Bravo2zero_sps

Its come to that dreaded time again, my main PC has got to be wiped. I hate rebuilding my home machines due to the time it takes and because I always forget at least one thing that I should have copied over.

So I thought about having a thread where a definitive list can be drawn up for everyone to refer to when having to go through this unpleasant procedure. (I apologise if this is SIAL and someone has already covered this before.)

I'll start off with what I have backed up so far:

All personal files and folders (my documents)
Profile related files/folders (desktop, cookies, favourites, local settings folder that contains outlook express folders)
Outlook pst files
Game saves from the program folders
Screen shots of current firewall settings and rules
List of all currently installed software and drivers
Make a note of any account settings/usernames/passwords

What else do you back up/would add to the above list?

(I know I could image the whole lot but that takes too much time for me and messing about and you still have to pull out the data you want and also backups all the **** you don't want to keep.)

Also what procedure do you take in wiping the disk? I always fdisk the drive the OS is on and start with a clean disk. Anyone do it a different/better way?

Bravo2zero_sps

The whole docs and settings contains a lot of crap though like temp internet history which if not cleaned out for ages can be quite large plus you can end up with files it can't copy due to being locked in use etc

Also I take screen shots of my firewall as I have some very specific rules that I can't be ar$ed to redo off the top of my head - my firewall is locked down heavily hence the screen shots, Sygate software one on each machine sitting behind a firewalled router, can't have enough security

This wasn't a thread about how can I do it, I work in IT, more like a list for people to check against so as not to miss anything important off which I have done on numerous occasions due to rushing. Perhaps i'm just over the top in keeping stuff!

Bravo2zero_sps

I am contemplating doing a basic OS + drivers + patches build and then taking an image of that just to avoid having to do it ever again. Thing is done this lots before and never used the images due to changes in hardware and OS etc between rebuilds lol so was total waste of time.