how often do you format?

[NumbaJuan]

you know..a clean install of the ole OS...???

 

[NokiaDude]

I try to keep it under 2 times a year. This year I'm aiming for once with XP Pro.

 

[CaptainGoodnight]

Three times durning the two year life of my computer.

Once when I first install windows, second time when things get truely messed up, and the last time when I sell the computer.
If you have enough experience and knowledge about how Windows works, you can just fix the problem; where as some people just reinstall.

 

[NumbaJuan]

maybe its just me, but it always seems like a Fresh install makes the system HAPPY! me thinks a happy system is good

 

[Yomicron]

According to systeminfo:

Original Install Date: 3/23/2002, 2:03:51 PM

so its been 319 days since my last format. I reformated quite a bit when I first built this machine, this was because I had bad RAM that kept corrupting my installs. But after that was worked out I rarely re-format.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

i tend to find new os's, or new hardware that demands a reinstall, before i ever suffer from "bitrot" (good os's dont suffer from bitrot )

 

[GhettoFob]

I format and reinstall windows every six months. I format and reinstall linux whenever I screw up something really badly.

 

[NumbaJuan]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
i tend to find new os's, or new hardware that demands a reinstall, before i ever suffer from "bitrot" (good os's dont suffer from bitrot )

Que..??

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: NumbaJuan

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
i tend to find new os's, or new hardware that demands a reinstall, before i ever suffer from "bitrot" (good os's dont suffer from bitrot )

Que..??

i tend to find new os's, or new hardware that demands a reinstall, before i ever suffer from "bitrot" (good os's dont suffer from bitrot )

 

[Chaotic42]

Debian: Only when I screw something up (like the GNOME 2 install). I run testing so this happens about once a year.
Windows XP: Not yet, and I've had it for about 6 months.

 

[GrumpyMan]

Once every major hardware update such as a mobo or switch in video card brands such as going from Nvidia to ATI. Otherwise it's just once every 2 years since my OS registry is kept clean at all times.

 

[Muse]

My last install of Win2000 Pro was in March 2002, and I'm overdue. Ghosting and restoring has allowed me to survive longer without a reformat but I have issues now that won't go away without a reinstall = reformat. I might try restoring an early Ghost image instead of installing from the CD, though.

 

[NumbaJuan]

Originally posted by: Muse
My last install of Win2000 Pro was in March 2002, and I'm overdue. Ghosting and restoring has allowed me to survive longer without a reformat but I have issues now that won't go away without a reinstall = reformat. I might try restoring an early Ghost image instead of installing from the CD, though.

hmmm...i was just wondering if a fresh ghost image was pretty much the same as a clean install..??

 

[onza]

ghost is fresh install virtually, cause it asks u if u want to delete b4 restore..

but the ghost will be only as good as the install u did b4 making a ghost image... so if the ghost had a virus then it'lll always have it on there..

i got bout every 4-6months, system runs better and lesss shiz that u dont want is off

 

[Nothinman]

Only when something breaks horribly. My current Debian install has been running for ~4 years without a hitch.

 

[NumbaJuan]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Only when something breaks horribly. My current Debian install has been running for ~4 years without a hitch.

NuB question...what is debain..?

 

[Yomicron]

Originally posted by: NumbaJuan

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Only when something breaks horribly. My current Debian install has been running for ~4 years without a hitch.

NuB question...what is debain..?

Debian

 

[Mitzi]

Before moving up from Win9x to Windows 2000/XP I used to format a fair bit...simply because the machine used to grind to a halt every six months or so. Using WinXP, I haven't found the need to format once since the original install last July (even when I moved from an ATI->NVidia card and when I replaced my mobo). I find good house keeping keeps everything ticking over nicely.

Some of the essential tools in my kit include:

Jv16 Powertools
SpyBot
Adaware
Diskeeper
WindowWasher

 

[NumbaJuan]

Originally posted by: Yomicron

Originally posted by: NumbaJuan

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Only when something breaks horribly. My current Debian install has been running for ~4 years without a hitch.

NuB question...what is debain..?

Debian

my eyes have been OPENED (he reads 0n)

 

[Supermercado]

Usually about twice a year or so. Normally around the beginning (or sometimes end) of each semester at school. Just like to have a clean OS every now and then, and the beginning of a semester seems like a pretty good time to do it.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: NumbaJuan

Originally posted by: Muse
My last install of Win2000 Pro was in March 2002, and I'm overdue. Ghosting and restoring has allowed me to survive longer without a reformat but I have issues now that won't go away without a reinstall = reformat. I might try restoring an early Ghost image instead of installing from the CD, though.

hmmm...i was just wondering if a fresh ghost image was pretty much the same as a clean install..??

I'm definitely going to Ghost back one of my early configurations. Very basic but has drivers and sees my other OS's and is set up such that all OS's use the same paging file on my C: partition. That'll save me a lot of work. First thing I'll do then is install SP3, which I can't even do now without terrible results. Then I'll run Windows Update and start installing things.

 

[NumbaJuan]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: NumbaJuan

Originally posted by: Muse
My last install of Win2000 Pro was in March 2002, and I'm overdue. Ghosting and restoring has allowed me to survive longer without a reformat but I have issues now that won't go away without a reinstall = reformat. I might try restoring an early Ghost image instead of installing from the CD, though.

hmmm...i was just wondering if a fresh ghost image was pretty much the same as a clean install..??

I'm definitely going to Ghost back one of my early configurations. Very basic but has drivers and sees my other OS's and is set up such that all OS's use the same paging file on my C: partition. That'll save me a lot of work. First thing I'll do then is install SP3, which I can't even do now without terrible results. Then I'll run Windows Update and start installing things.

which program do you prefer..norton ghost, or maybe drive image by power quest? the 2003 norton has a very handy usb support! i kinda lean towards norton.

 

[spyordie007]

Really depends on what I'm doing with the specific system. My primary desktop at home goes through tons of HW/SW installs/changes so I generally clean things up every 6months to a year (depending on what HW was changed) example: last time I formated and reinstalled was 6-7 months ago when I got the 845/P4 whereas before that I still was running with a 815/P3, I will probably format/reinstall 5-6 months from now when I plan on putting together a HT P4 with DC-DDR . My primary desktop at work would normally last much longer because it doesnt go through quite as many changes however I had a mobo slowly die on me and the OS started having problems after the 2-300 bluescreen so when I got the new mobo in that one I reinstalled. My work laptop is a year old and I've never had the need to reinstall it (no HW changes and few SW changes).

On the other hand I have servers that have been running for years without the need for a reinstall (of course) and if you run your servers right you should rarely ever have to install an OS on them.

On the other other hand I have a few crashboxes at work that I have "clean" installs ghosted and we do a good job of testing/breaking them so I reimage them every 3 months or so, but that's mostly out of convienience

Generally speaking if you are running NT/2K/XP and dont do HW changes you should rarely have to do an OS reinstall (but perhaps an install of a new OS as you need to). If you change out HW often YMMV

-Spy

 

[Nothinman]

My primary desktop at home goes through tons of HW/SW installs/changes so I generally clean things up every 6months to a year (depending on what HW was changed) example: last time I formated and reinstalled was 6-7 months ago when I got the 845/P4

My home machine has survived 4 years of upgrades without a reinstall (well, I had to reinstall Windows but that doesn't count heh). I changed motherboards 3 times going from dual Celerons to a single Athlon to dual Athlons and went from IDE disks to all SCSI disks. It's even possible to make Windows survive that, if you're willing to put enough work into it, I really don't feel it's worth it though. But for Linux it was simple.

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

My primary desktop at home goes through tons of HW/SW installs/changes so I generally clean things up every 6months to a year (depending on what HW was changed) example: last time I formated and reinstalled was 6-7 months ago when I got the 845/P4

My home machine has survived 4 years of upgrades without a reinstall (well, I had to reinstall Windows but that doesn't count heh). I changed motherboards 3 times going from dual Celerons to a single Athlon to dual Athlons and went from IDE disks to all SCSI disks. It's even possible to make Windows survive that, if you're willing to put enough work into it, I really don't feel it's worth it though. But for Linux it was simple.

I guess that's the whole point though, if it's worth the hastle...

I have all my files on network shares and I could format and be back up in an hour, to me that's easier than dealing with the mess that Windows makes of itself when you do stuff like swap mobos with differant chipsets, etc...

Out of curiosity what distro are you running that you've had up for 4 years? I'm not nearly as good with nix and have had to reinstall a couple of times because I made a mess of things while trying to install new video drivers or whatnot. (if I'm ever on any of your nix boxes dont give me the root password ).

-Spy