I’m going to switch from Windows 11 to Linux soon but first I wish to backup every every data and config files I can in my current Windows installation, even those that wouldn’t natively work in Linux. I know the \Users folder is important to back up, but I don’t know what other directories I am missing.
Also, if you can afford it, get a fresh hard drive for Linux. Save your old one. Windows being Windows, you never know where an insanely important file might be hiding.
Ideally I would have arranged a spare drive. Sadly it won’t be possible right now given the SSD shortage.
I had the same problem. Eventually settled on an old-fashioned rotary drive, copied my entire Windows partition over to it before I made the jump. And I’m very glad I did, there was some stuff in ProgramData I missed.