Chapter 5. Preparation and Backup

What You’ll Learn

In this chapter, I’ll show you:

• How Windows Backup works

• How to use Windows Easy Transfer

• How to use Complete PC Backup

• How to back up your DRM-protected music

What You Need to Know Beforehand

When it comes to Windows, I am a pessimist. Sooner or later, your computer is going to start dragging its sorry butt. Why? Because over time, Vista (and all Windows versions, for that matter) will get bunged up with programs, malware, and all kinds of digital goo.

And if you’re used to a zippy, nimble machine, these slowdowns will distract you, and then annoy you, and finally after weeks of jittering data, sudden crashes, and hangs—it’ll make you furious.

The solution is drastic: Reformat the hard drive and reinstall a fresh copy of the operating system. It is a cure-all for Windows’ predictable performance problems that crop up over time.

You will know that day has come for you because people you love will evacuate the house, seeking a reprieve from your irrational threats toward Bill Gates, all Microsofties, and, on a bad day, perhaps Rosemarie M. Ives, the mayor of Redmond, Washington (where Microsoft is headquartered).

Here’s why everything slows down as time goes by....

Registry: Bunged Up Like an Atkins Dieter

The Registry is an electronic filing cabinet that stores zillions of system and software settings for Windows and programs installed on your system (see Figure 5.1). Over time, it is filled with junk settings left behind from bad uninstalls, troublesome software, and programs you tried out and then forgot to remove. After a while, it will bog down your system.

Figure 5.1. Look at the goo in this Registry already, and it’s only a few weeks old. Imagine what it will look like in a year!

Startup: Waiting for GUI

Before you can use your computer, Windows has to start up. That means it runs a whole list of tasks including loading settings, programs, and Vista itself, before you can do anything useful.

Each time you install a new program, it will often add a new task to the startup routine. These “helper” files are about as productive as free donuts at a Jenny Craig meeting. They are installed by resource-greedy applications. Real Player and QuickTime are two of the most famous offenders, but they are two of perhaps thousands.

Programs install helper apps in the startup so they can easily be launched or updated. In addition, these applets use memory and extend Windows boot time and shutdown.

Malware: Bad Programs That Do Naughty Things

Viruses and spyware get their tentacles into the Registry, into the startup area, and populate the hard drive’s nooks and crannies, polluting your system with junk or mischievous files. They can also steal bandwidth when they attempt to make like E.T. and phone home across the Internet to their makers.

Corrupted Files: Watch Out for Cosmic Rays

Windows system and helper files can become corrupted over time because of bad shutdowns, crashes, and even, as my old co-host Leo Laporte once said, cosmic rays. Energy from outer space crashes into the earth all the time, he says, and if one of these invisible energy particles hits your hard drive, it can muck with the magnetic disk and cause file corruption. So be sure to wear your tinfoil hats (see Figure 5.2).

Figure 5.2. Tinfoil hats will not protect you or your computer from cosmic rays, but they will make the whole experience funnier. Shown (l to r) are Maurice Cacho (associate producer of Labrats.tv), me in the middle, and Matt Harris, producer of the new TV show The Lab with Leo Laporte.

Snoutware: Rude Programs and Settings

Most programs are designed to be narcissists. That is, their programmers want the applications they create to be the most important piece of software on your system. So they write the program into every corner of the operating system that they can find. This approach is more about marketing than user function. They want to make the program easy to get to and hard to get rid of, so that you’ll use it and buy upgrades when available.

A cheeky program can make itself the default application for every function it can legitimately manage. For example, it might make itself the default program to open all pictures, videos, and audio files, even though it may not do a great job of playing or displaying everything.

Programs will also rudely put icons in the System Tray on the bottom-right corner of the screen, in the Quick Launch area at the bottom left, as well as on the desktop, in the Start menu, and in the Startup routine (see Figure 5.3). They also can add toolbars on the desktop. Programs can also flood the hard drive with unnecessary add-ons—fonts, readme files, reminder pop-ups, and other nonsense data.

Figure 5.3. Apple is one of the software developers notorious for installing software rudely on your system. The default download of QuickTime installs iTunes and QuickTime “helper” applications in the Windows startup area of your Registry. Also, if you remove QuickTime, it can unravel iTunes.

Like a frisky, crotch-poking Labrador Retriever, it’s unwelcome, distressing, and you can’t do much to stop it. I call it “snoutware.”

Reformat Early, Reformat Often

If you’re a heavy user (meaning you use your system daily, not that you eat a lot of donuts), you’ll find that your system will slow to a crawl after six months of use, even if it’s a new computer.

Some people find they can go a year before the system starts to plod. Even if you are a light user, over time you’ll find that eventually your system will start to whine and then crash like a cranky 8-year-old.

As a general rule, I recommend computer owners wipe their hard drives clean and install a fresh copy of Windows once a year, at a minimum. Some geeks reformat every three or four months. If you have an Intel Inside poster on your basement wall, I am talking about you. (If you have an Apple poster on your wall, I am not talking about you, but pull up your chinos because I can see your “I love Steve” tattoo.)

Say Goodbye to Your Saturday and Reformat

The reformat and reinstall process for Windows is not particularly fun. If you do it right, the process will take you the better part of a whole day. But preparation will take up most of it.

Here are the prep steps to take:

1. Back up everything that is precious.

2. Gather the tools you need.

3. Gather passwords, settings, and other related data.

4. Gather drivers.

Put aside a full day for some serious maintenance. This job is a Saturday eater. The good news is that in the history of Windows, reinstalling and reformatting is easier than it ever has been using Vista. So, take a moment to send everyone to grandma’s house, and lock the door, because we’ve got work to do.

Before we get into wiping your hard drive clean, you’ll need to complete critical housekeeping tasks to prepare for the reformat and reinstallation of Vista.

This part of the pre-reinstall is not exciting, although the payoff is big. I always think of it like packing before a week away at a beach resort. It is never fun, but if you don’t prepare for it properly, you’ll be toweling off with your parka at the beach.

Back Up: Don’t Be a Loser

Before you reinstall, you have to back up your data. I know, I know: Backing up sucks. (Hey, try writing about it.) But let’s face it—backups have to be done if you’re going to save all your precious data. It would be devastating if those fan letters to Dr. Phil and the pictures you took on your holiday to the largest ball of twine in Cawker City, Kansas, were lost forever.

Maxtor, the hard drive maker, had a great campaign at CES in early 2006 that was called “Loser” and depicted people who had lost data because they’d been too lazy to back up. Don’t be their poster child (see Figure 5.4).

Figure 5.4. A freebie Maxtor mouse pad scooped at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. This could be you if you don’t back up.

So let’s get to it. The reformat and reinstall is going to wipe your hard disk clean so any data on the drive will be destroyed and unrecoverable. So be sure to make copies of everything you’ll need later.

Ideally, you can burn data files to a series of blank CDs or DVDs. You could also use a USB flash drive (see Figure 5.5), if you have one large enough. They have capacities up to 64GB in 2007 and will go well beyond that in coming years.

Figure 5.5. This Cruzer USB flash drive from SanDisk has a capacity of 4GB.

I use an external hard drive, which saves losing critical CDs or DVDs under coffee cups. A 250GB external hard drive runs around $100 these days, and as you go bigger, the price per GB comes down to about 50 cents per GB. That per-gigabyte price will continue to plummet and disk sizes will grow even larger.

What follows should guide you through the key bits of data you need to worry about. It is not a comprehensive list, but it will guide you through most of the key backup procedures you need to follow.

New Vista Backup Tools

Someone high up at Redmond (maybe it was Jim Allchin, before he retired as Windows executive) has clearly lost all his ABBA MP3 files at some point because Vista introduces a family of new backup technologies that is pretty darn impressive.

So what follows is a step-by-step backup strategy for each one with pros and cons. You can employ one or more, for redundancy. For my money, I’d use the slow but complete Windows Easy Transfer, but you have several options.

Windows Easy Transfer

Microsoft has created a new tool called Windows Easy Transfer (see Figure 5.6) that makes backing up before reformatting and reinstalling particularly simple.

Figure 5.6. Windows Easy Transfer helps back up key data and settings from your Vista system. It’s a great help to Vista reinstallers.

However, Microsoft should have called it Sure It’s Easy But It Takes a Really Long Time Windows Transfer. In testing, a simple Windows Vista install took more than 90 minutes to complete to an external USB hard drive. I dread to think how long it would take to back up a year’s worth of data and profiles for several users.

The idea is that you push all the files and settings to a safe haven, perhaps a network share or external hard drive before you wipe the machine. After a new copy of the OS is installed, you suck all the files and settings back to resuscitate your desktop to the way it was.

Here are the types of data that get saved:

• Your User Account settings, including user ID, password, and associated settings, as well as cosmetic features such as desktop backgrounds, screen savers, fonts, and so on.

• All the personal files and folders in each user’s account stored under C:Users, including your documents, videos, and music.

• Program settings including any modifications you have made to the default settings in your programs. Easy Transfer does not transfer the programs themselves.

• System settings, including any changes you have made to programs like Windows Media Player and Windows Defender, as well as network settings, and so on.

• Internet Settings, Cookies, and Favorites from Internet Explorer (you’ll have to back up Firefox or other browsers separately).

• Email settings, contacts, and messages from Outlook Express, Windows Mail, and Outlook. You’ll have to back up settings for non-Microsoft mail programs separately.

Here’s how to use Windows Easy Transfer for reinstall and reformat purposes:

1. First, be sure you are logged in as administrator and close any unnecessary programs that might be running.

2. Click the Windows button, and in the Search box, type easy. When Windows Easy Transfer appears in the Start menu under Programs, click it to start the wizard. Alternatively, you can get to it the traditional way by clicking the Windows button, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Windows Easy Transfer.

3. Click Continue on the User Account Control box (if UAC is turned on on your computer).

If you run Windows Easy Transfer on a laptop, be sure it’s not running on batteries, as the process can take hours to complete.

4. Click Next on the opening screen. If there are any open programs on your system, you’ll be prompted to close them.

5. On the next screen, there are two options: Start a New Transfer and Continue a Transfer in Progress. So, click Start a New Transfer in this case.

6. On the next screen, you’ll see two options: My New Computer and My Old Computer. In a reinstall and reformat, your PC is both your old and new computer, in that you are copying the system’s data, reformatting and reinstalling Windows, and then copying the data back. However, we haven’t yet reformatted the hard drive, so at this point, click My Old Computer.

7. Because you are transferring data from one computer and back to itself later, you’ll want to back up to an external source. If you are connected to a network, you can choose the Transfer Directly, Using a Network Connection option to push data onto a networked computer or network storage device. However, let’s choose Use a CD, DVD, or Other Removable Media as that’s likely the easiest option for most people (see Figure 5.7).

Figure 5.7. You can store your data and settings either on your network or on an external media source such as a CD or DVD, USB hard drive, or USB flash drive via a USB PC-to-PC cable.

8. On the next screen, you’ll see your external media options, which include CD or DVD, USB flash drive, or external hard disk. I usually use an external USB hard disk for these operations because large external disks are cheap, and you don’t have to worry about disposable media being munched by household pets or teething children. That said, choose the option that suits you best.

9. This time around, let’s use blank CDs to back up the data. Choose CD or DVD and select the CD or DVD drive to which you want to back up. You can also create a password here to lock the backup so that no one else can restore it to their machine. If the CD or DVD option is not clickable, your CD or DVD drive is not connected or installed properly.

10. Next you’ll get options on which settings and data to back up. Go for All User Accounts, Files and Settings for a full backup. However, note that this process can take a long time and a lot of CDs or DVDs. So, prepare for a marathon session.

11. If you want to be choosy and just back up the settings and contents of your user account (in my case, all files under C:UsersAndy), choose the second option: My User Account, Files and Settings Only. If you just want to back up files and folders choose the Advanced option (see Figure 5.8). This is handy because it saves you from manually backing up folders separately later.

Figure 5.8. The Advanced option in Windows Easy Transfer allows you to add files and folders to the backup that you otherwise would have to back up manually.

12. Choose Continue, and Vista will inventory your data and settings and show you the size of the archive it is going to save. Give it time to calculate this. On the bottom-right corner of the box that inventories the settings and files, you’ll see Transfer Size. While it is calculating this, you might see a percentage value. It’ll eventually show you the final size of the backup. Click the Customize button to remove items if the resulting archive is unmanageably large. Then click Transfer to start the backup transfer.

13. Windows displays how long until the backup is complete. So while you wait, go prowl the fridge and reward yourself with a well-earned snack.

Windows Backup: Surprisingly Painless

Windows Vista offers a new file backup tool known as the inelegantly named Backup Status and Configuration tool. Despite its moniker, it vastly improves on backup utilities Microsoft included in previous versions of Windows. Use it if you want to back up personal data from your Users folder, but are not concerned about saving any settings in Windows.

To run a backup, do the following:

1. If you haven’t already, log in to Windows Vista using an administrator account. This account was the first one you set up when you first got Vista.

2. To start the backup application, click the Windows button, and in the Start Search box, type backup. Two items (and maybe more if you have other third-party backup utilities installed) will appear. One will be the Backup and Restore Center, which is a new feature of Vista. The other is the Backup Status and Configuration utility, which is what you want. Click it to get started.

3. I am going to assume that this is the first time you’ve backed up using this tool, so click Set Up Automatic File Backup (see Figure 5.9). However, if you have previously configured backup, choose Backup Now and follow the wizard.

Figure 5.9. Use Microsoft’s revamped backup tool to save precious data from the Users folder.

4. If you are asked for permission by the UAC system to run a backup, click Continue.

5. Windows will look for backup hardware. When it is done, choose a location to place the data from the pull-down menu. It can be a CD or DVD burner or USB hard drive or external USB flash drive. You can choose the On a Network option instead and back up to a computer or network storage device on your network, if you have one. Click Next.

6. The program will list the file types it will back up (see Figure 5.10), including documents such as Word and text files, as well as spreadsheet data and presentations, photos and image files, music and audio files, movies and video files, and TV shows recorded in Windows Media Center. These files will be backed up if they are located in the user accounts on your system in the folder C:Users. Click Next.

Figure 5.10. Unless you specify otherwise, Backup will save pictures, movies, TV shows, audio files, and more.

The Windows Backup Wizard does not back up some files. If you have any of the following files on your system, you’ll have to back them up manually:

• Encrypted files using Encrypting File System (EFS) that is included in Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate.

• System files that Windows needs to run.

• Program files that run your applications, such as Microsoft Word, your games, or other third-party programs.

• Files on hard disks that are formatted using the old FAT file system. This is only applicable if you have specifically partitioned your hard drive as a FAT drive.

• Web-based email (it’s stored on the website from which you access it).

• Files you’ve dumped into Recycle Bin.

• Temporary or scratch files used by Windows or third-party applications.

• User profile settings.

7. If this is your first backup, you will be asked for the frequency (daily, weekly, monthly) that you’d like the backup to take place and at what time, and if applicable, what day. Of course, because you are reformatting, don’t worry about this. Pick any frequency and just get one done. Click Save Settings and Start Backup, and the backup will run in the background, so you can go do other tasks if you want. This is a good time for lunch.

8. The system will back up the contents of your C:Users folder to a folder named after your PC. In that folder, the backup set is called Backup Set YYYY-MM-DD hhmmss, where the numerical last part of the folder name is date and time (see Figure 5.11). I created a backup set on my external USB drive (F:), and this was the folder path where the backup data was stored: G:Andy_PCBackup Set 2006-05-24 174148.

Figure 5.11. Windows Backup will create a folder named after your computer on your external media, and in it, the backup will be named by date and time.

The Windows Backup process will only store data below the C:Users folder, so if any of your data exists outside this folder, you’ll want to manually back it up. See the section called “DIY Backups: Safeguarding Data by Hand” on p. 135 (this chapter).

Complete PC Backup: The “Just in Case It Blows Up in Your Face” Backup

The Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise versions of Windows Vista ship with a new utility called Complete PC Backup (see Figure 5.12). Like Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image (a geek favorite), it takes a kind of digital photocopy of your hard drive or a DVD, and stores it on your network, a separate hard drive partition, or an external hard drive (your choice).

Figure 5.12. Complete PC Backup is a new Windows feature that takes a snapshot of your system that you can restore later.

However, it is a good failsafe because if after reformatting and reinstalling, if you don’t like the results, you can go back to the way things were. This is nice if you forgot to back up something critical. (I have a friend who failed to back up his wedding photos that existed nowhere else, and one day his system went POOF! He is still married, but it was looking dicey there for a while.) It’s also useful if you just want to put things back the way they were before.

Here’s how to create a system image:

1. Log in to your PC as an administrator.

2. In Control Panel, click System and Maintenance, and then click Backup and Restore Center.

3. Click the Back Up Computer button in the Back Up Files or Your Entire Computer section.

4. In the User Account Control box, click Continue.

5. Choose an external location where you’ll store the image data.

6. Click Next. The image data will be written to your external source into a folder called WindowsImageBackup (see Figure 5.13). Make sure you keep this backup in a safe place.

Figure 5.13. Complete PC Backup stores data on an external media source in a folder called WindowsImageBackup. Inside this folder, it creates another folder named after your computer, and inside that, a folder named with the date and time the disk image was created.

DIY Backups: Safeguarding Data by Hand

It’s still early for Windows Vista, so it’s hard to say what features in the backup applications will have nasty bugs hidden in them. I don’t trust any new Microsoft OS with mission-critical tasks until at least the first service pack is released. That usually comes about a year or so after release.

For those who are particularly wary of buggy backups, here’s how to back up some critical bits of data. Some of the tools previously discussed will not save all the data and settings you’ll need, so here are some manual processes you can use to back up critical data missed by the Microsoft wizards.

Outlook

Outlook 2002, 2003, and 2007 store all data (including email, contact info, calendar, and notes) in a file called outlook.pst (see Figure 5.14).

Figure 5.14. You’ll find the Outlook.pst file inside C:Users several folders deep.

The default location for this file in Vista is as follows:

C:Users<username>AppDatalocalMicrosoftOutlook

(The preceding reference to <username> should be substituted for the actual name of a user profile.)

When you create a new user (say, for your Aunt Olga) on Vista, she gets her own login. This login name “Olga” appears at the login screen before you enter Vista and is also the name of the folder the person’s settings and data are stored in under the C:Users folder, like this: C:UsersOlga.

When Outlook auto-archives old mail and other data, it stores it in a file called archive.pst, so it’s worth backing up that file too. It’s kept in the same folder as Outlook.pst.

Windows Mail

In Vista, Outlook Express has been renamed Windows Mail (WM), which has help desk workers around the world dancing on their desks (see Figure 5.15). Why? Consider this pre-Vista conversation:

Helpdesker: “Which email program do you use?”

Hapless user: “Outlook.”

Helpdesker: “Are you sure?”

Hapless user: “Yes, it says right here: Outlook Express.”

Helpdesker: “SIGH.”

Figure 5.15. What should have been Outlook Express 7 has been renamed Windows Mail to the delight of help desk workers everywhere.

So in Windows Mail (technically Outlook Express 7), the backup process has changed substantially. The Microsoft WM team has nixed the old .DBX files that stored all your emails and has created what is arguably a more complex email archive.

My first reaction to this was: Those Microsofties have been smoking more than dandelions. But the idea grew on me, and I came to the conclusion that the new email storage approach may be more complex, but every email now lives inside its own file and not in some big honking XXL archive. The advantage is that if an email is corrupted under the new system, it doesn’t ruin the other 12,734 emails that you have in a .DBX file.

The email files are called .EML files. Newsgroup threads are called .NWS files. And contacts, not surprisingly, are each stored in .CONTACT files.

All files for Windows Mail, including the account settings (.OEACCOUNT files!), are stored as separate files under the Windows Mail folder, usually located at C:Users<username>LocalMicrosoftWindows Mail.

Once again in the example, <username> is the Windows profile name (the name you click on when you log in to Windows Vista) of the user who owns the mail account. (You might also need to unhide the AppData folder using the technique I showed you in the tip in the Outlook section.)

So, I log in as “andy,” and my Windows Mail data is kept at C:UsersandyAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindows Mail.

You can locate the actual folder your Windows Mail files are kept in as follows:

1. In Windows Mail, click Tools, Options, Advanced and click on the Maintenance button.

2. Under the Cleaning Up Messages area in the dialog box that appears, click Store Folder. The path to all your email data will be revealed.

3. To back up your contacts, copy this folder: C:Users<username>Contacts.

General Email Settings

No matter what email program you use, it’s helpful to keep a crib sheet of email server settings. This can be retrieved later from your Internet service provider, but I like to keep this info on hand, because the first thing I set up when I reformat and reinstall Windows is email (so I can whine to my friends about how painful it was). So, be sure to keep the following settings handy:

• Email address—[email protected], for example

• Incoming server POP3 or IMAP server address—mail.bumfluff.com, for example

• Outgoing server—SMTP server address, such as smtp.bumfluff.com

• Email account username—Such as bob

• Email account password—Such as snacks4me

This info is found in various places, depending on which email program you use. Here’s a guide:

• Windows Mail—Your email server info is kept under Tools, Accounts then click on the mail account and click the Properties button. Server info can also be found under the Servers tab.

• Outlook 2002/2003—Click Tools, Email Accounts, View or Change Existing Email Accounts, Next. Click your email account in the list and then click the Change button to see your settings (see Figure 5.16).

Figure 5.16. Don’t forget to make a note of your email servers and login information, shown here in Outlook 2003.

• Outlook 2007—Choose Tools, Account Settings. This takes you to a multitab dialog box. Click the E-mail tab, select your account from the list, and then click the Change button.

Favorites, Cookies, and Feeds

If you use the Windows Easy Transfer method, the settings, cookies, feeds, and other data are preserved for Internet Explorer 7, which ships with Windows Vista. Not so for Mozilla Firefox. Either way, here’s how to manually back up settings and data for both.

Internet Explorer 7

As with previous versions of IE, you can easily back up cookies and favorites with a few clicks. RSS feeds are also now part of this backup process.

These browser items are kept in a folder called Favorites, Cookies, and Feeds. Here’s how you back them up manually:

1. Turn on the browser menus (if they are turned off) by right-clicking an empty space on the tab bar (between the little house icon on the right top and the tabs that contain web pages on the left top) and choose Menu Bar so that the menus appear across the top of the browser. (Note to the Amish: This is not to be confused with a “bar menu,” which is what you use to order drinks at a cocktail lounge.)

2. Click the File menu; then select Import and Export. The Import/Export Wizard starts (see Figure 5.17).

Figure 5.17. You can manually back up cookies, feeds, and favorites using the Import/Export Wizard in IE7.

3. Click Next. From here, you can import or export cookies, feeds, and favorites to (or from) your network or external media.

Mozilla Firefox

If you use Mozilla Firefox, a much better alternative to Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 in my belligerent opinion, you’ll want to back up your bookmarks and cookies. Here’s how, using version 2.0.0.4, which was available mid-2007. It’s likely that future versions will have a similar mechanism, hopefully for you and me in the same locations in the Firefox menus. If not, feel free to rummage around to find them. Here’s how to proceed:

1. Click the Bookmarks menu in Firefox, and then click Organize Bookmarks.

2. The Bookmarks Manager opens. Click File, Export and name the file. A file called booksmarks.html is created.

3. Back up this file somewhere safe.

To back up all the settings in Firefox, use a sysadmin’s secret weapon called Google Browser Sync. It backs up the following from Firefox:

• Bookmarks

• Cookies

• Saved passwords

• Browser history

• Settings for tabs and windows

Instead of going flea picking inside the C:User<username>AppDataMozilla folder where Firefox keeps all the critical data minutia for its operations, just download the Google Browser Sync Firefox Add-in from http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync/.

It’s a free application that backs up all your Firefox settings to your Gmail account (if you don’t have one, you can get one during the installation setup).

Then the add-in grabs all the settings and backs them up to your Gmail account. When you have reinstalled, you can reinstate all the settings by clicking to reinstall the program in Firefox and clicking the Sync icon that installs in the top-right side of your browser (see Figure 5.18).

Figure 5.18. Google Browser Sync is a convenient (and free!) backup tool for Firefox data and settings.

Personal Documents and Data

Organized people generally keep all their personal files and data in the My Documents folder under XP. In Vista, this is no longer necessary. There’s a new file structure for personal data.

All personal data for users of a Vista computer is kept in a master folder called C:Users (see Figure 5.19). And inside that is a series of user-specific folders with subfolders containing their data.

Figure 5.19. Here’s my user folder found under C:Users called Andy. In it, there are folders for a variety of different data types, including one called “Pictures” that contains snaps of my cats, Biff and Boo (hairy), and my newborn niece, Audrey (not hairy).

My personal folders, for example, are under C:Usersandy.

If I created accounts on the machine for my cats, Biff and Boo, my computer’s Users folder would also contain a folder for each cat, as follows:

C:Usersiff

C:Usersoo

User Data

If you want to do a manual backup of each user’s data, here’s a legend for what you’ll find in your personal user folder:

• Contacts—This is where Windows Mail keeps your contacts files.

• Desktop—The contents of what you see on your Vista desktop.

• Documents—Personal documents (Vista’s equivalent of My Documents).

• Downloads—Put files downloaded from the Internet here.

• Favorites—Hyperlinks you’ve saved in IE.

• Links—Shortcuts to your favorite locations on your system (see Note this page).

• Music—Your MP3, WMA, and audio files.

• Pictures—Your photos.

• Saved Games—You can save games in progress here.

• Searches—Searches you’ve done in Vista or that Vista has created for you by default (such as Recent Documents).

• Videos—A folder for your WMV, MOV, and other video files.

There will be other folders in here that you’ll want to inspect to see whether they contain any info you want to keep.

AppData

One folder you should certainly investigate is the hidden folder called AppData. You will have to reveal it as follows:

1. Click the Windows button, Control Panel.

2. In the Search box at the top right, type Folder to quickly reveal the Folder Options feature.

3. When it appears, click Folder Options.

4. Click the View tab, click the radio button next to Show Hidden Files and Folders, and then click OK.

AppData contains data and settings specific to programs you have installed on the system. It’s helpful to back up this data.

Public

There is also a folder under Users called C:UsersPublic.

You’ll want to back that up too, as it contains data you share on your home network.

The Public folder was known as the All Users folder in Windows XP, if you had more than one user account on an XP machine.

Windows Media Player

Here’s one of the biggest and nastiest problems with Windows Vista. Microsoft in its infinite wisdom has removed Windows Media Player 11’s capability to back up your digital rights management (DRM)-protected music files that you purchased from a music store.

This means if you buy music from a legitimate online source, back up your files, reformat your hard drive, and reinstall Windows, you might lose the capability to play those purchased songs on your freshly installed version of Windows Vista. The caveat here is that some music stores will let you redownload the rights to reinstate your songs so that they are again playable on your system.

For example, here’s what the URGE.com music store says to do if you delete a song and want to reinstate it:

1. Sign in to your URGE account.

2. Go to the URGE tab, click the down arrow, and select URGE, Restore My Library.

3. The Restore Purchases dialog box pops up.

4. Click Begin Scan. If you only want to sync music you have purchased (excluding songs downloaded via your URGE All Access or URGE All Access To Go Pass), click the Only Sync Music I Have Purchased check box.

5. Click Restore to begin downloading tracks you purchased or downloaded.

Microsoft Office 2003 Settings

You can save your Office 2003 settings as follows:

1. Click the Windows button, All Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Tools.

2. Choose Microsoft Office 2003 Save My Settings Wizard.

3. When the Setting Wizard box appears, click Next and then choose Save the Settings from This Machine and click Next.

4. It then shows you where it will put the OPS file that contains all the settings. You can store this wherever you want, but, of course, choose somewhere safe.

Programs

Make sure you have the original installation disks for any programs you want to reinstall on your fresh new system.

Check to see that you have the registration keys. Sometimes you can dig these out of the program by checking the Help menu in the About or Register menu items.

If you downloaded the programs and received license keys via email, use Vista’s useful Windows Search feature (click Search on the Start menu to do a granular search) to find those emails and print them out.

Sometimes license keys are listed elsewhere in the Edit or File menu under Preferences or Settings.

Then again, sometimes you’re simply out of luck.

Network and Internet Settings

One of the first things you’ll have to do when you finish the reinstall and reformat is to get back online. So, it is critical that you have on hand your Internet connection settings before you reinstall. Here’s the data you’ll need to reconnect:

DSL

If you connect your computer to the Internet via a high-speed modem provided by your phone company, you probably have digital subscriber line (DSL) connection. You’ll likely need the following:

• User ID

• Password

Cable Modem

This is one of the easiest connections to set up. If you connect to the Internet using a modem connected to your cable TV wire, you have cable Internet service. Unless you have a fixed IP address with your provider, you’ll probably be automatically connected after Windows is reinstalled. If you’re unsure, check with your Internet provider. At the very least, keep the install disk or the paperwork the ISP gave you handy. If you can’t find either, look up the ISP’s help desk number and stick a Post-it on your screen. It may come in handy if you can’t connect.

Dial-up

If you use an old-fashioned telephone modem to connect to the Internet, you’ll need three things:

• The phone number to dial up your ISP

• Your user ID

• Your password

Wired Home Network

In most cases, if your computer connects through a home network, either wired or wireless, reconnection will be straightforward. Home networks use a technology called DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol), which automatically configures a computer’s network address when it is connected.

However, if you use a dedicated IP address (if you do, you’ll know it because you will have set it up manually), check to see what IP address you used for your machine and what the router IP address is. To do that:

1. Click the Windows button, Network, Network and Sharing Center (across the top of the window).

2. In the Network (Public Network) area, look for the View Status link to the far right of the Connection item. Click it (see Figure 5.20).

Figure 5.20. The Network and Sharing Center is prettier than networking windows in XP, but it’s not very intuitive for Vista newbies when you want to get to the nitty gritty settings.

3. Then click the Details button in the Connection Status box that appears. Another box pops open showing you the IP address you set up under IPv4 Address, and your router’s address under IPv4 Default Gateway (see Figure 5.21).

Figure 5.21. You can find your computer’s internal IP address (its numeric address on your home network) two clicks deep in the Network and Sharing Center. My computer’s IP is shown here as 192.168.0.103.

Wireless Home Network

If you use a wireless connection, check the SSID (service set identifier) that you have designated on your network. In plain English, that’s the name of your wireless network that you tune your PC into to get a wireless signal. The SSID can be found by rolling your mouse over the wireless network icon in your System Tray (bottom-right side of the screen) and looking for names in the box that pops open under Currently Connected To.

If you have protected your Wi-Fi network with either WEP or WPA security, it’s handy to look up the WEP key or passphrase you use with your wireless router and write it down somewhere safe.

To access this info:

1. Go to the Network and Sharing Center.

2. Click Manage Wireless Networks on the left side of the window.

3. Right-click on the wireless network you connect to and choose Properties.

4. Click the Security tab.

5. Click the Show Characters box to reveal the security key in the box above it.

6. It’s handy here to print a screenshot for later reference. To do so, click the Print Screen button (sometimes marked as PrtScn), open Paint or another image editor, and press Ctrl+V to paste the screenshot into the program so you can save or print it.

Other Broadband Connection

It is possible that you have none of the connection technologies previously described. If not, and you are using a new WiMAX connection or an old ISDN connection, or you’re in an RV and you connect through your cellular phone’s high-speed wireless connection, you’ll need to make sure you have all the settings you need from your provider, plus any installation disks they might have provided. And keep the tech support line handy, so you can reach out and touch someone geeky if the technology goes a bit Jackie Chan.

A Last Poke Around

Whenever I check out of a hotel room, I look in unusual places: drawers and closets, under the vanity, the hook behind the bathroom door, and so on. Why? Because I am paranoid. Even if I never opened the closet, I check anyway, because in a fit of distraction over the impending free buffet shutdown downstairs, you never know where you might have chucked your socks.

(I found one sock, a razor, a novel, and a half-eaten bag of Doritos in various aforementioned hotel room locations, yet never remember putting them there.)

My point here is that before you declare your system backed up and ready for reformatting, look in unlikely places and be redundant in your checking:

• Check the Start menu and review the programs installed there.

• Inspect the root folder C: for wayward files and folders you might have inadvertently stored there. Disorganized people (such as myself) are notorious for this.

• Have a look at settings, passwords, and other data elements that may be hiding in odd places that you’ve forgotten about.

• Print emails with registration keys and other pertinent irreplaceable data. If you’re single, be sure to print the phone numbers of your latest date because if you’re like me, you haven’t committed them to memory, and the numbers aren’t transcribed anywhere else. If you’re married, don’t print contact info for your mother-in-law. She’ll always find you.

• Back up or write down your instant messenger buddy list and/or login. Most chat software stores buddy info on the services.

• Double-check your desktop for folders that you have forgotten about if you haven’t backed up that folder.

Mission-Critical Tools: Disks You’ll Need

For the reformat and reinstall operation, you’ll need a Windows Vista install disk. You probably have access to the disk in one of three scenarios.

Came with the Computer: System Recovery Disk

Many systems from big brand manufacturers don’t come with a typical Microsoft-issued Windows Vista installation disk, like you’d get from a store.

Instead, they’ll come with a series of CDs or DVDs that include a variety of software applications, including a full system recovery disk. That disk is designed to wipe your system clean and restore it to the way it was the day you bought the computer.

There are advantages to this process. You simply slip the disk into the machine and let it do its thing. It takes care of all the messy details by wiping the system clean and installing a pristine copy of Windows Vista.

It couldn’t be simpler.

Built-in: System Recovery on a Partition

Sometimes as a cost savings, your computer maker will not issue a Windows Vista install disk or a system recovery disk. Instead, a restore application is installed on your hard drive in a separate hidden partition.

To understand partitions, you have to think of your hard drive as a nice apple pie, fresh from the oven. Now cut a tiny piece of pie as if you were on a diet, but leave it in the pie dish.

This is what your hard drive looks like when you get your computer from a manufacturer that does not provide you with an installation copy of Windows Vista (see Figure 5.22).

Figure 5.22. If your hard drive has a restore partition, it is like an apple pie with one big slice and one small one.

The small cut piece is a partition on the hard disk that contains all the installation data for Windows Vista and perhaps the extra applications that came with your computer.

That small partition is usually hidden from view, meaning that it is not assigned a drive letter.

The rest of the pie is a larger partition that is your C: drive.

To activate the reinstall process, your computer maker has probably put a little application on your Start menu under All Programs that says something like System Restore or Restore Disk under a folder marked Utilities. If the company is called CyberGoat, the folder is probably called either CyberGoat or CyberGoat Utilities or something like that.

If there’s nothing evident, you might want to call or email the company and find out how to activate the system restore function. Often, the company will have instructions in the support section of its website.

Store-Bought: Windows Vista Retail Disk

If you bought your Windows Vista disk from a retail store, it probably came in one of two forms. It’s either the full version of the operating system or an upgrade disk.

If you have the full version, you’re set to go.

If you have the upgrade disk, you’ll need to also have handy the disk for Windows XP or 2000. It will have to be installed first. You’ll then install the Vista upgrade on top of it.

To use a Vista upgrade disk, you will need to own a legal copy of either Windows 2000 or Windows XP. If you have an older copy of Windows, you will need to buy a full version of Vista. That said, a machine of a vintage that was designed to run Windows 95, 98, or Me probably won’t have the horsepower to run Vista.

Product Key

Besides an install disk, you’ll also need the Vista product key. This is a series of numbers and letters separated by dashes that’s located on a sticker attached to either the Vista disk’s packaging or sleeve.

If you didn’t get a disk but have a system restore mechanism on a partition, you should have received a product key on a separate piece of paper. It might be attached to the paperwork that came with your system, on the back of a sleeve that looks like a disk but is just the license, or it might even be on a sticker on the bottom, back, or side of your system. Of course, if you’re like me, it might be in a garbage bag in a landfill by now. I absentmindedly tend to chuck out stuff I really need and then panic later.

So if you have lost the packaging with the product key on it, in the words of the late Douglas Adams, “Don’t Panic!”

It is recoverable from your Vista computer. Microsoft tucks it away in the Windows Registry and then disguises it, like a tie-dyed butcher at a vegetarian festival, so it’s unrecognizable. However, there is a way to get at it.

Download a little application called ProduKey (see Figure 5.23). It’s a free product from a talented programmer called Nir Sofer. It’s available from www.nirsoft.com or on my site at http://software.cyberwalker.com/item.php?i=1045.

Figure 5.23. ProduKey can grab your Windows and Office product keys from your Registry before you reformat and reinstall. I have partially obscured mine so bad people don’t steal them!

Software Disks

Put together all the disks and product keys for any third-party software you have installed. If you don’t have a program’s disk, go back through your email, locate the download website and product keys, and print them out. You will need these to reinstall the programs on your system after Windows Vista is reinstalled.

Gather Critical Drivers

Drivers are little pieces of software that let Windows talk to system hardware and peripherals.

Without them, a computer would be useless—it would be kind of like trying to water-ski behind an empty boat. Drivers run the machinery for Windows. So, if a driver doesn’t work or is missing for a particular device—such as a printer mouse or network card—then Windows can’t use the device.

Luckily, Vista has an extensive library of drivers on the installation disk, and it also has a mechanism that will download the latest drivers from Windows Update before and after reinstallation.

If your computer came with Vista installed, you’ll want to locate the driver disk that usually comes with most brand-name computers as a backup. Chances are if you didn’t notice one, it is still inside the packaging you pulled your computer out of the day you brought it home. Alternatively, it could be clustered with all the documentation you flung aside in your flurry of excitement. The drivers’ disk for my Dell Dimension 3000 is sitting in a stack of papers under a loaf of bread in the kitchen as I write this.

Then again, I download all my drivers from the Dell.com site when I do a reinstall, which ensures that I have the latest driver software, so I have never needed the actual Dell driver disk.

If you have a Lenovo (formerly IBM), HP, Acer, or other brand-name desktop computer or laptop, their makers all keep good repositories of drivers in the support on their websites (see Figure 5.24).

Figure 5.24. Like most brand-name manufacturers, Dell has an extensive listing of downloadable drivers on its support website for every machine it produces.

Download as many drivers as you can get your hands on, but be sure to get, at minimum, the following drivers:

• Chipset drivers—These drivers run the processor and associated chips. They often come clustered with other motherboard-related drivers. You will need to know the exact manufacturer and model name/number of your motherboard to get the right driver. Motherboard manufacturers are known for their effusive nature when naming chipset drivers. If you don’t know the exact name and model number, you’re likely to be in for a long evening of trying to figure out which driver to download. Do yourself a favor and get this figured out before you send the data on your hard drive off to the big bit bucket in the sky.

• Video—This is where things are most likely to go wrong on a fresh Windows install so be sure you have the latest video card (add-on card) or adapter (built in to the motherboard video chip).

• Networking—Windows Vista loves to update itself from the Web, so it’s important to have the right network adapter drivers handy.

• Mouse and Keyboard—Although Windows usually does a good job of having built-in drivers, it doesn’t hurt to download your computer maker’s drivers for these peripherals, especially if you use wireless versions of the products.

• Optical drives—Windows drivers usually work for optical drives, such as CD and DVD drivers and burners, but for ideal performance, you’ll want drivers from the drive makers.

• Hard drives—Although Vista will usually recognize your hard drives and use its own drivers, it’s worth keeping a copy of any hard drive manufacturer drivers you can find elsewhere, especially if you have added or upgraded a hard drive separately from the original system hardware configuration.

If you have add-on devices such as video cards, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth adapters, printers and scanners, webcams, and the like, be sure to go to the manufacturer websites to get the drivers for these devices.