for backing up your data there are servral ways i use these 2. i got 2 seprate harddrives in my computer that are for soely on there own for all my music and films and pics everything both 40 gig drives then i got a 80 gig drive for windows and programs that need to be installed on windows drive so when u format you lose nothing. second meothod. buy 8 gig flash drive and put all your pics on there then format your comp.
if you have a vista disk you can upgrade to vista and then 7. Know what is stupid? I can upgrade Server 2003 to 7 (well 2008 R2 but same thing one is a server os the other is client but you guys get the picture), but not XP. WTF MS? Just because you hate XP doesn't mean you should make people have to refresh their machines.
Come on, who will be stupid enough to upgrade from XP to 7 without bypassing Windows Vista? I think you should go and do a clean install.
I think the thread is more than 3 years old and the thread starter may or may not be active now a days, so who will listen?