How often do you re-format?

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pbXassassinX1524

[H]ard|Gawd
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hey guys, I'm a tremendous tweaker and trying a bunch of stuff for the 1st time... needless to say that my system got really cluttered really fast, and now I'm starting to have problems with a bunch of seeming unknown errors, and I plan on reformatting(am I spelling that right?) as soon as I can get a DVD burner for my system (since I don't have ANY way of transferring files off my system right now.)

As just a general kind of poll, how often do you guys reformat?
 
I do about once every two months. Keeps things nice and clean and rock-solid stable.
 
I set up my partitions so that I have a "boot" partition, which has the operating system ONLY. Then, another partition for program installs. Then I have a second hard drive for backups and swap files.

So I format and reinstall to my boot partition every few months (not always by choice, sometimes I just screw something up to a point of reformatting. I can't keep my hands away from my computer :p ).
 
on my old PII rig, which my family kept for entirely too long, i think we reformatted once or twice (got it in '97, got a new one in '04)
:D
 
Get another hard drive. Keep your downloaded files, movies, documents, etc on it. Then just format the windows drive (or partition) so the system files are cleaned up and all that fun stuff.
 
depends on how the compys running, anywhere from once a week to once every 6 months if its all good
 
at least a year.
whenever I notice the slowdown, i guess.
I install so many damn programs on my system that it's like a week to get it close to being normal.
 
I used to reformat everytime the moon came up...

Now im down to about 6 months on my main PC and about a year on my file server.
 
yea, I don't think I'll need to reformat maybe... ever after this one. But I just love to tinker (sometimes with things I don't know about and really... shouldn't) and I went too far, lol. Started to get unstable... not what I want. but oh well, at least I get a nice fresh start.

Have you ever had any problems with your CD keys when reformatting (ie, having to call up microsoft for something stupid, liek for me installing another DIMM in my system, and it made me re-activate my code)
 
I re-ghost to a clean image about once every month, month and a half. It takes 5 minutes to do, so why not?
 
Looks like I'll be reformatting this weekend. Luckily, I just imaged my drive with Norton Ghost a few months ago. Save a lot of hassle.

Think I got a virus from opening a fake email. Had one of my professor's name as the email address though so it looked legit. But don't have a virus scanner installed right now so I'm gonna just do a format to be on the safe side.
 
The Less you reformat the less of a newbie your are.
 
its prolly that lame netsky.d or beagle virus - that can be easily cleaned.
 
As rarely as possible. With win95 and 98 it seemed like once a month I was breaking out the install disks. WinXP doesn't seem to have anywhere near the same issues. I think I'm down to once every six to twelve months. Probably closer to twelve at this point.

-dB
 
Originally posted by d03boy
Get another hard drive. Keep your downloaded files, movies, documents, etc on it. Then just format the windows drive (or partition) so the system files are cleaned up and all that fun stuff.
Click to expand...
Don't get a second hard drive, just make a 20 or 30gb C: partition and play with the rest however you like. You can format C: a hundred times and the rest of the partitions will be untouched. I have 4 primary partitions on my 160gb seagate.
Originally posted by jacuzz1
The Less you reformat the less of a newbie your are.
Click to expand...
Hehehe... there is some truth to this :D

Is there any way to see when was the last time you formatted/reinstalled windows? Because I really can't remember when the last time was.

My C: drive is up to 18gb, and my windows 2000 installation is almost as fast as if a fresh installation was done.
 
Originally posted by viper11885
Looks like I'll be reformatting this weekend. Luckily, I just imaged my drive with Norton Ghost a few months ago. Save a lot of hassle.

Think I got a virus from opening a fake email. Had one of my professor's name as the email address though so it looked legit. But don't have a virus scanner installed right now so I'm gonna just do a format to be on the safe side.
Click to expand...

Dude, do an online virus scan . Trend Micro house call


IT is very effective and even detects trojans and its freew


http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp
 
Still on the same install (win2K) for three years on my daily-use gaming machine. Its been through multiple hardware upgrades, mobo changes, patches and tweaks, freaky power failures, and dual-boot experiments with linux.

Im the only user, keep it clean, and besides running ad-aware every few months (usually coming up empty) it doesnt really require maintenance. I dont really see the point of frequently formatting, unless you routinely hose your OS or install/tweak a lot of crap..
 
I used to format at least once a month. Then I had to move to the boonies and lost my cable connection and am now stuck on 28.8 dial-up. That makes it a pain in the ass to get Windoze updates and stuff.

Right now, tomorrow will spell one year since my last format and re-install. That means it's long overdue. Sure I don't have any problems or anything right now but it needs it. I bet I'll notice a bit of speed increase when I do it and get out all the leftover crap I'm too lazy to clean up.

I may transplant my system to a friend's house to do it on Saturday or something since he has cable and will make things a lot easier. Besides, I'm dying for some online gaming and that will allow me to do it for a little while. Damn, just need to find someone to watch my 3 year old devil for about a day and a half.
 
before windows XP, i used to format around once every 2 months. now it is more like 3 times per year.
 
About once every 4 months for me.. I like to keep things nice and clean.
 
I personally re-format my main rig around every 2 months or so.

I recommend once every 6 months for everyone. Once a year at the least.
 
Every 2~3 months to get everything clean, but still have a ghost image "just in case of emergency" :D

OldMX
 
Well with windows 2000 I usually format about every 8 - 10 months, so basically its about every school year.
But after spring break I'm going to have to format because I will be installing winXP Pro as soon as I backup everything to DVD.
 
I format whenever I get too much shit that slows down my computer, which is about 3-4 months.
 
I used to reformat every week because I had windows 98 and it always gave me problems. So now I got windows xp pro and I only format when I get a virus that I cannot get rid of. Which only happened once since I bought the system in may of 2003.
 
With Windows XP, usually not often. I have one computer that has been through multiple upgrades and I've just done a repair install to get it back up after the upgrades, so it's maybe around 2 years on XP. My main computer I don't see a need to unless I do a big upgrade, like I just did recently. But before that, it's been around 8-9 months average. I keep my data and stuff on a separate partition, so I can just format my system drive whenever I want and not lose hud.
 
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