{"id":51,"date":"2017-09-26T01:42:35","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T01:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/basicwebsitesolutions.com\/blog\/?p=51"},"modified":"2017-09-26T02:07:22","modified_gmt":"2017-09-26T02:07:22","slug":"s-o-p-before-formatting-a-windows-computer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basicwebsitesolutions.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/26\/s-o-p-before-formatting-a-windows-computer\/","title":{"rendered":"S.O.P. Before Formatting a Windows Computer"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a programmer for some years already, I have seen my shares of people asking me to format their Windows PC.\u00a0 And true enough, a lot of people in the IT world sometimes skip steps that I feel that I need to share to you guys in order not to suffer the horror of missing files and folders.<\/p>\n

Many of my steps are pretty straight forward. And as the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. I will also include scenarios that you may encounter along the way.<\/p>\n

Step 1 \u2013 Prepare the Backup Hardware <\/strong><\/p>\n

Start first by preparing a large external drive or USB thumb drive beforehand. It would probably be a good idea if it would be empty and without your personal data so that just in case d files are infected with a virus or malware, your files are pretty safe.<\/p>\n

Case Scenario:<\/strong> If you can still open the computer and you can still login, that is well and good for you. But just in case the windows operating system is corrupted or the user forgot their password, what you can do is you can install a windows operating system on top of the existing one to get the files. Just make sure not to erase and you want to keep the existing windows operating system. \u00a0Windows usually renames the old one as WINDOWS_OLD folder and Program Files to Program Files (OLD), I think. This step is a little tedious since you will be redoing the formatting again later to have a clean slate. But this step is surely worth the time.<\/p>\n

Step 2 – Create Folders In Your External Drive<\/strong><\/p>\n

To me, I am a bit of an organization freak for files and folder. What I usually do is I start with the folders: Drive C<\/em>, Drive D<\/em>, Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos<\/em>. Once you have these folders you can start moving the files.<\/p>\n

Bonus Tip:<\/strong> You may wonder why you want to move the file instead of copy. The reason for the move is so that just in case the operations get cut, you get to continue where you left off. Instead of guessing what folder you stopped on. Anyway, you get to format the whole drive so no need to leave the file in the hard drive.<\/p>\n

For the Drive C<\/em> and Drive D<\/em> files, you get to see IT tech created folders like like util<\/em> for utilities<\/em>, or mboard<\/em> for motherboard<\/em> which is pretty important if you will format the computer. For me personally, I create folders like Software<\/em> and Drivers<\/em> to house all of the freeware software that I install. The reason in doing this is so that if a brother or sister or coworker needs the software that I installed, I just ask them to copy the software from the unit I just reformatted.<\/p>\n

Step 3 \u2013 Use the Search or Find Window<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Before we use the find option in windows to look for common files that we might have missed after our first sweep, please go to the Windows Explorer and open the hidden files and folders options. This tip is pretty useful if your pc is already infected with a virus as they always hide them from users.<\/p>\n

Once you are done, try look for doc (MS Word), xls (MS Excel), pdf (Acrobat Reader), zip files. The most common file that we all have are jpg or jpeg picture files, not to mention the avi, mpeg or mp4 movie files.<\/p>\n

Big tip no. 1:<\/strong> If the user is an architect, you might need to google file extensions for Autocad<\/em> files. If your friend is an artist you might need to look for Adobe Photoshop<\/em> or Corel Draw<\/em> files.<\/p>\n

Big tip no. 2:<\/strong> It is still best to ask what files he or she commonly uses especially if the user is a student. Sometimes they need file extensions needed for their school projects like Visual Studio<\/em> files or Maya<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Step 4 \u2013 Backup the System Settings <\/strong><\/p>\n

In this step, we will be going to 4 settings in the Control Panel<\/em> of the computer.\u00a0 Before I usually open up Microsoft Paint press the print-screen on the keyboard to save each one per file. That was in the golden age when I haven\u2019t even got my own mobile phone. These days, I use my phone\u2019s camera to get a snapshot which is one of the wonders of modern technology.<\/p>\n

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