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Backing up Data - Planning Stage
Like I said before, the most complicated but most important step of this entire process is the backup of your precious data. Since you're going to be deleting everything off of your computer, you've got to figure out how your going to temporarily store only the important data that you might want to keep. I stress the word important because you want to try to backup as little stuff as possible to avoid putting junk back into your freshly reformatted hard drive and also because the smaller the amount of data that needs to be backed up, the easier it is to store and transport the data.
The backup process basically involves 2 stages of planning: which files to backup and how to store those files. To figure out what type of medium you should use to store these backup files, you should first figure out how large all the files your going to be backing up are. Yes, this includes calculating at least a rough estimate of how big, in megabytes, the total size the backup files are going to take up.
The first step is to figure out how large your backup files are going to be. This could be a very rough estimate or it could be a precise calculation-either works fine. Obviously, I can't take you through exactly which files you need to backup, as everybody has different needs and different stuff installed onto their computers. I can, however, give you a few examples of which files you might want to backup and some programs that I often backup the settings from. If a program that you're looking for isn't listed in this guide, and believe me, you will run into many as this is a very small list, you're on your own! You can try some places to figure out which files to backup such as:
- The help file; try searching for the word backup
- Try the program's web site; there might be a FAQ of some sort that explains how to backup your settings.
- Try monitoring which files the program modifies when you modify settings.
The last one is probably a little too much work and most people won't catch anything as most settings take up very little space. Most people won't noticeable any change just by looking at the files through Windows Explorer before and after you run the program and make the change.
Of course, there are also many programs that there is absolutely no way to backup from. Your only choice with these types of programs would be to leave it and wipe the settings with the format and then start over after you've performed this format process. If this program is very important and you can't find a method of backing up your files, then I highly suggest you just try to do your best in cleaning your system up without performing this format process.
If you have the space on your hard drive, then I suggest you create a temporary directory called Backup to store and organize these files. Create subdirectories to help you remember where these files go and then simply copy over (not move, but copy) the files into these directories. Of course, if you don't have enough space, either try to make space for this or just skip this step and perform the backup directly from the program directories. The reason for this extra step is to organize your backup files so you won't forget anything important, which could ultimately cause a major headache or maybe even a minor heart attack after you realize that you forgot, let's say, your address book full of clients of some sorts.
 On to: Backing up Data - Common Backup Files
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