Preparations to Reloading Your Computer

Every once in awhile we get sick of all the Windows errors and we want to reload our computers. Before you start you should make sure you are prepared. Once you begin there is no turning back. So, before you wipe your hard drive make sure you are ready to do so.

Backup files you want to keep

This is important if you want to save anything. Its best to make a list of files you want to backup. If you have your financial information on your computer make sure you back it up. Any music or pictures you want to keep this will be the time back that up too. You can also backup any history and favorites. Check your files with a virus scan before you back any of it up. CDRW or a zip drive make backing up painless.

Locate your CD and driver disk

Your computer manufacturer should of included a restore CD and driver disk. If you lost or need a replacement you can get one from your manufacturer for about $20 to $35. Thats why its important to keep your disks in a safe place. Some manufacturers like HP put the restore disks on a partitioned area of your hard drive. Its accessible when you boot up. It makes restoring your computer to factory settings easy. Consult your computers manual to see if this is the case.

Another way you can get a CD is to make one from your manufacturers website. You look up your serial number and model. You can download all the drivers you need and burn them on a CD. Its important that if you plan to this you do it before you reload your system. Otherwise you will struggle cause you will not have the NIC driver to access the website.

Tip for older computers not running XP

If you have an older machine and you want to reload it with Windows 98 or Millennium be advised that your on your own cause Microsoft no longer supports those operating systems. If your machines CPU is Pentium III 800 or better see if you can upgrade the memory to more than 256MB. The more the better. You might be able to run Windows XP. This is only a suggestion if your computer is capable of supporting it. Otherwise load the older operating system. You should be able to upgrade IE to 6. Microsoft will not let you use Windows update though just so you are aware. If you can afford to upgrade or get a new system this would be the time to do it.

Not a major computer manufacturers computer?

If somebody built it or you built it yourself you will still need the driver disks that were made for it. If you downloaded all the drivers from the Internet than you will need to make you a CD before you start. You could just download the NIC driver and back it up to save time. Than once it is reloaded you install the NIC driver and download the rest of the drivers you need. Its best just to download all the drivers and back them up before you begin.

Before you wipe your drive make sure you have everything you need or you will suffer the consequences after.