• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

How often do you reformat your computer?

How often do you reformat your computer?

  • Every Few Weeks

    Votes: 6 2.0%

  • Every Month

    Votes: 8 2.7%

  • Every 2-6 Months

    Votes: 68 23.0%

  • Every 6-10 Months

    Votes: 47 15.9%

  • Every Year

    Votes: 35 11.8%

  • Every Few Years

    Votes: 9 3.0%

  • Whenever it needs it

    Votes: 88 29.7%

  • Reformat? Ha!

    Votes: 35 11.8%
  • Total voters
    296
Status
Not open for further replies.
I usually end up upgrading/downgrading my computer every 3-5 months... so I usually reformat too.
 
About every 3 months on my "Download" computer filled with spyware. When the season changes, change smoke detector battery and reformat the bitch computer :D
 
Just curious, but why do you guys reformat after upgrading the PC? And where do you normally keep your backups then?
 
Gary King said:
Just curious, but why do you guys reformat after upgrading the PC? And where do you normally keep your backups then?
Click to expand...
When it's big components like the motherboard (actually, this is the only upgrade that I do reformats for, even though it's not required), I just like to get a fresh start to make sure everything's running at its best.

As to where we keep our backups, at least I have a partition with all my files that is very organized. You only need to format the OS partition.
 
Every 3 or 4 months depending. It always has a nice, crisp feel to it after a reformat ;)
 
its funny you asked that coz my windows just died this friday and i need to format. but i wanted to RMA my mobo for some time already so now im gonna wait for new mobo to format. i think its a good idea to format about every year.
 
about once a year. last time i did it was beginning of january just before going back to school. that time i think i made a pretty good ghost image for the next time i need to reload, though there are definite changes that i've made since then that i will have to remember so i can incorporate them next time. of course, if i upgrade my computer over the summer sometime, i may have to redo it from scratch depending how much hardware i change
 
I would reformat once every 2 or 3 weeks, but my parents are to lazy to back up there files...
 
I voted under, "Whenever it needs it". When the pop-ups start to come up every few seconds, I reformat.
 
Always found a way to repair or clean my HDDs.
Each 3-4 years.
 
it seems like every week im formatting, due to the lack of GOOD drivers for my 6800U SLI setup......
 
Lord Nassirbannipal said:
When it starts to bog down, I Norton Ghost it.
Click to expand...

<off topic>

How, and where's some tutorials to do this? I have been wanting to do this for awhile now.

</off topic>
 
Gary King said:
Just curious, but why do you guys reformat after upgrading the PC? And where do you normally keep your backups then?
Click to expand...
I format about every 6 months I suppose... More to keep in practice than any serious reason. As far as backups? I use a lil program to backup / sync my docs and other files up to a different puter on my network once a day.

Since I got 5 puters and a lappy, I format a puter a month.
 
I personally like to keep it optimal, so probably every 2 months or so, unless I get some gay assed virrus.
 
I voted 'Reformat? Ha!' Seriously. I had a Samsung SP1604N that I had let sit unused for awhile. A buddy of mine had his comp stolen from his Ball State Dorm Room, and we contributed to get him going again. He pops that hard drive in (I had last booted this system on a GA-7N400 Pro2 last year) and it boots right up on his new Epox NF2 mobo like I had never left. Didn't even have to use Safe Mode.
 
Back when I ran Windows 98 anything much over 6-8 months was pushing it, I could never make it a full year. Which was kinda cool because I could just keep reinstalling my copy of Norton Anti Virus 2002 and get another full year.

When I switched to Windows 2000, That has gone up to Well over a year probaly 18-24 months. Much more conveinent. Actually this most recent load of 2000 pro was due to an HD failure. I ran Knoppix Linux for several months with no HD until my boss felt sorry for me and gave my the 10GB WD out of his personal stash.

-End of Ramble
 
When you guys say 'Norton Ghost' what do you mean?

You backup the drive(s) using Ghost on another drive, then reformat? So then the Ghost images are only for backups, and 'just-in-case' moments? :)
 
AMD[H]unter said:
<off topic>

How, and where's some tutorials to do this? I have been wanting to do this for awhile now.

</off topic>
Click to expand...

The manual that comes with Ghost is the best place to start...they have a wonderful quick walkthrough in it.
 
Went from Windows ME, Windows 2k pro, Windows XP pro, in about 4 yrs total I guess. No backups. I just try to keep things clean whenever I can, since i only have a 40gb hard drive.

I've gotten one horrible virus so far, but I was too lazy to reformat so I installed windows 2k pro, and kept my files. Now all I need it some way to delete my two older os's :)
 
When I replace the 'C:' drive, which is often enough.

I used to all the time with 98, because you pretty much had to. There really is no reason to anymore with XP, at least I don't notice a difference.
 
Wow, a lot of you lack the responsibility in taking care of your computers. Instead, you format it. Bad examples for kids to learn from.

I never had to format my computer for two years. And within that two years it went through crap such as getting a virus, pop ups, even hardware and driver changes. It still runs like a champ.

-J.
 
Too bad I can use the CD as many times as I want, and I want to keep my PC tuned as fast as it can go.
 
DamienThorn said:
The manual that comes with Ghost is the best place to start...they have a wonderful quick walkthrough in it.
Click to expand...

True and the latest version (9 for personal edition) is brain dead simple to use. Has a nice GUI that you can fire up on the computer you want to take an image of and can even save the file on the drive that's being imaged. Very very nice... :D
 
GeForceX said:
Wow, a lot of you lack the responsibility in taking care of your computers. Instead, you format it. Bad examples for kids to learn from.

I never had to format my computer for two years. And within that two years it went through crap such as getting a virus, pop ups, even hardware and driver changes. It still runs like a champ.

-J.
Click to expand...

Lack of responsibility ... LOL :rolleyes:

No matter what anti virus, spy ware, ad-ware solution you have, there are always going to virii, malware, or adware, that get onto your computer. The thing about Virii and the like is that definitions are not added to anti-ware until the malware is found. There are no 100% proof positive solutions to stop your computer being infected. Formatting is a scorched earth policy that will 100% get rid of any malware you have.

To say it is a bad example for the kids, and a lack of responsibility, is laughable to say the least.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top