h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My PC is poorly, it's got problems with its' memory. Unlike me it won't forget things. I've got it booked to see the doctor over the weekend.

I've written down all my favourite links, passwords and user names, can anyone think of anything else I ought to do before it goes into the Total Perspective Vortex?

do some backing up . . .
My Documents, Outlook Express Messages etc,
and make sure you have the install discs and a note of the make/model of the sound card, video card and modem as these can can be hell to identify and resurect after a hard disk format!

Best of luck

Simon

I sympathise Granny, but you were lucky - a few weeks ago I had that nightmare scenario, the total unrecoverable HD failure with no warning. Worse still, we're living in a flat between selling one house and buying another, so my install disks were all in storage. In another country. I'm still only half-recovered.

Simon's got most of the essentials.
The most important thing in Outlook is probably your Address Book. Remember to note down the access number for your ISP and other settings in Dial-Up Networking. And if you like long-running games, back up your "save game" positions too.

That's all I can think of from recent experience.

Hope it goes well.

back up your registry.

Don't back up the registry,

when you reinstall Windoze etc the registry will be rebuilt from scratch, clean and without any of the old history of prgrammes that have come and gone, additions and deletions, - and . . . time expired demo programmes will have a new lease of life!

Don't back up the registry,

when you reinstall Windoze etc the registry will be rebuilt from scratch, clean and without any of the old history of prgrammes that have come and gone, additions and deletions, - and . . . time expired demo programmes will have a new lease of life!

Thanks for the tips guys, my documents are already backed up, but I'd forgotten my Address Book!! I'd backed up all I wanted to keep in Windows when I tried to install Office 2000 which is what's got me into this mess in the first place, it wouldn't install fully, wiped most of 97 and now refuses to play ball at all. Thank God I've still got web access!!!! My PC doctor has got all the relevant details on all the bits that he's installed for me like new sound card etc. So it just Address Book I guess. One good thing tho' Yahoo! will finally forget me. Behind every black cloud.........

The most annoying thing I keep losing - apart from my address book - is the ICQ friends list. There doesn't seem to be an easy way to back it up and reinstalling it. And you have to ask every single contact to let you add them to your list all over again. Very badly designed if you ask me.

But if you don't bother with ICQ, it's a lot easier

I don't, I only use MSN Messenger & that only to chat with my daughter, son-in-law & rugrats!!

I'd backup your Favourites folder, and the Cookies Folder. This folder contains files which allow sites such as H2G2 to recognise your PC as "you", hence you get "Welcome back, Fred" or whatever.

If you have any Autotexts in your Word program, save them as a file. You will have to re-install them afterwards, but if you have them in a file you can mark them and re-programme them quicker.

Same applies to any hand-made macros.

This is good - I intend to overhaul the hard disk very soon, and really need a check list. There are all sorts of things that have to be re-installed (like hyphenation in French and, in the case of our German system, English spellcheck etc.)

It's a good opportunity to chuck out any files that aren't needed, either, but that could take me a week!!

Also lots of bookmarks need changing - all the dozens of H2G2 sites I have bookmarked will have to be renamed with their bbc names.

Am still a bit apprehensive though - something's bound to get forgotten! Perhaps I'll wait and see what Granny says after the weekend.