How can you reformat so often...

[TechHead87]

I've noticed that a lot of people tend to like to reformat their HDD's often. I've somewhat been curious as to if everyone actually means wiping the drive clean or simply just REINSTALLING the OS...

Is formatting often really necessary? Seems like this would become a tedious thing to do after a while (backup EVERYTHING, FormatC:, reinstall EVERYTHING)....

Also, and this is the major question I have...what backup measures do you take before reformatting? Is there a quicker way of reformatting?

 

[MrChad]

No it's not necessary. Most people either can't maintain their systems properly or get a false sense of performance boost after reformatting.

 

[Sniper82]

If you just reinstall windows and leave the current file system intact it's almost pointless unless you have corrupt files or something. Point of formatting it starting fresh. Meaning getting rid of amy spyware,viruses,ect that some apps can miss.

I usually format and start fresh about every 4-6 months or if I do a major upgrade on multiple components. I been doing it for many of years. It's not hard for me because all my important stuff is on a second partion. All I have to backup is my bookmarks some documents and that about it. The crappiest part is reinstalling games if you have a few you play.

 

[DannyLove]

I reformat often. maybe every 3-4 months

 

[waitman]

I reformat often, the last time on this pc was almost 4 years ago.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I own Acronis True Image, so reformatting would be a silly waste of time.

I don't bother, but I could see some value in restoring a clean OS + apps image every 6 months. Apps do leave behind files, processes and registry enties that slow down your PC over time, since not every app has a thorough uninstaller.

 

[tfinch2]

I usually reformat once every few years or so.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
I own Acronis True Image, so reformatting would be a silly waste of time.

You beat me to it.

 

[jadinolf]

I only format when I am forced to- mainly when something happens that I can't get into windows or if one of my computers (I have 4) is acting really squirrelly.

The longest I have gone with out reformatting is 2 years. Shortest- probably a week or so.

 

[Nothinman]

No it's not necessary. Most people either can't maintain their systems properly or get a false sense of performance boost after reformatting.

Sadly it's probably not a placebo affect. For instance, my work machine has XP plus a handful of things that I use at work and all I really use it for is browsing in FF, Outlook and some perl scripts and when I right-click on a file it takes ~30s for the menu to popup. I haven't put any time into figuring out why it does that, but I also haven't installed anything shifty either.

 

[iamaelephant]

I format often, about every 4 - 5 months. It doesn't give a huge performance boost but there certainly is a little performance to be had. Mostly Ido it because I like to keep my computer clean and fresh, and also I actually enjoy starting fresh, installing just the apps I like and having a nice clean install. I have another computer on a network and that is where I store my backup files.

 

[Xyclone]

I reformat around every 4-6 months, which is a good idea, imo.

 

[jlbenedict]

4-6 months here as well. I don't want to lose my touch

 

[Nothinman]

I reformat around every 4-6 months, which is a good idea, imo.

If by good idea you mean waste of time, then sure.

 

[lozina]

Originally posted by: MrChad
No it's not necessary. Most people either can't maintain their systems properly or get a false sense of performance boost after reformatting.

False. Formatting your PC easily increases performance in more cases than not. Some people are just too lazy to do it and come up with half-ass excuses.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: lozina

Originally posted by: MrChad
No it's not necessary. Most people either can't maintain their systems properly or get a false sense of performance boost after reformatting.

False. Formatting your PC easily increases performance in more cases than not. Some people are just too lazy to do it and come up with half-ass excuses.

FALSE. A properly maintained PC will be fine for years on the same OS install and reformatting won't do anything huge if a) it was fine before reformatting and b) you reinstall all the same stuff afterwards as you had before.

 

[lozina]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: lozina

Originally posted by: MrChad
No it's not necessary. Most people either can't maintain their systems properly or get a false sense of performance boost after reformatting.

False. Formatting your PC easily increases performance in more cases than not. Some people are just too lazy to do it and come up with half-ass excuses.

FALSE. A properly maintained PC will be fine for years on the same OS install and reformatting won't do anything huge if a) it was fine before reformatting and b) you reinstall all the same stuff afterwards as you had before.

A "properly maintained PC". LOL. And then they say formatting is a waste of time?! ROTFL!

You'll spend at least 10x more time trying to "properly maintain" a Windows OS especially considering how 3rd party software always so diligently follow standards (sarcasm) than it would take for me to reformat my machine and reinstall the OS. And my file system will be alot cleaner.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: lozina

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: lozina

Originally posted by: MrChad
No it's not necessary. Most people either can't maintain their systems properly or get a false sense of performance boost after reformatting.

False. Formatting your PC easily increases performance in more cases than not. Some people are just too lazy to do it and come up with half-ass excuses.

FALSE. A properly maintained PC will be fine for years on the same OS install and reformatting won't do anything huge if a) it was fine before reformatting and b) you reinstall all the same stuff afterwards as you had before.

A "properly maintained PC". LOL. And then they say formatting is a waste of time?! ROTFL!

You'll spend at least 10x more time trying to "properly maintain" a Windows OS especially considering how 3rd party software always so diligently follow standards (sarcasm) than it would take for me to reformat my machine and reinstall the OS. And my file system will be alot cleaner.

It takes me almost zero time to maintain my install. Anti-virus auto-updates and auto-scans and I rarely get viruses anyway. I never get spyware because I don't do stupid sh!t but I occasionally run scans anyway. I keep my startup clean with only the items I want. I only leave installed the items I want and only let the services that I want run. If I reformatted my PC and reinstalled ALL the same stuff I had from my last install, tell me exactly how I would see a benefit?

 

[Nothinman]

You'll spend at least 10x more time trying to "properly maintain" a Windows OS especially considering how 3rd party software always so diligently follow standards (sarcasm) than it would take for me to reformat my machine and reinstall the OS. And my file system will be alot cleaner.

Time must pass differently where you live because I can't imagine how it would take 10x as much time to be careful than to format and reinstall everything two or three times a year.

 

[lozina]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: lozina

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: lozina

Originally posted by: MrChad
No it's not necessary. Most people either can't maintain their systems properly or get a false sense of performance boost after reformatting.

False. Formatting your PC easily increases performance in more cases than not. Some people are just too lazy to do it and come up with half-ass excuses.

FALSE. A properly maintained PC will be fine for years on the same OS install and reformatting won't do anything huge if a) it was fine before reformatting and b) you reinstall all the same stuff afterwards as you had before.

A "properly maintained PC". LOL. And then they say formatting is a waste of time?! ROTFL!

You'll spend at least 10x more time trying to "properly maintain" a Windows OS especially considering how 3rd party software always so diligently follow standards (sarcasm) than it would take for me to reformat my machine and reinstall the OS. And my file system will be alot cleaner.

It takes me almost zero time to maintain my install. Anti-virus auto-updates and auto-scans and I rarely get viruses anyway. I never get spyware because I don't do stupid sh!t but I occasionally run scans anyway. I keep my startup clean with only the items I want. I only leave installed the items I want and only let the services that I want run. If I reformatted my PC and reinstalled ALL the same stuff I had from my last install, tell me exactly how I would see a benefit?

I guess you won't benefit if you arent using your PC for much varied tasks. Sounds like you have a certain set of software you use and that's pretty much it. I am constantly installing and uninstalling all kinds of software from movie editting, 3d graphics, games, multimedia, programming tools... and let me tell you not all of them have nice uninstall features and its rare for all their uninstall feature to return the state of your PC to how it was before they came around. Residual files in your system32 folder like dlls etc... and all these registry entries. Over 6 months I will easily accumulate so much crap that it would take me far more time to go and find all the necessary maintenance tools like registry cleaners and run them than it would be to simply format my HD. It takes me about 30 minutes to completely format and reinstall XP. Then it only takes 15 minutes to bring my PC up to where I need it with drivers and absolutely necessary software. then I start downloading tons of crap again and the process repeats.

And on top of that the maintenance tools you can find are not very reliable either. Just read their disclaimers and read how many people develop more problems after running something like a registry cleaner. Why bother? Why waste time on that when you can have a nice fresh install in less than an hour?

 

[NiKeFiDO]

omg this argument is the lamest thing ever. just do what you do and move on.

 

[apoppin]

i USED to format every six months or so . . . that was Win98 .. . with Win2k i reformat when i want to.

next format is scheduled when i upgrade my rig [and OS]

 

[LanceM]

I used to format every few months, but now only if something is incredibly wrong. Basically never. Last time I did was probably in 2002 on an old machine.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: LanceM
I used to format every few months, but now only if something is incredibly wrong. Basically never. Last time I did was probably in 2002 on an old machine.

Incredibly wrong...that made me chuckle for some reason.

I usually do a major overhaul every 18-24 months anyway so I just wait to format till then. Only will do it any other time if something gets screwed up.

 

[networkman]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
I own Acronis True Image, so reformatting would be a silly waste of time.

I don't bother, but I could see some value in restoring a clean OS + apps image every 6 months. Apps do leave behind files, processes and registry enties that slow down your PC over time, since not every app has a thorough uninstaller.

Ghost fan here - but otherwise completely agree with Dave.