Question Does anyone have a quick process they use when cleaning out storage drives every once in a long while?

[KiruseiNagisa]

Once every year I like to clean out my storage drives by wiping them completely of data and doing a fresh install of windows just to keep my system in top shape storage-side and getting rid of any potential viruses. It becomes a pretty long process and usually I commit a day to doing this, though every time I do this process I wonder if there's a more convenient way than having to move important files to a separate drive and wait hours for that to complete. Then another hour installing windows, and even more time updating drivers and moving files back into my system.

 

[USAFRet]

If you're committed to doing a full wipe and reinstall, there is no real shortcut.
Have all your personal docs on some other drive.

For a lot of basic application installs, ninite.com.
Select, download a small exe, run it and it installs all those applications.


Further, you can create a Day 1 full drive image.
Macrium Reflect is good for this.
Save this Image after you've done a full OS install, installed all your drivers, run all the OS updates, and installed your base load of applications.

This is a representation of the eitire contents of the drive.

When you want, recover that Image.
Your system will be exactly as it was the day you created that Image.

 

[Math Geek]

i like to keep all my data on a separate drive. so when i do a fresh install, it is only windows and programs i have to reload. all my data just stays where it is and i don't have to worry about it.

other time saver would be to back-up any programs you can such as games. steam and the others allow you to save the files elsewhere and then just move em back. this saves the download time when you're ready to reload them.

otherwise the rest of the time you can't avoid.

 

[USAFRet]

Further, except for virus infestations (why is that happening?), a full OS reinstall once a year is not really needed.

The semi-annual Win 10, or annual Win 11, major update is mostly a full OS reinstall anyway.

 

[DSzymborski]

You shouldn't be needing to move important files off the hard drives before wiping because they should already be backed up, ideally in multiple backups.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Good idea to save all your data on multiple external HDDs instead of on system drive.
Apart from anything else, it means less time creating and restoring a system-image.