A Pain-Free Reformat

We have talked about reformatting your computer before and why it can benefit your experience on your computer.  It makes the computer run faster and gets rid of all of the crap that you may have accumulated over the years.  Most people dread the process of formatting, but it doesn’t bother me at all.  I’ve got the process down to a system and now I don’t stress about it when I need to do.  Let me explain what I do.

There are a few programs that help me with keeping track of all the little pieces of a reformat.  Here’s what I use:

1. Dropbox – I’ve talked about Dropbox before and it really does save a lot of time.  It keeps files synced between computers and also stores those files online for free (up to 2gb).  I use this to store settings and also a list of the programs currently installed on my computer.  I have substituted Dropbox for the My Documents folder which makes it one less thing I need to backup.
2. SyncBack – I’ve talked about SyncBack here, but it basically is a program that makes keeping folders backed up or synced very easy.  I use it to backup the following on my laptop: Music, iTunes settings, a list of programs I have installed and all of the Pictures I have.  It copies all of these to my 2nd computer which then backs up the files with Mozy.  If you don’t have a second computer, you can use the program to back up files to an external hard drive.
3. Firefox (w/ Foxmarks) – The most used program on my computer is Mozilla Firefox.  I have hundreds of bookmarks that I would never want to lose.  The Foxmarks plugin not only backs up my bookmarks, but it syncs my bookmarks between my computers.  There’s also an added bonus of them having a mobile version of their website so I can always get to my bookmarks when I’m travelling.
4. Windows 7 (or Ubuntu) – I use to worry about finding all of the drivers for my comptuer before formatting my computer.  I don’t anymore.  I first tried Ubuntu about a year ago and was pleasantly surprised how well it detected the devices on my computer.  I always wondered why Windows couldn’t do the same thing.  I’m now using Windows 7 and it’s even better than Ubuntu in recognizing all of my devices.  I’m very impressed with it.

These programs make it easy for me to not worry about the time when I need to format my computer.  They also make it an easy way to back up my important files without me having to do anything.

Feel free to Twitter or E-Mail me if you have any questions or want any clarification on any of the programs I use.