Before You Format Your Computer

Windows installed since a long time is slowing down your regular works and your files are saved in various places and you are planning to format your computer or upgrade to the new OS. Formatting the computer used since a long time and having a lot of data is not very easy job to perform but its good practice to avoid sudden crash of the system and unwanted data loss.

Formatting the computer and upgrade of the OS, we do not do frequently so we there is chance that we can miss few of the steps and lead to the situation of hassle. So I tried to pen down few of the steps as per my previous experience.

 I advice to check to find the data saved in various folders and partitions and backup it to external media ( best option is to make two copies one in Ext HDD and other in few DVD’s) before we go ahead for format or OS upgrade. As per my experience the following steps can be performed to minimize the data loss and a hassle free refresh of OS.

1.       Backup of the data:

The most important step before formatting the PC/laptop is back up of the data. One must be very careful not the let useful data lost in the process. I tried to summarize the following points below:

·         For a particular user, the inbuilt folders are created in the C:\Users\. For manually saving the files and creating folders we can use the data drive but still for most the programs like download engine, video downloader or format converters, default setting is for inbuilt folders. Few of them are: Desktop, Downloads, Favorites, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos. We should make sure that useful data are transferred to the external media.

·         Favorite links in web browsers.

·         Data from the partitioned disks.

2. Frequently used programs and applications: We may take a note or snap shot of installed programs and applications so that we can make sure the computer is ready for the next use. Also we should try to keep the updated installation files of those programs handy.

2. Make windows installation disc ready with proper product license (Activation Key) and antivirus program.

Now you can go ahead to computer format or OS upgrade.

Right click My Computer or Computer, if you RAM is under utilized then check if your computer needs RAM upgrade.