If Windows 7 presales are any indication, many of you will be upgrading from Windows XP or Vista in a few months.  Many of you will likely choose the “clean install” route, completely wiping your hard drives and starting fresh.  Although reformatting usually can make for a more solid installation, it can cause headaches if you haven’t prepared ahead of time.  With that in mind, I’ve put together a checklist of 10 steps to take prior to upgrading to Windows 7, to save you time later.  This list could also apply to any of you who are reinstalling a current operating system, if you don’t have an image of your hard drive for an easy restoration.  In a future post, I’ll take a look at steps to take after upgrading to Windows 7.  I intend for this to be a “living” list, so please chime in with other suggestions in the comments.  My hope is to be able to then take these suggestions, and post an updated list closer to the release of Windows 7.  Without further adieu, here is the list.

Photo by impresa.mccabe.

1. Take an inventory of your needed programs

The last thing you want to have happen is to reformat your drive, only to discover later that you’ve lost the installation disc for an important program.  It will also be a much smoother and quicker installation if you have a handy list of programs to install when you’re done installing the operating system.  So, go through your computer before you start, and identify all programs that you’ll want to install on the new OS.

2.  Make sure your key programs will work with the new operating system

Now that you have a list of your programs, put it to good use.  The last thing that you want to have happen is to install a new operating system, and find that a program you can’t live without isn’t compatible with Windows 7.  By most reports, this won’t be a problem if you’re moving from Vista, but it is still worth a look.  Also, don’t forget to identify any special codecs that you use (such as Lagarith and Huffy for you video editors) and make sure that they work with the new OS.  Given the number of people who’ve used the Windows 7 beta and release candidate, a search should reveal some problematic programs.

3.  Make sure your hardware is compatible with the new OS

As with programs, if a piece of hardware works with Vista, it should work with Windows 7.  But it would still be a good idea (especially if you’re coming from an OS older than Vista) to check the manufacturer’s webpage for each piece of your key hardware, to make sure that it works with Windows 7.

4.  Back up your documents, photos, and videos

This goes without saying.  Hopefully, you’ve been keeping backups already.  Even if you have, perform a thorough review of your system to make sure you haven’t missed any important files or directories.  At the very least, back up your Documents folder.  In Vista, you probably want to back up your entire User folder.

5. Copy essential program settings, such as your Firefox profiles

If you have settings for different programs that you don’t want to lose and won’t remember, copy those down.  This could be a matter of backing up a settings file, or it could involve manually writing down settings.  If you’re a Firefox user, and haven’t already done so in step 4, above, make sure you backup your Firefox profile.  Your profile stores personal information such as bookmarks, passwords, and user preferences.  If you’re using a bookmarks manager like Xmarks, and a password manager like Lastpass, then this isn’t quite as crucial, but it is still a good idea.  Mozilla has provided step by step instructions explaining how to back up your profile on different versions of Windows.

6.  Back up project files and other important files

Some programs create their own specialized files, which you won’t want to lose.  This will vary from program to program, so I can’t give you tips for all of them.  As an example, Adobe Premiere, a video editing program, creates project files and preview files as you work on video projects.  Your work would go down the drain if some of those were lost.  So, for your important programs, check the program settings or documentation to see if the program creates such special files.  If so, back them up.  If you’re a gamer, track down the location of each game’s saved game files and preference files, and backup those.

7.  Write down any file/directory paths that you will need to recreate

This step goes hand in hand with step 6.  If a program creates special project files, you often will make your life easier if you recreate the location of the files in your new installation.  When opening a project in Premiere, for example (which you restored from your backup in step 6), the program will prompt you for the location of a file if the file isn’t located where it was previously.  You can avoid this is your files are located in the same directory as they were prior to the reformat.

8.  Make a list of your drive lettering structure

This is similar to step 7.  If you have multiple hard drives, and don’t plan to alter your setup with the new operating system, you should make a list of your drive lettering setup.  For example, I have an external drive, assigned with the letter “O,” to which many programs and project files point.  It would be a hassle if that drive were assigned a different letter when installing Windows 7, especially if I couldn’t reassign the letter because I couldn’t remember what it was.

9.  Deactivate programs with limited activations

Sometimes, licensing and copy protection schemes restrict the number of computers on which you can install a program, or otherwise restrict your use of assets to a limited number of computers.  For example, back in the DRM (Digital Rights Management) days, you could use your DRM-protected music purchases from the iTunes Store on up to five different computers.  Often, reinstalling a program on a reformatted drive, without first deauthorizing the program, will count as two installations.  Once you’ve reformatted, you will have lost the ability to easily deauthorize the program from the old operating system’s installation of the program.  To avoid having to take time-consuming steps to deauthorize (such as going online, or calling the publisher), you’ll want to deauthorize the computer prior to the reformat.

10.  Make sure you have all of your CD keys and activation information

You don’t want to lose information you’ll need to reinstall and activate a program on your new operating system, so make sure that you have the activation keys, user names, etc., for all of your programs.  If you don’t have the initial documentation that came with a program, you sometimes can find the CD key or activation number in the program itself, or somewhere on your hard drive.  If you’re not sure where to find the information, Google is your friend.  I like to store this information in an encrypted Evernote note, so that it is always available to me.

So, what did I miss?  Chime in with your suggestions in the comments, and then perhaps I can revisit this issue in an updated post closer to the release of Windows 7.  Also, if you’ve used the Windows 7 beta or release candidate, and you know of a particularly problematic program or piece of hardware, please let us know in the comments.