Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Reformatting a computer erases everything on the primary hard drive, so it's important to save your data first. Backup solutions are often best.
My husband wants to reformat his computer, because of a virus. He wants to save certain files, and wants to know the best way to save those files.
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First, I want to commend you on realizing that a reformat of your machine erases everything. Sadly, many people don't realize or overlook this aspect.
There are two approaches that I recommend, and the choice boils down to understanding exactly how confident you are that you won't miss anything.
And for the record, I'm never that confident, myself.
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If you want to be totally, absolutely sure you don't miss something important, then you want to take a complete backup image of your computer.
By that I mean use a backup program line Acronis TrueImage or an equivalent, and backup your entire machine, most likely to an external hard disk.
Now, ideally this should mean no extra work on your part. Why? Because you should already be backing up regularly. It's perhaps the single most important thing you can do to prevent data loss due to any number of different disasters.
So if you are backing up regularly, just make sure you have a complete image of everything prior to reformatting.
If you're not backing up regularly, well then now would be a perfect time to start.
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I'm going to assume that this wasn't the answer you were looking for. I strongly recommend that you backup and use a backup-based solution, but let's assume for a moment that you actually are totally protected in some other way and simply don't need to.
I'm also going to assume you know exactly which files you need
to save; the entire list. I'll presume that you won't miss a single file that you'll
be sorry to have missed later. (Yes, I'm still nudging you back to a
backup based solution. Subtle, eh? 
)
In that case, your options are actually fairly simple:
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Copy the file(s) to floppy disks
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Copy the file(s) to a USB flash drive
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Copy the file(s) to an external hard disk
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Copy (or "burn") the file(s) to a CD or DVD
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Copy the file(s) to another machine on your local area network
Really, that's all there is to it. The bottom line is that you need to copy those files to some other place so that you can copy them back after your machine has been reformatted.
Of the options above, I tend to prefer burning them to CDs or DVDs.
Why?
Because that way you've also created a permanent backup of the files at the same time.
Yes, when it comes to backing up, I have a bit of a one-track mind.
Article C3469 - August 7, 2008 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
August 19, 2008 9:06 AM
Leo,
You haven't mentioned the registry in this thread. When a hard drive is rebuilt from scratch, the new registry will be "clean". Why not restore the full image to a new folder, named something like "Restored from backup of Old Drive on MM-DD-YY". With the entire old folder structure under that one new folder, nothing in the registry will be pointing to those restored folders and files.
I then give myself a few months to "remember" what I forgot to restore into the new operational folders. If I haven't needed to recover anything for say, 6 months, I just delete that one folder and get all my disk space back.
By the way, the next time I run a full system scan, it finds the malware files in the "old" area and deletes them at that time.
I have a lot of respect for your thoughts on this Leo. If there is a flaw in my thinking here, please say so.
-Leo
September 4, 2008 7:00 PM
Please help! I have a virus so I'm trying to back up my pc and get rid of the virus and then restore my files. The problem is when I try this I get an error message saying catastrophic failure (0x8000ffff), what should I do!!! HELP!!! Ken
October 25, 2008 7:25 AM
I have read through all of this and I was wondering if you know what to do in a situation where you can't start up windows, can't get to a DOS prompt, etc.... How can I get to my files to back them up now? I have an external hard drive and I want to do a full system recovery but I can't bring myself to do it until I have copied all my pictures, music files and documents over tot he external hd. Please help if you can. The manufacturer suggested going to someplace which services my brand of laptop, but that just reeks $$$$$. I'm fairly good at figuring things out myself and would rather give myself a headache fixing this instead of paying someone else to do something as simple as backing up a file. I just need to know if there is some way to get these files out of harms way.. . . Thanks, Lisa
All this assumes that the drive is actually working, by the way. If not then it's probably time for a technician's advice on the specific failure.
Finally, I have to point out that regular backups would prevent this crisis, so once you're set up again be sure to start backing up.
26-Oct-2008
October 28, 2008 9:12 AM
In a case like Lisa's, SpinRite could very well be the solution. It fixes or relocates bad sectors and can often restore the usability of drives that have become so corrupt that windows cannot load or where the file system is unrecognizable. It saved my data last week, even if I did have to force mount my drive afterwards with a linux live cd to copy the files.
October 28, 2008 11:40 AM
I think Knoppix is a good solution.
http://www.shockfamily.net/cedric/knoppix/