Checklist for formatting your computer

I’m sure there are lists like this on the Internet already, but I wanted to create my own list and publish it.

Things you want probably to back up:

  • Digital photos, remember to check all user profiles if you have multiple profiles on your computer
  • Recorded videos
  • Special hardware drivers, in case if your Windows/Linux can’t find them automatically
  • Downloaded files, I keep all downloaded files in C:\Zipit so I would just back up that folder
  • Possible music files from My Music folder, or somewhere else similar folder
  • .torrent files. If you are µTorrent user, it saves .torrent files to Application Data folder if you haven’t specified the folder in µTorrent settings.

I personally like to copy the following to a safe place to save time when I’m reinstalling everything back.

  • Different program settings. This is so you don’t have to waste time reconfiguring all programs again
  • Scripts for mIRC. I’m an active user of this program so this saves me time of trying to recode all of my scripts again
  • Browser bookmarks. I’m using Opera Link so it will automatically sync my bookmarks to fresh install of Opera browser
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