Windows reinstall checklist - am I missing anything?

TheBigCheese

TheBigCheese

TheBigCheese

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6 Sep 2005
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Well my PC is well and truly knackered...tonight for some bizarre reason it's decided to deauthenticate itself so I'm getting nag screens about it not being genuine software (it blooming well is!), so a reinstall is on the cards for Sunday.

I have a hell of a lot on this computer (not all on the boot drive) so the reason for this thread to make a checklist of all the things that might need to backup before reinstalling, hopefully it'll be useful to someone else as well. :)

Windows 7 C drive backup -
My docs/pics/games folder
Desktop data
Browser information - favourites / passwords etc
Email
Motherboard drivers
Graphics drivers
Check security software licensing information
Move data from the desktop

Steam...what should I do with that? The games are installed on another drive, do I reinstall Steam and point it at the Steam folder on the other drive?

Any other C drive information that I'm forgetting before I format it?
 
Be sure not to forget to backup any saved games you might have in the "C:\Users\username\Saved Games" folder. I completely forgot about this folder when I reinstalled and lost my Crysis 2 save and a few others :(

In regards to Steam, If the games are on another drive then you are ok. If you reinstall steam you should just need to point it at the old install and it "should" be ok. If you want to be a bit more cautious then I'd recommend moving the "steamapps" folder elsewhere temporarily whilst reinstalling steam then move the folder back afterwards.

I hope that helps a little
 
That's great stuff, thanks very much!

I'm really not wanting to do this, it's my work and games machine all rolled into one and has so many things on it it's unreal. :(

I was cleaning it out yesterday and removed all the drives, plugged them back in in a different order which was more logical and now every time it boots it installs "volume manager" and wants to reboot...couple that with having six unknown devices in device manager...it's probably all related and I've had enough of it!
 
Thanks for the reply. :)

I was thinking of using Clonezilla to make a copy of the drive in case I forget about anything before formatting, is that a better or system than Windows backup?
 
I'm in the same boat.

When I got Win7 last year it was wow it loads so fast. But now it's really slowed down seems to take an age for it to boot and I'm getting device errors. (I think my mobo and gfx card are both on the way out but I fancy a fresh win install as well.)

However when I try to do windows backup it says it needs around 10 days to perform :(

Do we really need to do a full format for fresh install with Win 7?
 
save yourself a load of time and dont format...

the w7 isntall will move windows, user and programs files folders to a folder called windows.old

obviously only works if you have enough space...
 
TheBigCheese said:
Thanks for the reply. :)

I was thinking of using Clonezilla to make a copy of the drive in case I forget about anything before formatting, is that a better or system than Windows backup?
Click to expand...

Windows Backup is fairly solid. You can even mount the .vhd file that it creates and it will appear as a drive under Windows Explorer.
 
fluff said:
Windows Backup is fairly solid. You can even mount the .vhd file that it creates and it will appear as a drive under Windows Explorer.
Click to expand...

Good grief that's pretty amazing! What would it back up? Is it the full Windows drive or is it Windows and it's associated files/folders, things like the My Docs folder?
 
TheBigCheese said:
Good grief that's pretty amazing! What would it back up? Is it the full Windows drive or is it Windows and it's associated files/folders, things like the My Docs folder?
Click to expand...

if its a system image, then it will backup everything, it will be an exact copy of the way your pc is now.
 
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