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Friend hasn't reformatted in almost 5 years

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i really should reformat as theres a few problems, the main one of which i have actually fixed. still get the found new PATA IDE hardware on every boot up, xp says they belong to nvidia but ive installed countless nv drivers and it wont go away.

everything is running how i like it though, got all the progs i want, all my passwords are saved in the fox, all my book marks, my xp and fox themes...i dont wanna reformat if i can help it

last time i reformatted was because i had no choice. i was upgrading to SLI mobo, new cpu and SLI graphics
 
Originally posted by: halik
Originally posted by: Eeezee
He was smart enough to have a second hard drive that he used to keep backups of all of his important stuff, so formatting wasn't even a big deal. I finally convinced him that he'll get a nice performance boost. He was getting blue screens on bootup every now and then. I told him it was time. He's been much happier with his system's performance. It's a Dell 1.7GHz P4 with 256MB of ram and a Geforce2 MX 64MB graphics card.

I reformat about once every 3-6 months. It keeps things running smooth and doesn't take more than 30 minutes to an hour if you know what you're doing. This includes download time for latest updates and drivers 😉 My friend was deathly afraid of reformatting, afraid that it'd screw up his computer even more, until I told him how often I reformat.

Anyone else come across users that let their computers rot for years and years without a good tech support guy around to keep them clean? I'm sure there are some good stories lingering around here
Click to expand...


Only wanna be IT people solve problems by reformatting. I haven't formatted anything in 3 and half years.
Click to expand...

You said it. I'm still running an install of XP that's about 3-4 years old as well. I've even upgraded motherboards in that time span with out reinstalling XP. I've crashed the OS at least 5 times as well with viruses, spyware and just plain stupidity. But rather than take the easy way out, I like to troubleshoot the problem and actually fix it. Usually involves dual booting to a second XP install I have on another partition. Fixin' it when it breaks is half the fun of having a computer for me! You get pretty knowledgeable about the registry and how Windows works in the process.
 
Originally posted by: AMCRambler
Originally posted by: halik
Originally posted by: Eeezee
He was smart enough to have a second hard drive that he used to keep backups of all of his important stuff, so formatting wasn't even a big deal. I finally convinced him that he'll get a nice performance boost. He was getting blue screens on bootup every now and then. I told him it was time. He's been much happier with his system's performance. It's a Dell 1.7GHz P4 with 256MB of ram and a Geforce2 MX 64MB graphics card.

I reformat about once every 3-6 months. It keeps things running smooth and doesn't take more than 30 minutes to an hour if you know what you're doing. This includes download time for latest updates and drivers 😉 My friend was deathly afraid of reformatting, afraid that it'd screw up his computer even more, until I told him how often I reformat.

Anyone else come across users that let their computers rot for years and years without a good tech support guy around to keep them clean? I'm sure there are some good stories lingering around here
Click to expand...


Only wanna be IT people solve problems by reformatting. I haven't formatted anything in 3 and half years.
Click to expand...

You said it. I'm still running an install of XP that's about 3-4 years old as well. I've even upgraded motherboards in that time span with out reinstalling XP. I've crashed the OS at least 5 times as well with viruses, spyware and just plain stupidity. But rather than take the easy way out, I like to troubleshoot the problem and actually fix it. Usually involves dual booting to a second XP install I have on another partition. Fixin' it when it breaks is half the fun of having a computer for me! You get pretty knowledgeable about the registry and how Windows works in the process.
Click to expand...

I just wrote couple maintenance scripts that get run every night (defrag, disk cleanup, virus scan, new definitions) and that keeps the box running nice and smooth. Every now and then I run adaware, but I haven't done that in about a year now (no need ). I do prune HKLM/blah/blah/run in registry so random apps don't take up memory. But that's about it with maintenance.
 
Please show me where you can install windows, and all the necessary apps one might use (like Office) from discs in under 30 minutes. That means not using an imaging software package. No ghost, no PowerQuest....

I always hate when someone says "I can reinstall my machine in 30 minutes" Its just not possible unless you are using an image. Here is a little test. Install Windows from a CD, install office, install BF2, install all patches, and tell me how long that takes. I promise the answer is > 30 minutes.
 
i find crap cleaner is good for busting out old registry entries

illl do CC, anti virus scan, spybot and another one every now an then along with disk clean up (im talkin less than once a month) just to clean things up a little. and its golden. i havent even defragged since i upraded, since thats just a waste of time

thing boots up before i have time to wake up, everything runs smooth right off the bat
 
2 years and I haven't reformatted. When I use to have windows 95 I would reformat practically every 2 weeks. Ah, the good ol days...
 
Originally posted by: compuwiz1
PC performance has nothing to do with reformatting, except for to n00bs. They seem to think that's the fix all for everything. I have not reformatted my main comp in almost 5 years. It works fine.
Click to expand...

QFT.

The only people who get a performance boost from a reformat are those who are not with enough sense to maintain their orginal installation in the first place. Those people simply have some learning to do.
 
I hate reformating and reinstalling all my crap. I only reformat if I'm installing a New OS or replacing my motherboard.
 
I never reformat unless I'm installing a new OS or make a major hardware change like new motherboard. I don't see any reason to reformat and I've never had performance issues. Some of you must really fuxor your installs if they need reformatting so often.
 
Originally posted by: Philippine Mango
Originally posted by: farmercal
I haven't reformated my main machine in 3 to 4 years. Runs smooth as silk. If it ain't broke - don't fix it. I have zero issues with slow boot up, no blue screen of death, or any other problems. But then again it's NOT a Dell. I built it myself and that is why it's still running well (no bargain basement parts).
Click to expand...

Agian, QFT, I've noticed dells in my experience to be much more UNreliable than systems I've built, probably due to the fact I dont' scrimp on parts like the motherboard or powersupply.
Click to expand...
[/quote]

So when did SATA Seagate drives, Crucial Memory, nVIDIA Graphics card, SB Audigy 2 ZS, Dell LCDs, and a NEC 35xx series DVDRWs become 'bargain basement parts'? That's what my Dell came with! 😀

(only bought because I got a HELL of a deal, but nonetheless...)
 
Originally posted by: Amol
Originally posted by: Eeezee
He was smart enough to have a second hard drive that he used to keep backups of all of his important stuff, so formatting wasn't even a big deal.
Click to expand...

Doing that makes formatting oh so much easier. My C:\ is only the OS and Programs. Everything else is on the D:\ (Basic Data), H:\ (High-Def DVR), or M:\ (Other Media)

Last time I formatted was probably beginning of the year. I'm due for another one.
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http://www.atotchat.org/~montavis/dmo/drives.jpg

Partitioning FTW!
 
Originally posted by: JohnKimble
Originally posted by: darkswordsman17
I don't think my roomate has reformatted in like 3 years.

He's installed a ton of programs and all kinds of crap. I'm sure he probably has a virus or two and some spyware as well. He does at least keep Windows updated.

He even plays quite a bit of games. He's been playing Oblivion on his 9700 AIW, and I don't think he's updated the drivers in about a year (which he only did because of some issue with KotOR.

He's kinda odd when it comes to computer stuff. He's got this humongous 19" Viewsonic CRT that I can't even stand to look at the picture quality its so bad (I don't think he's even adjusted it at all either). He also has no problem playing his PS2 through his tuner, which bothers my eyes really badly. One of his sticks of RAM went bad about two years ago. I told him to just contact the manufacturer (I think its Geil) and RMA it. Instead he bought another stick of RAM off Newegg and still has the other one sitting on his desk. I don't think he's cleaned his computer of dust since he's gotten it either.

I don't badger him about it since he seems to have no problems with it.
Click to expand...

Sounds like me. Lazy as fvck.
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I also know those people who pop in a game and start playing and few days later if I see their comp I ask why the hell they're playing at 640x480. Come on. Adjust your settings at least. I think some people are retarded and don't even bother to adjust settings in game.

And then their desktop has like 500 icons and if you hit arrange desktop they kill you.
 
Originally posted by: dguy6789
Originally posted by: compuwiz1
PC performance has nothing to do with reformatting, except for to n00bs. They seem to think that's the fix all for everything. I have not reformatted my main comp in almost 5 years. It works fine.
Click to expand...

QFT.

The only people who get a performance boost from a reformat are those who are not with enough sense to maintain their orginal installation in the first place. Those people simply have some learning to do.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:
 
I rarely reformat my OS drive. A couple of my PC's have never been reformatted. I run XP variants and perform routine maitenance including virus and spyware as well as defrag and CCleaner. I even do a fair share of driver beta testing, plenty of install/uninstall/reinstall.

Reformating as a maitenance task doesn't make sense to me.
 

what do you mean by 'reformatting'? Like wiping out all your data and rebuilding?
Why not just do a fragmentation?

I suspect your friend is seeing a performance increase because he's not running crap that he used to have on there anymore. A much better solution was to just rid his systems of useless crap running, not wiping it all out and rebuilding.
 
Originally posted by: compuwiz1
PC performance has nothing to do with reformatting, except for to n00bs. They seem to think that's the fix all for everything. I have not reformatted my main comp in almost 5 years. It works fine.
Click to expand...

WERD
If you have to reformat that often to get performance back....you are an idiot.
 
QUESTION: How exactly do you guys reformat? Do you just go out to the dos prompt and type format C:\ or whatever? Or do you do it some other way?
 
Man, some of you guys are reformatting way too much. If you know what you're doing, you shouldn't have to. My W2K box is going on 5 years without reformatting. My main laptop i've had it for over a year and haven't reformatted... and have no intention to unless it completely breaks down. If you know what you're doing, and don't install everything that is asked for you when you browse the web, you shouldn't have any problems.
 
Originally posted by: jamesbond007
Originally posted by: Philippine Mango
Originally posted by: farmercal
I haven't reformated my main machine in 3 to 4 years. Runs smooth as silk. If it ain't broke - don't fix it. I have zero issues with slow boot up, no blue screen of death, or any other problems. But then again it's NOT a Dell. I built it myself and that is why it's still running well (no bargain basement parts).
Click to expand...

Agian, QFT, I've noticed dells in my experience to be much more UNreliable than systems I've built, probably due to the fact I dont' scrimp on parts like the motherboard or powersupply.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

So when did SATA Seagate drives, Crucial Memory, nVIDIA Graphics card, SB Audigy 2 ZS, Dell LCDs, and a NEC 35xx series DVDRWs become 'bargain basement parts'? That's what my Dell came with! 😀

(only bought because I got a HELL of a deal, but nonetheless...)[/quote]
Eh, their motherboards and PSUs aren't exactly that high on the performance and reliability scale.

 
Originally posted by: compuwiz1
PC performance has nothing to do with reformatting, except for to n00bs. They seem to think that's the fix all for everything. I have not reformatted my main comp in almost 5 years. It works fine.
Click to expand...

Thank you sir. I'm running strong on an XP install from 3 years ago. This XP install started on an athlon 1400, then the motherboard was swapped for a P4 set-up. Same XP install. I ran the SP2 update at 1st boot, Everything worked like a champ. recently, I swapped the motherboard and processor for a faster p4 setup. It's been through numerous video cards, sound cards, at least 3 different wireless cards and it works as a workstation and runs as a file server.

 
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