Hiren's boot cd not finding my external HDD

[joebudz]

Hi, as you all know, windows 8 release preview has expired, now i need to go back to windows 7, which requires a "clean install", Now the problem is that windows 8 restarts every two hours because of the expiration, making it impossible for me to backup my pc, any suggestions?, I tried hirens boot cd, loaded mini xp, but it doesn't pick up my external HDD, which i want to copy my files to

 

[mi1ez]

what sort of backup are you looking to do? Have you tried a Linux livedisk?

 

[the great randini]

sometimes with exteral drives they are nothing more than a standard hdd, with a sata to usb adapter. remove the outside case and see if in fact it is a standard hdd.
you could then just connect it up with a external doc or add it internal.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153071

 

[joebudz]

what sort of backup are you looking to do? Have you tried a Linux livedisk?

I'm trying to backup my entire pc

 

[getochkn]

You don't need to backup your whole PC. Backing up the windows folder is useless as that Windows is expired. Backing up program files is useless as you'll have to reinstall all your programs anyways once you reinstall Windows. Really you just need to backup downloaded stuff, pics, documents, etc, that you want to keep. Trying just copying the stuff to your external drive, keeping the copying small so it doesn't reboot after 2 hours. Copy just your pics, then see how much time has went by, if you still have an hour, try to copy a few more GB and go from there.

 

[J_E_D_70]

^ +1