Microsoft has released its much-anticipated Windows 7, to positive reviews. I’ve been putting off upgrading for some time because I need to test all of the little utilities I use to make sure that they work on the new platform. As a tech professional, I have a machine set aside for those tests.

But if you’re currently using Windows XP and you’re balking at the idea of completely wiping your machine’s hard drive and starting over, I can appreciate your concerns. Nevertheless, you might be interested to know that most technology pros like me do that anyway, regardless of the operating system involved. For us, it’s a no-brainer decision to always “wipe and reload” simply because upgrading an operating system over the previous one has always been problematic. Why? It’s because there are way too many variables to test in a software enviroment as complex as modern operating systems have become. It’s just more pragmatic (and ulitmately faster) to start over from scratch.

I can hear you Mac folks snickering right now. Well don’t. Have you forgotten the transition from OS8 to OS9? Apple simply left the older operating system in the dust. New machines, new software, new operating system, and users of older machines were left behind. It’s easier to pull off something that brash when you control both the hardware and the software. Mac loyalists cried foul, but they followed along.

So back to the Windows 7 upgrade. Assuming that the machine you currently have is capable of running Windows 7 (check the Microsoft website for system requirements), here are some things you need to remember to back up before you reformat your hard drive.

• Items on your Desktop. Because you look at it every day, it’s easy to forget that those items aren’t necessarily sitting in folders with the rest of your documents.
• Your browser favorites. I have a huge collection of favorites I’ve acquired over the years. They’re so valuable to me that I back them up every night.
• Documents that store themselves with the Program Files. Some of the older programs never changed their model from storing their documents in the with the rest of the files that run the program to storing by default in the My Documents or Documents folders. Be sure to check all of the Program Files folder trees to be sure you’ve picked up any miscellaneous documents.
• Profiles for certain programs. I discovered this one the hard way the last time I changed hard drives. My highly secure FTP program saves the usernames and passwords in encrytped files on my hard drive, and I accidentally left some of those files on the old hard drive. I was unable to move or open them, and it took some digging and some phone calls to clients to get some of that information back on my hard drive so that I could continue working on their sites.
• Backup files. Before you wipe your hard drive, back up your files, but remember to move them along with the rest of your files!

This list should get you started. Please let me know how your upgrade goes, and I’ll comment here about mine.

Toolie

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