What do I need to do before I reformat?

October 9, 2008 1:53 PM

Any tips for reformatting a hard drive (Local Disk (C:) drive on a windows machine)?

What are some of the things you always remember to do when you reformat? Are there any articles or how-to's for restoring my system to it's factory condition?

I'm going to wipe my computer's hard drive and start over with a fresh copy of Windows XP Pro. I've moved/am moving my pictures, music, and other documents onto my external hard drive. What I'm worried about are my Firefox bookmarks and iTunes playlists, mainly. Is there a way to keep these? I use del.icio.us, and I believe all my bookmarks are automatically saved there...right? Is there anything else to worry about before I do this? Any advice? Thank you!

posted by whiskey point to computers & internet (12 comments total)

Firefox(3, but 2 is similar):

Bookmarks->Organize Bookmarks
Import and Backup->Backup
Save .json file

Alternatively, export as html

For iTunes, I would copy the entire iTunes tree intact. Re-install iTunes and copy back, overwriting the new install.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 2:09 PM on October 9

To back up your Firefox bookmarks, choose Bookmarks - Organize Bookmarks and click on the "Import and Backup" button. I would recommend exporting to HTML. You reverse this process on your new computer.

iTunes I don't know off the top of my head. Look in My Documents\My Music\iTunes\

Any other major programs you use?
posted by cimbrog at 2:10 PM on October 9

FYI - when I say iTunes tree, I specifically mean under My Documents/My Music, not the iTunes install directory
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 2:11 PM on October 9

For Firefox, just copy your whole profile, or even better, the whole c:\Documents and Settings\username directory tree.
posted by orthogonality at 2:21 PM on October 9

Back up the HD using True Image to an image on an external drive. Keep it around for a couple months after you reformat. There will be something you will need, and you will have it.
posted by kindall at 2:32 PM on October 9

I'm planning on doing this myself in a few days. Here's what I've come up with so far:

1) Go through my computer, take note of EVERYTHING I have installed - all programs, even stuff from 4 years ago that I never use. Make sure you know exactly what you had on it before you wipe it. Make sure you have CDs or a method to install everything you still want.

2) Copy everything to an external harddrive. Seriously, I'm basically taking c: and copy/pasting it onto my 500gig external. That was, if something goes haywire, or I'm missing something it's not too much trauma to get it back.

3) Drivers, drivers, drivers. I have a Dell (luckily?), so they sent me a CD with drivers and a real version of XP when I told them what I was going to do. I'm not going to be using their antivirus (AVG for me), so I don't need that, but some of the stuff you'll need.

4) Think about what you're going to need to do with your computer, and what it will take to do that. I don't play DVDs very often on my laptop, but I still want that capability. Therefore, that's something I need to test and make sure still works on the other side.

5) Light a little candle. Seriously, this is just a tid bit stressful, and my girlfriend thinks I'm going to destroy something somehow. But in all seriousness, I feel like this shouldn't be such a big deal. It'll take a weekend to do, but after that, I look forward to having a much faster, crap-free computer.

Good luck!
posted by SNWidget at 2:56 PM on October 9

I'm going to double emphasis SNWidget's #3 point: Drivers! Before you blow away everything, go on the web and get any networking or USB device drivers needed. Put them on a USB stick and a CDROM (in case USB doesn't work after you boot). Make sure you take note as to what's what as windows files often have names like "NWM_4451". Once you get the network working, almost anything else is fixable.
posted by chairface at 3:08 PM on October 9

FEBE is a useful plugin for Firefox that backs everything up and restores it again when you want -- bookmarks (of course), cookies, passwords - everything. Or you can choose not to backup things you don't want. Very, very useful even when you're not reformatting.

Also dittoing getting drivers off the web before you scrub your drive. Don't try and get them from your hard drive because the driver installs really need the installers rather than copy-and-replace.
posted by anadem at 4:00 PM on October 9

Also, here's a blog entry I came across when searching for other lists of things to consider before you do a wipe. It gave me some other good ideas, and serves as a pretty good checklist.
posted by SNWidget at 5:13 PM on October 9

If you use an e-mail client, you may want to backup your e-mail. Your contact list as well.
posted by backwards guitar at 8:49 PM on October 9

That link by SNWidget mentions it, but definitely don't forget fonts if you're a designer or every use Photoshop.
posted by disillusioned at 8:49 PM on October 9

If your machine is pre-built, I'd go to the manufacturer's support page and download all available drivers. Or particular note are the network and video card drivers. Also download the install packages for your most commonly used programs, then throw those as well as the drivers on a CD or flash drive.

If your computer is a custom job and you aren't sure what drivers you need, you can press Win+Pause to call up the System Properties dialog. From there, click the Hardware tab, then the Device Manage button. You'll get a list of everything in your system.

DriverGuide Toolkit has a free trial which will scan your computer and list all of the installed drivers. You'll need to buy it to do an automatic backup, but you can just use the list to download the drivers from the web.

Personally, I'll make a copy of my current install before doing anything major. You can just copy C:\ to a backup drive like SNWidget suggests, use a drive imaging or backup tool. DriveImage XML is a pretty good tool for this.
posted by truex at 9:10 PM on October 9