After a fresh install, what is your procedure to get things back how they were?

Akagi

Akagi

Akagi

Caporegime
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29 Jul 2011
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In acme's chair.
Hi guys, what exactly do you do to get your PC back how it was before you did a fresh install?

Do you store install packages for programs on another drive for ease of re-installing, or do you download and install everything again manually?

Are there any sites you can use to bulk-download common software (like Flash, Java etc)?

Also please add anything else you feel may be relevant :)

I will be doing my first re-install in 2 years soon (its long overdue haha) so I just thought I would post this in the hope that someone has a nifty time saving method which I didnt think of for getting things back in order :)
 
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Normally when i fresh install i start from scratch so everything is new , Games , programs , etc.I do sometimes keep my downloaded stuff on an external (films,etc)

Dont think i can help ya speed things up as its a time consuming process,plus windows will have about 3 million updates to download and install !! :P
 
Ninite, generally don't have installers kept locally unless it's something I want a specific version of - ordinarily I'd rather have the latest version.

Steam is kept locally, never delete the folder entirely, just the root contents to allow it to refresh the installs.

Rarely use any disks other than Windows install ones, Libre office etc I get after reinstalling windows, but generally I could now on Windows 8 avoid a reinstall, but I'll do it anyway once 8.1 is out as an excuse for a clear out of programs I'm no longer using and to alter RAID config.
 
These days
Control panel > restart (created custome image using the provided tool, which is super easy)

Job done. Everything installed, all software there.

Game saves, files, photos etc are all on skydive, so they auto sync if the HDD was formatted.
 
Me too, what I do is:

-Install Windows
-Install latest versions of all drivers
-Install all windows updates
-Copy over documents folder
-Install latest versions of apps I want to use

In the old days (10+ years ago) I used to have installers for everything lined up but nowadays they become outdated pretty quickly and even my crappy internet can pull down most things within an acceptable timeframe.

To be fair the only time I reinstall Windows nowadays is if I've built a new PC anyway.
 
What Hangtime said. I even just reinstall all my Steam games, my connection pulls them down pretty fast nowadays anyway.
 
Close to Hangtime (red is different) although with windows 8 it will most likely just be a 'complete wipe to stock install' but this would be my approach

-Install Windows
-Install latest versions of all drivers
-Install all windows updates
- Sort out drive letters/names (not needed usually) to my preference.
- Redirect the relevent links to my 'storage' drives - I have my user info/my documents, media and downloads on separate drives outside of my os drive.
-Install latest versions of apps I want to use
- Do any updates/synchronisations/configurations of my apps/utils - example firefox sync, bvckup file/drive sync etc
- remove/delay any start items I don't want starting up straight away
 
Gamesaves are my biggest concern to be honest, i'm going to have to locate them all :rolleyes:

I also have a-lot of paid for software and ill-legit software so all that stuff is going to be a PITA to sort out, but it will get done. :p

And then it will get left for another 2 years :D
 
Used to work with Norton Ghost and just restore when required. Nowadays installation is is so fast; Windows picks up most drivers and syncs most settings with a Live account in W8.

I Steam backup and Syncback my user folders to a separate hard drive prior. Although most Steam save-games are in the documents folder they also tend to linger in public documents, steamapps/common, steamapps/userdata, and users/user/appdata.
 
acme15 said:
Gamesaves are my biggest concern to be honest, i'm going to have to locate them all :rolleyes:

I also have a-lot of paid for software and ill-legit software so all that stuff is going to be a PITA to sort out, but it will get done. :p

And then it will get left for another 2 years :D
Click to expand...

Create a system image as well as P2V.
 
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