Ubuntu Documentation > Ubuntu 8.04 LTS > Switching From Windows > Preparing to switch > Organizing your files

Organizing your files

A good way of making sure that your data is safe and ready to be used in Ubuntu is to organize your files before you make the switch.

  • Delete files which you do not use or need any more

  • Organize your files neatly into folders

  • Move all of your files into one central location

  • Make sure that you have a copy of all of the files you want to keep

General file organization

Of all of the data on your computer, a sizeable portion is likely to be redundant. That is, it is data which you will never need to use again, and there is no value in saving it for posterity. Before switching to Ubuntu, it is a good idea to identify and remove this redundant data. This has the advantage of reducing the amount of data which you must copy across from your Windows installation to your new Ubuntu installation.

If your data is organized neatly, back-up and retrieval of that data when you make the switch will be much simplified. It is worth spending a little time organizing your data into one location, with different directories for different files and folders. If you have a tidy collection of documents, you are less likely to forget an important document when making the switch.

It is recommended that you move all of the files you wish to save into your My Documents folder and then organize them into folders (for example, by category or by type of file). This way, everything you need is in one location rather than being spread across multiple directories.

There are many tools available to help you to organize your data and to remove unused files. Windows XP has a built-in tool to help you to clean-up your files. Press Start → All Programs → Accessories → System Tools → Disk Cleanup to run the Windows XP Disk Cleanup Tool.

Finding forgotten files

You may have stored files in a location which you have forgotten about. As such, you may miss these files out of your back-up procedure and so they will not be transferred across to your Ubuntu installation. To find files of a specific type, regardless of their location, follow this procedure:

  1. Press Start → Search to start the Search application.

  2. Press the All files and folders button.

  3. In the box labelled All or part of the file name:, type *.doc (where .doc is the file extension of the type of document you wish to search for).

  4. In the selection box labelled Look in:, ensure that the Local hard drives option is selected.

  5. Press Search. All files of the .doc type will be found. To find files of other formats, substitute .doc for the file format which you wish to search for.

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