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How many times a year do you reformat your computer?
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Posted by: Canis Lupus
Time for another poll 
As I get ready to reformat my computer this weekend, after more than a year of not doing so, I thought about doing this poll.
So how many of ya are in love with the format c: command?
Posted by: Tweaker
I try to stay away from doing it as much as possible. As I found for me it done more harm than good.
Posted by: Shalome
For me, reformatting is not something that I want to do unless my computer is so screwed up that it won't function properly.
Posted by: Outlaw
I got Windows XP now so I'm going to format 4 or 5 times in a row pretty soon to make sure every last bit of it is gone forever 
Normally I format several times a year cuz my windows just stops working properly after a certain period of time, especially when I install some weird programs (SoftIce  ).
I'm gonna try to keep my next windows longer, though I don't know if it will work.
Posted by: Tecil
When I ran win98 I would format about every 6 months. When I started using Win2k I never had to do a re-format for almost 2 years. Till I switched to XP Pro which has been running solid for me since. I made an image of this install, so if my computer ever flakes on me again I can format my drive and load up Image Center from a boot disk.
Posted by: justinious
I try to only reformat 1 time a year. It was a big chore, until my friend gave me a Norton Ghost boot disk. Now I've got a clean ghost so it isn't such a chore. I love not having to reinstall and redownload SPacks from Winbloze.
post: Let me say that I only reformat my OS partition, I hardly touch my storage drives except to defrag.
Posted by: Null Actor
I reformat so often, I have it down to a science. I format when I buy new hardware, have a harddrive die, or when windows is just feeling cluttered and slow.
Formatting for me nowadays only resuts in 2 hours of downtime, with a half hour of pre-format preparation. That's for a win2k install.
Posted by: Heathen
Only when I REALLY have to. I'm running W2K and it runs great.
BUT - @ work I format at least 5-10 drives a week.
Ghost is a great thing
Posted by: Bobaroo
I only format when my computer is scewed up and can not be fixed without formatting.
I would format a little more, but my dad does not want to lose everything on the computer.
Posted by: Swilo
 Quote:
Originally posted by Bobaroo330
I would format a little more, but my dad does not want to lose everything on the computer.
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That's what burners are for ^_^
Posted by: Gunslinger
Other: Whenever deemed necessary.
Posted by: Spider
"I rarely reformat"
I only format if absolutely necessary. Which is very rare.
Posted by: Blackknight
Other: Never.
Posted by: Xtren
I have never had to re-format my computer. I don't think I'd know how to do it either 
Posted by: mjames
Quote:
Originally posted by Xtren
I have never had to re-format my computer. I don't think I'd know how to do it either
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As newbie-ish as it sounds, neither have I - but because I've been responsible enough to not having a crashing computer over the years. But my family computer (not mine) is having problems and needs to be formatted when I get the time. I did my first "dirty" install and it didn't fix things, so it looks like my first "fresh" install is coming up.
Posted by: Xtren
My computer hardly ever crashes and I haven't had any serious problems really since I installed WinXP Pro.
Posted by: Space Junk
XP is certainly more robust than 98, but it ain't bulletproof............... I've managed to make it very sick a few times requiring the old "nuke" the C: drive and even had to zero fill a coupla times before starting again  lucky I have a second HDD to store all the goodies on before doing the deed, makes me more and more curious about trying out Mandrake though
Posted by: Shalome
Heh.. my Solaris box hasn't even been rebooted since December, much less ever reformatted.
Posted by: Xtren
I re-boot my comp every time I finish using it.
Posted by: Gunslinger
Mandrake?
And that's supposed to be an improvement?
Don't count on it.
Posted by: EddieJ300
A year and half ago I switch to Win2K. My reformat chores ended on that lovely day. But I still do them for friends and side jobs.
Win 98 was a mess and XP is an OS that includes Spyware. I don't care for that ET call home stuff.
Posted by: Nfested
After I switched from Win98 to WinXP I have had less crashes and such. I have never reformatted my computer yet ever since using WinXP.
Posted by: Xtren
Oh yeah, the number of times my computer crashed greatly decreased since I got WinXP Pro, my computer has not crashed in the past two months or so actually.
Posted by: Waffles
I had a few bad installs of XP, more like 4 or 5, but this ones been good for the past 5 or 6 months. But I actually like formatting, gives me the feeling of starting fresh, so when the time comes I won't mind.
Posted by: Xtren
I never had any problems installing XP, that's kind of wierd.
Posted by: Waffles
They weren't really bad installs, just that I installed too many programs too quickly and it seemed to just crap out with stuff conflicting. It was mostly Nvidia drivers too, they would always cause a bluescreen.
Posted by: Xtren
Well it took me about an hour to install XP Pro, and it was very worthwhile by the looks of the outcome.
Posted by: REVENGE
I have never really had to format except to install a new drive. The last time I formatted and reloaded all the software, was when I upgraded last year to the P3-1g. Felt that all new hardware required a new install. Helps to clear the garbage down that windows likes to save. But, I rarely install a program that gets deleted. No shareware or demos on my computer unless it is a utility I will be using later on.
Had a friend that use to do it every 3-4 months just because he installed and uninstalled a ton of software each month. Testing software is great, but uninstalling software does leave crap behind everywhere in some of these programs.
Posted by: Ion Silverbolt
SCOOP!!
I agree totally with Scoop. Just like you are what you eat, your OS needs a healthy dose of properly programmed applications. Uninstalled junk does take its toll. Especially on the registry.
A good utility suite helps a lot with keeping the system optimized. The only time I ever format is when I get a new hard drive.
Posted by: tkron
My Dell P3 866mhz with Rambus have never had a reinstall of the OS since I got it 2 years ago.
My Emachine has had 2 reinstalls of the operating system, but one was when I just cleaned everything out before giving it to my duaghter.
My CNT P3 933 mhz had to have the operating system reinstalled when a bad memory chip corrupted the system, at the same time I went back to 98Se dumping the ME system that was origiannly installed on it. If you followed this board you will realize I had a rough time installing the OS due to a installing an (recommended by MS) updated hardware driver messing up the computer.
Posted by: Seijin
I never format my hard drive at all. First of all I don't know how to do it correctly and second, well my mom would kill me if I formatted the computer, she thinks that reformating that many time a year can cause the hardware to wear out.
Seijin
Posted by: Xtren
I've upgraded my OS three timessince I got my P3 750 mhz two years ago. XP Pro, which is my latest OS upgrade really did make a big difference though.
Posted by: PhantomGamer
I don't know how
Posted by: Nfested
Well if you don't know how than its smart that you don't do it.
Posted by: Xtren
Quote:
Originally posted by Nfested
Well if you don't know how than its smart that you don't do it.
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I didn't know how to upgrade my Operating System either, and I still did it.
I didn't know how to hook up ADSL either, but hell once I opened that box I wasn't going to wait for someone to hook it up for me.
Posted by: Nfested
Quote:
Originally posted by Xtren
I didn't know how to upgrade my Operating System either, and I still did it.
I didn't know how to hook up ADSL either, but hell once I opened that box I wasn't going to wait for someone to hook it up for me.
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If you did manage to upgrade your OS and hook up ur ADSL than you did figure it out sooner or later, so in a sense you did know how to do it.
Posted by: Xtren
Well it's not like it's hard to figure out. You just pop in the CD when you want to upgrade your OS, and you basically can't go wrong from there.
Posted by: tkron
Quote:
Originally posted by Xtren
Well it's not like it's hard to figure out. You just pop in the CD when you want to upgrade your OS, and you basically can't go wrong from there.
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Famous last words
Posted by: Darky!
Indeed tkron
Posted by: Bobaroo
I think I might have to format my computer
It just died, and this will be the first time in about 2years.
Posted by: Xtren
Your computer's got the proper symptoms....
Posted by: Storm_Shot
Heh heh, last year it was more like how many times a month? (4-5) but that's just my craptacular comcrap. It's probably on its last legs anyhow.
Posted by: Xtren
I own a comcrap too!
Posted by: Nfested
A few years ago when I had a 486 comp it had to be reformatted frequently.
Posted by: Xtren
A few years ago I had just about the worst comp imaginable, so who would bother reformat it.
Posted by: Dabom
About three times a year, and that's only because of all the software that I go through.
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