reformatting

[Amd2800]

mine when needed but why every 6 months ??? i dont see the point i formated when my pc needs to be done so every 7 yrs lol

 

[void]

Never. Even on Windows

 

[Apokalipse]

whenever it needs to.
so far I've been running fine for over a year and a half.

I have:
Firefox 1.5
Antivir Personal Edition Classic

I run a defrag about every 3 months on C:
I run hijackthis if I find that a family member has used IE, or has downloaded a program that came with spyware
I clean up C: when necessary

 

[Nitestick]

i format about every 1-3 months. i'm always sure to do at the very least a monthly backup of my unique data

 

[TheMajor]

About 4-5 times a year.

 

[horndude]

looking at the answers so far a couple of things seems pretty prevalent, as users most of you arent very good, and as a reliable and low maintenance OS windows sucks

you guys pay for windows?

seems like with numbers like most of you are posting, maybe they should still make like 3gb hard drives just for windows so you can easily keep it separate and put all your apps and data on another drive

 

[Mr_Threepwood]

No just some people reformat needlessly it sounds like, too many people think of reformatting as a magical cure. Windows really is pretty good about maintenance as long as you arnt doing stupid things (downloading spyware, or alleged registry cleaners or best of all, "your computer clock may be wrong" garbage).

I know you're going to either talk about Linux or Mac OSX being superior but that's all opinion. IMO OSX is like a picture with a frame on it, you can look at it but can't really change it. Linux is the exact opposite but lacks compatability, plus it's overly difficult for most users (I like linux, but most apps are windows only).

 

[kyman_33]

What are the benefirts of reformatting? Also, what would be cons to reformatting?

I've always wondered that.

Sorry for all the questions, but one more:

What's a good way to learn how to reformat? I want to learn, but I don't want to ruin my harddrive or not be able to install it. I'm afraid, yikes!

That's why I'm afraid to build a new comp because my step-dad pretty much built this one and I'm afraid to drop a thousand dollars to get frustrated and then ahve to pay someone more money to install it once I run into a million problems/issues.

 

[horndude]

benefits, well apparently windows is a self destructing OS

reformatting is wiping the hard drive clean and re-installing windows yet again so you can repeat the process later LOL

pro's:your computer runs properly again
con's:its takes time
its wear and tear on the harddrive(very very minor)
it keeps microsoft in business and promotes bad traits in an OS

 

[uzi9mm]

well I cant stand people who would rather clean up a virus infection and spyware infections....

Even if you sucessfully remove the virus/spyware, you are going to have traces of it in your system, and your system is comprimised.

So wiping windows is way easier, and when you are done, your computer is like new on a software level.