...
For most private users, data consists of documents, pictures, music, and videos that they keep on their hard drive.
...
By default, the Windows operating system stores these files in corresponding folders on the C drive within your user folder. The names consist of My Music, My Videos, My Pictures, My Documents, etc. Unless you are specifically saving your data elsewhere, these are the folders you would want to back up.
...
...
When you reinstall your operating system, these folders will be there. You just need to drop each folder back.
| Note | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
Note: The iTunes music folder is located within the My Music folder. |
Windows Clean Install – Recommended
...
...
A clean install will delete all data from your hard drive and install the latest version of Windows
...
. This will make your computer run “like new”, but requires that you move your data back to the “new” computer and reinstall your applications.
WARNING: The following process will install Microsoft Windows 7 on your computer. The process involves deleting your entire hard drive. You will lose all of your files unless you BACK THEM UP FIRST. You will need to re-install important applications and programs such as Microsoft Office. Please backup all software and files before continuing. Windows 10 has been provided at no cost, as an upgrade through Windows updates. If your computer is running well and you haven't been having difficulties an upgrade may work fine. Make sure you back up all of your data just in case there are issues. You may also want to be prepared to reinstall software, if it stops working correctly after the upgrade.