Can reformatting really help?

[Sanius]

I have an XFX 6800 standard, amd 2500, and 512 megs of ram. I know my cpu is a bottleneck at the moment, but I want to try something realistic that can help. some people tell me that reformatting can help, since I upgraded from a geforce 2. I used atleast 60 gigs on my 120 gig harddrive, and I have lots of unneeded crap. so would reformatting help? if so, I can do it tomorrow. i'm using windows XP pro.

also, I have not reformatted in 4 months.

 

[Anubis08]

what exactly is the problem. Is your system slowing down, hanging, ...?

 

[Sanius]

I Think it would be the first one, games mostly preforming horribly.

 

[Cawchy87]

have you ran driver cleaner, and then re-installed the latest nvida drivers?

 

[Sanius]

look, thats not what i'm talking about. i'm just asking if I should reformat or not

 

[ts3433]

Originally posted by: Sanius
look, thats not what i'm talking about. i'm just asking if I should reformat or not

Uhh... Cawchy87 is giving you valid advice, unless you already tried that and it didn't help. I would try that, especially since only 4 months have passed since a reformat.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

IMO reformat is generally a last option.

Most of my rigs go for about 2 or more years before they need a new OS.

We're offering you advice that will give your system that 'like new' performance while continuing to keep all your stuff.

 

[Sanius]

ok, i haven't bothered with driver cleaner in awhile, but i'll try it.

 

[Cawchy87]

Originally posted by: Sanius
look, thats not what i'm talking about. i'm just asking if I should reformat or not

ok

 

[fixxxer0]

I'd say f*ck it and reformat.

I have everything backed up on DVD and multiple hard drives, and honestly windows installs take under an hour on these new computers.Loading all the programs, another hour or two, and i ALWAYS see a gain from how it last ran.....

I've done well over 100 format/reinstalls (not on my computer alone, although i do have 5 in my house) for people and it usually ends up being faster than tryign to figure out every little pissing thing that is wrong in windows. On my personal computer I dont have to format hardly ever because welll... I dunno, I guess I know what not to do to F up windows lol....


my .02

 

[Sanius]

I get 89 fps with highest settings/1024x768/4x af on the cs:s stress test, that sound normal?

 

[DanDrop]

reformat and fresh install of OS will help. Make sure you save all drivers in a cd or something.

 

[cy7878]

reformat helps speed things up. Overtime there are "stuff" that gets accumulated that bogs down the OS and clean install helps that. Just make sure you have all your data backed up and have drivers on hand. I usually reformat my drive every 1-2 years. I usually get a bigger drive during that time since i'm doing the work anyways.

 

[philler]

when you have formatet should you as a standard rescue, make patitions on your HD, one for you OS, and one for games and drivers Etc. then you will allways have your Drivers, games and all your stuff on your HD.

do you have DVD-burner? if you have you should make a "rescue" disc with every thing you want to save, after that you shall reboot your machine and put the XP-Disc in your CD-drive and then it will automaticly ask if you want to start : Windows XP installation or if you want to start Windows Xp(remember, you MUST NOT put the XP-disc In the CD-drive before your comp. has turned off, becuase then the Program put's instalationfiles on your HD, and then you can't make a format directly from the Disc) choose Windows Xp Instalation - after a while(i presume you can reach as far as that) it will look after a former WIN. now you shall delete the partition were windows were before, after that you command the comp. to make a new patition
(only for Windows, remember that). now install, choose NTSF(No NTSF/quick.. becuase that is only a quick format, choose NTSF, and push enter, now your comp. will start formating, and begin Win Xp Instalation..

hope you can use my advice..
my regards
Philip

 

[OverVolt]

Originally posted by: Sanius
I get 89 fps with highest settings/1024x768/4x af on the cs:s stress test, that sound normal?

i get 78fps with R9800Pro overclocked and P4 3.0c 1gig mem.