Who doesn't love to reformat?

[Jeratain]

I just reformatted my computer (for the second time this year).

I love it. I love the feeling of having a fresh system with no bugs and no quirks in it. The reason I have formatted twice this year....

Well the first time was because I wanted XP to be legal, so I got a legal version :-D (I'm not saying I've ever used an illegal version)

And today I bought a Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 card and installed all the software. Then I noticed that WMP 9 was eating up 100% of my CPU and got really buggy so I decided to reformat again. Now I'm up and running, everything perfect and nice. (I even repartitioned my hard drive and made all the partitions into NTFS now)

How about you guys, do you enjoy it?

 

[Pillager]

Oh yes, there's nothing like a good re-format, as long as its for a spring clean, and not enforced because of a virus or similar.

You're right, booting that machine the first time and looking at Explorer and seeing only a couple of directories is great. You then promise yourself that THIS time, everything will be tidy, no superfluous directories, no stupid coverdisc shareware, no game demos that you'll never play, etc. Then of course one month later, the hard disk is as messy as it was before, with most of the stuff you've deleted back on the hard disk, just in slightly more arranged directories.

 

[CrackedCrystal]

I tend to not format but restore using programs such as Ghost or PC Clone. It is much safer than formating and much quicker as well. It is also 20 times easier.

How often have you re-formatted, installed windows, then spent the next 2 or 3 days getting it "just-right"? A better way is to get your computer to that point, make a backup, then just restore that backup when you want. A 2 or 3 day job has now just turned into a 1 hour job. All your settings are just how you like them ans such.

 

[damunzy]

@Cracked:

I was going to do that one day, ghost my system, but I got tired of trying to get the system just right. I need to take a weekend out and do it, soon.
BTW, I like the way a newly formatted system runs, nothing beats it.

 

[Civddict]

i usually format once in two weeks. and I have 3 OS running. next formating is scheduled tomorrow, nforce2 board is coming

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Every two weeks? man, that is hardcore. How do you ever get anyting else done on the computer. I redo my computer every 3 months. And I thought that was alot.

 

[Jeratain]

Once every two weeks? Okay I thought I did it a lot.

I format at the very least 3 times a year. And it's usually not for any particular reason other than my being bored and wanting a fresh system. But once every two weeks? Dang man, you win

 

[penvzila]

Yeah, I reformat about every 2 weeks, sometimes more.

 

[Rheinmetall]

I rarely reformat. After years of doing it monthly with the good ol' 98, I switched to W2K and dropped that habit. Last time (6-7 months ago) I was forced to reformat when I changed mobo and processor.
I've learned how to keep my system clean so there's no real need for it. But now that you mention...

 

[nixon]

I hate it. I've tried it too many times, and there's always a lot of trouble; reinstalling drivers, and crap like that. Nothanks.
I manage very successfully to keep my computer clean, so no need for that. I can very much nod at what you say Jeretain, there's nothing better than a reformat, but I hate doing it and being forced to it.

 

[Binary]

The HDD will only be formatted when the system shows signs of decreased efficiency caused by unidentifiable anomalies. If reinstallation is required BATCH is used to automate and accelerate reinstall process. The system is kept organised by the use of 4 directories to locate programs. (1) System Applications, programs vital to maintaining efficiency, programs required to manage computer. (2) Applications Primary, programs that define the very nature and requirement of the computer (3) Applications General, non-essential programs (4) Information, the location of all created files. Each directory will contain an unspecified number of subdirectories. The system is maintained automatically by scheduling scandisk and defrag applications. WinScript is utilised to automate the management of temporary data/information, automate backup procedures, automate routine program functions.

 

[DaveMcW]

I'm running the same Win98 install that came with my computer 3 years ago. I did set up a second partition for my swap file and temporary internet files, which I reformat for fun once a month.

 

[Perfection]

I don't reformat anymore, I have too many files to reformat, I used to transfer all the crap I wanted to my old computer via a USB network, but since I sold it I have no other computer with USB capabilities

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Welcome to CFC Binary!!

To the people that don't want to reformat because of drivers and such. you can try my advice with using ghost if you want to refresh your computer. I have two partitions. One for my OS and programs, and a second for saved data. That reduces the need to backup most data before refreshing.

 

[Jeratain]

Yeah, I have 5 20 gig partitions myself.

My main partition is solely for the OS and for virtual memory.

My second is for all programs and drivers.

My third is for games.

My fourth is for when I run out of space on the others (if I ever do, which I have yet to) but until that happens I just reserve 4096mb of it for virtual memory.

And my fifth is for all my backed up files, movies, music, and downloaded programs. I use this partition as my backup drive. So when I reformat, I only reformat the first 3 drives and leave the rest so I can quickly access my old files. Easy to backup and easy to reinstall.

 

[Binary]

HDD partitions occupy disk space to create the disk directory. Host drive must be reformatted to create new partitions or readjust the size of existing partitions. Additional SLAVE HDDs are utilised to greater effect.

 

[Jeratain]

Originally posted by Binary
Host drive must be reformatted to create new partitions or readjust the size of existing partitions.

There is software out there that lets you partition your hard drive without having to reformat. I think one known one is called Partition Magic.

I personally use FDisk or a similar program myself.

 

[Smash]

Thru a variety of reasons I had to re-format 4 times in a month over the holidays.

Not fun.Not interesting.Not exciting.Not educational.Notta.Just boring and time consuming.

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

I switched over to a RAID 1 setup recently. Better performance and reliability. However, I've always kept a few partitions, a system partition, for secure and non-buggy OS related progs ONLY, then a gaming partition for my games and stuff, and a 'downloaded' partition for all that crap I download, that way when it manages to get infected with a virus I've already taken my needed files to other partitions and can just format it. I also have another partition that just stores an Image of my system partition, although I've now backed this up to tape and DVD, and I'm thinking about using partition magic and combining this partition w/the downloads partition.

It is a little odd having an A, C, D, E, F,G,H, and an I drive


P.S. Has anyone heard anything about these USB 2.0 external drives???

 

[funxus]

I've decided to reformat the computer this weekend. We got the computer 1,5 months ago, and it was buggy from start. Along with the computer came a recovery-cd, so it wont take very long time, but all the files have to be back-upped. I agree it's nice to have a fresh computer, an almost empty desktop...but there's always something I forget to backup, mails, files, dad's favorites... Last time I forgot to backup my translation of the civ2 files, which took me about two weeks to finish