switching to vista

[computeruler]

I will be switching to windows vista and i have a lot of music with no way to back it up.  Is there a way that i can keep the files on a hard drive so they will still be there when i install vista?

[patio]

Burn them to CD/DVD...they will play fine in Vista.

[computeruler]

i dont have 80gb worth of cd/dvds

[computeruler]

what if i just installed it from windows xp? i herd people doing that nd it had some sort of file on there with the things from xp

[Spoiler]

you can look at a external hard drive...they are cheap now. Just copy your files on it

Or if you want to be really cheap...look for online storage places that are free....some give you 10 gigs or more of room. Just make a few accounts up and copy your data up in chunks.

[computeruler]

ok someone else told me i can do the upgrade install so im doing it right now

[Broni]

Don't!
Clean install is always the best way.

[computeruler]

yes ive figured that out hahaha i installed from xp and i got a black screen when it booted up saying something about vista boot loader and some other stuff and i couldnt boot xp or vista or linux ilive cd.  So i installed it again and i want to know... how does it format a whole hard drive in 10 seconds!? lost all of my 18k songs

[patio]

how does it format a whole hard drive in 10 seconds!? lost all of my 18k songs

You're kidding right ? ? ?
What happened to the 3 responses that mentioned doing backups first ? ?

I give up.

[Broni]

Yeah. C'mmon, man, you've been around long enough to know better.
Even, if you went for an upgrade, to which we said NO, you have to backup your files.

What's the current situation?
Form full sentences in your answer.

[computeruler]

i have nothing to back it up on! they told me that it would still be there in a file called windows.old but it wouldnt work when I installed it the 1st time so i did it again. Its a good thing that music only cost me $15 and it stopped wanting to convert to a lower bit rate.  I think i will buy a new hard drive (500gb) and when I do that i will get another zune pass and get more music! but still how does it format in 10 seconds

[Broni]

i have nothing to back it up on!

If you don't, then you don't go ahead with an upgrade, but you wait until you do have something to back up your data.
What was a such big deal about Vista, that it couldn't wait for a while?
Now, you have nothing, no songs, and no Windows.

how does it format in 10 seconds

What do you mean by "format"?
When you upgrade, nothing gets formatted.

Tell us slowly, what exactly happened, and what is the CURRENT situation with that computer?

[computeruler]

ok after I did it in xp it broke like I said.  I restarted with the disk in and I clicked format (becuase i figured i had no other option) and it did it in 10 seconds.  I reinstalled vista again and its working fine, just no music.  I only did the upgrade because i figured the stuff would be there in a file called windows.old.  Its ok though because it was taking too much room on my hard drive and only cost $15.  I will buy another one when I get a new hard drive.  btw, what is that camra sound that keeps going off?

[Broni]

what is that camra sound that keeps going off?

Huh?

[computeruler]

every once in awhile there is a camra sound. might be someone signing on/off aim but idk