I keep all my important files on a NAS already, so my desktop is pretty much exchangeable, only takes maybe 20-30 mins at most to get up and running including the install time.
- Sync my Calibre library to NAS before making the change (I have a rsync one-liner for this)
- Boot to USB and install new OS
- Log in and run system updates (
pacman -Syuin this case) - Create my disk paths if needed (I make
/home/$USER/Disks/and in that pathNVMe,sda,sdb,sdc, etc.) - Make network share folders on home directory (NAS folders for music and general NAS share)
- Copy over my /etc/fstab modifications from my back up file on the NAS to automount disks and NAS shares on boot
- Install Calibre
- Pull down books from backup
- Launch Firefox, install uBlock Origin and Dark Reader extensions
That's pretty much it for desktop. If it's my gaming PC, the "Calibre" portions there would be swapped with installing Steam and Heroic Launcher, but otherwise the same.