What To Do Before You Reinstall Windows

What do you do when your computer gets really messed up?

Is the Blue Screen Of Death is making a regular appearance? Has your registry has become corrupted? These could be signs of hardware problems, but often the solution is to simply reinstall Windows and start over with a “Like New” computer.

But wait — Rushing into this procedure can create new (and possibly bigger) problems, so do a little planning before you erase your hard drive. You’ll save lots of frustration later!

To help you do it right, Bill Detwiler at TechRepublic has created an excellent video that explains Three critical things to do before reinstalling Windows. (7.5 minutes)

If you are even thinking of reinstalling Windows, do yourself a favor and watch Detwiler’s video. He explains the following three steps in detail:

1. Document all your logins, passwords, and any special network, system or software settings.
2. Back up your data.
3. Gather up all your application and driver discs.

Detwiler also mentions another excellent resource from Tech Republic: 10 things you should do before, during, and after reinstalling Windows by Alan Norton. You’ll find a lot of detail and excellent advice in Norton’s document too.

After you watch the video, here are some links that may help you:

Detwiler mentions The Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder — it’s a free program to help you find the Product Key (CD key) you used to install Windows; it also works on Office 2003 and Office 2007.

He also recommends that you virus scan all those files you plan to backup and restore to your newly installed Windows machine. You DO have up-to-date anti-virus protection, don’t you? If not, you may be interested in this free solution: http://www.clamwin.com/

And unless you are reinstalling Windows on a brand-new hard drive, I recommend you wipe the old hard drive clean first. Just be sure you’ve copied all your important files onto some other media!

To blank-out hard drives I use a free program called Darik’s Boot and Nuke (“DBAN”). It is also great to use when you’re selling or donating an old computer and want to destroy all your personal data.

To prep your own computer for a Windows reinstall, you can use a faster, less thorough DBAN disk wipe — I explain how to do that in this PDF document.

Hopefully, you’ll never need to worry about reinstalling Windows — but if you do, do it right!