How often do you reinstall XP?

[Luke]

In my evironment re-installing everytime i ran into a problem would take much longer. For example: My moms computer is always getting screwed up because she is not very computer literate. It's down to a fix every two weeks now, so if i re-installed every time it would be a lot longer. Back ups, formate, re-install, restore all her stuff. I have only ever had to re-install on her computer once, and that was because the first time i fixed a problem it came back. That was the only time the problem came back after i fixed it.

 

[hikaricloud]

I know what you mean, it's the same thing with my parents, lol.

My mom was thinking about getting me to build a machine for my grandparents...not happening, haha. My grandmother thinks computers are evil anyway.

 

[EricB]

Corporate Environment was just an example.

Now I don't repair computers for a living, just a side job since 2000. Most customers fear of losing data, even if I guarantee them I back it all up, usually because someone else already messed it up for you. So my first plan of attack is to see what the problem is, can it be fixed, can it be fixed without reinstalling, can it be fixed and still be a stable install, privacy issues with spy ware, viruses, etc. Customers have tweaks, settings, user accounts, etc that they don't want to be without. You gotta make the customer happy at all times. I've reinstalled a lot of systems for customers, knowing what I know now, probably half if not more didn't need to be reinstalled.

You are exactly right, It's easy and fast to reinstall a customer's computer but it's another thing to actually fix the problem at hand. You want the customer to feel as comfortable as possible, ensuring their data is safe and will not be lost.

These days, it's really not that hard to fix a problem, there all kinds of info out there, it's not like only one person has had an issue which there isn't a fix to yet. Some problems can be complex but most are easy.

^^ Completely understand where you are coming from.

Obviously on a smaller scale, but at the shop I worked for years, we always assess the problems first, and then go from there. If it's something a few quick scans will fix up, we scan, run some maintenance stuff, and boom. Done.

But to properly assess the situation in the first place, we have to do some trial and error. For example, a problem we were having with a bunch of computers at one point was Malwarebytes refusing to install. You would actually have to change the name of the installer for it to work, and even then, you couldn't run it afterwards. It would just hang in the task manager and never pop up. Changing the .exe to run it didn't work either.

On machines like that, we decided to back up and reformat, because it was more trouble than it's worth. But Our first instinct isn't to format just because there's problems. Most customers would prefer it to not be formatted, even with the promise of backup, in my experience. So if there's a chance of cleaning it up, it's used as a last resort.

I understand where both of you guys are coming from. I posted that "wiping is first resort comment" because that how I do my own personal computers. but I have my data and my app data stored on seperate partitions anyway

a customer computer is different. I will try to fix to fix it without reinstall windows first. I can spot which computer needs a wipe and which one need a virus and spyware scan in about 5 minutes. if it need a wipe, I'll wipe it in a second.

you guys have to understand my life. I did manual labor (I now call it slabor = slave labor) )my whole life and I ate bad foods (the American diet. you know meat, sugar, flour with some meat for desert). I hurt my back on the job at the start of the century and I couldn't do manual labor anymore. I got turn on to computers. I spent the next 8 year into them deeply. Well now I starting to have health issues like being fat and high blood pressure among other thing because of my lack of physical activity by being around computers a lot.

I've figure out that I got to exercises and eat right. so now I'm back into slabor, with the difference being that I'm trying to start my own landscaping company with employees so I can work until I can't push my myself anymore then I stop. my employees do the job, I'm just helping out. this setup seems to be working.

then when I'm done, I check on my computer work. I don't have the time that I used to, so that's why I will jump on efficient mode. but I won't wipe a computer if I don't have to unless it mine. that's why I made the refernce to the subject of this post. I will wipe mine in minute if something don't act right