Just like painting a room, the success or failure of reinstalling Windows XP depends on the preparation you put in. If you have properly backed up your settings and ensured you know where all your driver discs are, you’ll avoid headaches later on. There are several other tricks to employ to ensure that you lose none of your important data. Ensure that you either have your ISP's installation disc or you have a note of the telephone number and your account details, because getting online will be a priority once you’ve reinstalled. It’s all too easy to overlook the importance of your email messages, within which we often temporarily store quite a lot of data, so make sure you back these up too.
The easiest way to back up Outlook Express is by using a nifty bit of third party software. Try out the Outlook Express backup wizard. Outlook-Express-Backup.Com - download a handy utility to backup your Outlook Express emails and settings. Should you want to use the program for longer, the charge is $39.95 (around £21). See the annotation to find out its features. If you don’t fancy spending money on backing up Outlook Express email and you don’t mind getting your hands dirty, there is another way. First make hidden files visible by Choosing Start, My Computer, Tools, Folder Options, View, Show hidden files and folders.
Now click OK and browse to C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Identities\[security identifier]. [username] is your Windows XP account name and [security identifier] is a string of numbers and letters in curly brackets. Copy the Inbox file to a different location.
At a glance:
Outlook Express Backup Wizard
1 Identities
Outlook Express can handle multiple identities within the same Windows account. If there is more than one set up, select the one you want to back up here.
2 Items
The important box to tick here is Email/News messages. These are what you will want to archive. Other items here belong in a backup.
3 Backup Wizard
Once installed, the Outlook Express Backup Wizard can be launched from the Start menu. Work through it just like any other wizard.
4 Backup Items
Here you can optionally back up your account configuration, address book, rules, blocked senders and signatures.
5 Save Archive
Click Next here to move on and specify the file name and location for your archive. You may want to subsequently burn this file to CD.
Drive Backup
A full backup of your Windows drive or partition is always a good idea. Use a drive imaging program like Norton Ghost for an exact copy of things as they are. If you have multiple hard drives or partitions, you’ll find that taking an image of your drive shouldn’t take much longer than half an hour or so. A backup to CD or DVD is handy, although it may take a little longer, especially if you need to change discs often.
In some cases, a full reinstallation simply isn’t possible because you don’t have the Windows CD. Many mass produced PCs don’t come with an installation CD containing a full copy of Windows. The hard drives on identical PCs are simply cloned. They include a partition that contains an image of the C drive, from which you can restore your version of Windows. In some respects this is easier than reinstalling from scratch, because you don’t have to track down all your drivers. However, not having a Windows CD does have disadvantages, especially if you don’t have all the Windows components installed, because you can’t add new ones without a Windows CD. If you want to reinstall Windows from a restore disc, check out the guide here.
Once you wipe your C drive there’s no going back, so it’s worth double checking that you have everything you need backed up elsewhere. Backing up your documents should be no more complicated than burning a copy of the contents of your My Documents folder to CD. However, if you haven’t already done so, consider moving My Documents to a different drive or partition to your Windows drive. Select Start and then right click My Documents, choosing Properties. Press the Move button and browse to the new drive. Sitting away from the Windows drive, your documents will survive a format and reinstall, although it would be a good idea to have a separate backup, just in case.
Don’t forget your Internet Explorer Favourites. To back them up, choose File, Import and Export, click Next and select Export Favourites. Now select your main Favourites folder and provide a backup location. Click Next and Finish. Keen gamers will want to make sure their saved games files survive a reinstall or clean up session. The best way to accomplish this is to move your saved game files into My Documents before backing that folder up.
Backing up Drivers
DriverMax makes short work of storing your drivers
So much for your important files. However drivers are just as important to preserve. Tracking down the right driver for an obscure piece of equipment can be a long and tedious job, so make a backup. Install DriverMax from Innovative Solutions. This is a free program, but it comes as a 30 day trial, after which you’ll need to go through the free registration process. This is simply a matter of providing a valid email address and you’ll get a registration code sent to this address. When you launch the program click Export Drivers, followed by Next. Driver Max then examines your system and locates all the drivers present. To back them up click Select all, followed by Next. Now provide a folder location for the backed up driver files and click Next once more. Depending on how many devices you have, they should be backed up in a matter of minutes.
