simple point and click exercise). I would imagine that you have favourites and saved url's in the web browser(s) that you use so you need to export them to that they can be imported into your new installation. Also, make a list of all the programs that you have installed, then over a glass of wine or a beer, whittle that list down to what you want to re-install on your 'new' machine. There's about 30% of programs downloaded and installed on a 'trial and error' basis, to fix a one-off situation, just old and obsolete and never, ever used again so you don't need them.

When you are happy that you have all the files saved and only you know what files you want, then it is time to learn how to use that recovery disk (if you want to clean install the Vista o/s. The alternative is to go online and download and install the Win7 compatibility checker then run it. This will indicate pretty conclusively if your 'legacy' laptop will (mostly) work with Win7. If it passes the test, buy it, download it and install it. That way you have a genuine product and not that hacked crap that you have seen them try and foist on you at the local traps. The Win7 installer is pretty impressive at getting the right drivers for your peripherals but if in doubt, you can always go to the online support pages for your laptop BEFORE YOU CHANGE ANYTHING and download and save the Win7 drivers to the external HD.

Now, after you have either restored or clean-installed your laptop and reinstalled your programs, you can plug in the external HD and either copy your backed up files en masse back to their new homes on the laptop which will be time consuming. I would recommend working for a few weeks with the external HD attached and only copy back the files on an as-needed basis. Once again, you may be surprised at how much of that precious backup is obsolete or otherwise redundant.

If the above does seem beyond your technical savvy and there's no shame in admitting that, then my rates are US$150/hour for standard service and US$300/hour for expedited service.

The advice in this post is free.