how often do u format ur PC

[R2K]

how often do u format ur HDD and install ur fav OS???????

me do this every month

[Faun]

it's a pain in the a$$. I hope I never do it till the reaper calls me.

[Kl@w-24]

It's the absolutely last resort for me if something goes wrong (God forbid)! It's been more than a year since I last formatted my PC (touchwood).

[Psychosocial]

I only format when necessary. Though I have a friend who formats his PC even if something is not responding, and that is everyday .

[m-jeri]

Only when needed..though it takes about 20 mts flat for me to restore everything ..use Norton ghost...

[JojoTheDragon]

Formatting i like my weakly movie time early days. Now i have successfully managed to safe secure my dual booting xp & vista. Sometime due to virus, disk cleanup, or sometimes due to torrent problem. I have managed keep it healthy for 2months. Phew!!

[NucleusKore]

Last format two years ago

Edit: No prizes for guessing why



Edit after seeing all below posts: Last major format two years ago, I do format the / partition to upgrade my SUSE distro with every new release (6 months).

[sam9s]

Originally Posted by m-jeri

Only when needed..though it takes about 20 mts flat for me to restore everything ..use Norton ghost...

yep me too..... infact I use the good old DOS version.... have created an entire image of vista c: with bloody ALL applications and drivers.... lands somewhere up to 10GB, but take mere 20 minutes to get back the entire system......
I love Norton Ghost...

[aditya1987]

2 years ago I used to format OS partition only every 1 month, but now i haven't formatted for 1 year.

[axxo]

good to format & do the install regularly so that hunt for product key will not be required if at all you would require to install the os for next time.

[Ron]

I have took a image of my system drive so i dont need to format.......
I need to restore the image......and it tkes less than 3 min to install xp.....

hwever i format my ubuntu regualary 2 weeks..........

[Raccoon]

Originally Posted by T159

it's a pain in the a$$. I hope I never do it till the reaper calls me.

Lol... I'd say exactly the same thing!

Formatting, installing everthing again and setting everthing just right is a monumental project!

But then I'v hardly needed to do it. On my current system, which is now 4+ years old, I'v never had to reformat... except about 4 months ago, when in one of my overzealous clean up routines, I deleted a critical file from the root drive, and nothing I did would let me boot into windows again. So had to reformat after 4 years. I dont think I'll need to do it ever again ...for as long as I have this system.

[rhitwick]

When in college, I used to format OS every 10-15 days.
This is due to extreme R&D with various crapwares.

Now my experimentations has gone down, only movie and games.
Have not installed my OS since May this year.

Oh, once again thanks to KIS for that peace of mind.

[chicha]

boy there was a time when i had to format my pc 5 times a week . and each time it took approx 6 hours to install all the packages and linux.

the last format was 1 year back.

[VarDOS]

last format 5years ago for old pc

new pc - 6 months ago

[damngoodman999]

This is my kind of thread ,
i format the PC "4" times every month

[freshseasons]

Main Working PC - Almost never.Not until there is some major Change in the PC hardware component, say like motherboard.Unfortunately i need to upgrade the PC Motherboard a lot and is the only reason i format.
However my Laptop Stays the same for atleast a year without formatting.Yes until ofcourse i need to sell it and upgrade to another one.Which is definitely once in a year.
However i dont remember i have ever formatted for anyother reason other than Hardware change .

[toofan]

since I bought my pc only once. All the problems i face i try to sort them out using google. now form past few months I use digit forum for this.

[looogk]

i often format it.. when i got some critical problem..

[Charan]

If I experience windows rot, I switch to linux, Later when its absolutely needed to format the system only then I format, else no problem. Usually I format my system and reinstall windows when ever I join a new company, its been 3 days since I joined a new company , but still no signs of "Extra work from home" syndrome, so windows will stay as it is and I will continue using windows .

[chicha]

^ off topic
charan i think you have to strighten your cat's neck, we dont want it to fall off
just joking buddy

[Charan]

Originally Posted by chicha

^ off topic
charan i think you have to strighten your cat's neck, we dont want it to fall off
just joking buddy

[offtopic]
Ai.. looks like my avatar is getting more and more attention now a days , on the other hand .. I myself have disabled the avatars to be displayed in threads .
[/offtopic]

[R2K]

but if we install so much softwares.......trial or demo versions and later we remove it from our PC then these softwares leaves a lot of clutter inside registry and system folders......these clutter can only be removed if we reinstall windows.......i don't think those softwares which claim to remove all those clutter really works as it is said by the developers

[Kl@w-24]

Originally Posted by R2K

but if we install so much softwares.......trial or demo versions and later we remove it from our PC then these softwares leaves a lot of clutter inside registry and system folders......these clutter can only be removed if we reinstall windows.......i don't think those softwares which claim to remove all those clutter really works as it is said by the developers

I use software like Regseeker and Revo Uninstaller to get rid of remnants. If you have proper knowledge of the windows registry and common locations where programs dump their files, you can also do it manually by searching for the program name. No big deal. And definitely not something to warrant a complete format-reinstall routine.

[Raccoon]

Dudes, the only near sure-shot way to get rid of all the gunk proggies leave behind on windows is to use an un-installer that takes snapshots of your system before and after installing a program, and then compares the changes. I dont think Revo does that (correct me if Im wrong... havent looked too deeply into it).

What I do is I first uninstall the proggy using its own uninstaller... and then, the next time I reboot, I use the 3rd party uninstaller (Ashampoo) to remove things as per its own log.

[jack_the_ripper]

i had to format my comp twice in 3 years, both the times it was due to some virus or corrupted files, i just couldnt log into windows.! both the times it would come to the start up screen and hang there.! it was such a pain.! had to take it to a frnd, connect it as a slave and backup all the info i had.! even the inbuilt system restore was of no use!!

can norton ghost help in restoring back the data? incase i am unable to login to windows?

[The Unknown]

On every new release of Fedora i.e. about 6 months unless during this period some problem occurs which cannot be rectified. But usually that doesn't happen. So consider it 6 months.

[R2K]

yup.................its not reinstallation of OS that is painful but the tweaking process which we have to deal with later on

[The Unknown]

Originally Posted by R2K

yup.................its not reinstallation of OS that is painful but the tweaking process which we have to deal with later on

For normal use of Linux, there's not much of tweaking.. Though I have done some tweaks as required.

[Krazy_About_Technology]

When i was working on Win 98, it was every month Then with Windows XP, it was every 3 months or so. But then the USB virus striked and my formatting period reduced to sometimes twice a month, once even twice a day But on average, once every two months (and mostly NOT because of virus problems, it used to make XP a lil faster on my old, celeron lappy)

But since i got Vista 2 years back, did it just 2 times, first, initial install. Second, when i got my new dell lappy Its working rock solid for me since last 3.5 months even after a lot of tinkering around with it.

Again, for my dual boot, when i used to use Fedora (back when Red Hat started it), it was once every six months (the release cycle of fedora). Then no install for 1.5 years. Since then i am experimenting with multiple distros, never kept any for more than 3 months. I am not a primary linux user as you people may have guessed. I use it just to know whats great happening on that side of the world