Upgrading to Vista Ultimate...few questions

[skippy24060]

I currently have Vista Business loaded on my laptop, an I am getting ready to install Vista Ultimate. I am upgrading using a copy of Ultimate on a DVD. When I install it, it is going to wipe my system clean and get rid of all programs and files I currently have.

So my question is, what is the best way to back everything up. I have a external hard-drive in which I can save all of my files to. I have never backed-up a program before. Is there any way for me to back up my programs such as MS Office and other programs I have on my computer? Sorry for the dumb question, I am a noob with doing this type of stuff.

 

[PC eye]

Depending on the size of the external drive and how space will be needed Vista has it's own backup feature included for saving files, folders, and even user settings. But plan on seeing the drive at least reformatted if not deleting the current partition in favor of a brand new one.

You will be starting entirely over since Vista favors a fresh partition to install onto. That means everything will need to be reinstalled. If you simply choose the upgrade option to to preserve files and folders with the old Windows, users, and Program Files folders rolled up into a new Windows.old archive your files are there but softwares needed to be installed all over again with the new system registry.