To format or not too format

Fibonacci

My laptop has started getting very sluggish these days. I've decided to beef up the RAM a little, but in addition I was thinking of doing a complete re-format and start afresh.

What are peoples views on this?

davej

First try defragging your hard drive and runnning some spyware removal program like adaware or the m$ one.

If it's still slow maybe it's time to reinstall...

davej

Zapho

Not always necessary, but I say go for it. There's nothin a good format can't solve!

Fibonacci

Good tips.....but already tried.

De-frag, Spyware, anti-virus, adjustin virtual memory settings....... all already tried.

Khannie

Zapho wrote:

There's nothin a good format can't solve!

Simplistic, but accurate.

If the time required to determine and fix the (non-recurring) problem is likely to be greater than a few hours, then I wipe. There's nothing like a fresh computer.

If the problem is a recurring one, then you obviously need to find the root cause.

JackKelly

To the OP, you may as well try and clean up the lappy first. Spyware/Adware, Delete all rubbish/programs you don't use,clean the registry,Defrag.

There's nothing like a format though!

I was about to start a thread about formatting,so without hijacking the thread could someone tell me, what should i use to make my hardrive good as new after a format. As in, completely clear EVERYTHING safely. I heard killdisk was good but the free version only allows one passover i think. What other programs should be used?

the_syco

davej wrote:

First try defragging your hard drive and runnning some spyware removal program like adaware or the m$ one.

I agree with the defrag & anti-spyware. The benifits to a system is usually noticable straight away.

As for the format: depends. If you've got all your stuff backed up, and you have all the CD's for the programs, then yeah, it may do you.

Untill 20 days later you have to do it again, if the slow-down is caused by spyware:rolleyes:

TimAy wrote:

As in, completely clear EVERYTHING safely. I heard killdisk was good but the free version only allows one passover i think. What other programs should be used?

http://dban.sourceforge.net/
Used it to wipe a SCSI few drives. Looks like a good program.

Warning
If your computer came with no cd's, and just a partition with Windows on it, DBAN is a VERY BAD IDEA.

fletch

I'd say format. Speeds things up no end!

djmarkus

Format!! you should format every 6 months anyway, i know i do!

Endurance Man

I formatted yesterday , its lovely, like a spring clean. Everything just seems to run nicely again. I format about every 2 months, takes about 2hours in total for me but its worth it.

Khannie

HOLY CRAP! EVERY 2 MONTHS!?!?!?!?!

I used to do it every 6 months with the 9x OS's, but I use feck all software now except UT2004 and Firefox so the machine's fast enough (I do keep it defrag'd) so I haven't done it in about 9 months now (and probably wont for the forseeable future).

I still love that clean feeling it gives you. Sad, but true.

JackKelly

I have my Hard drive partitioned about 8 ways, which makes it way easier to format. Its a good idea, as you have one partition as your C:/ then one for music, games, programs, etc etc.

Endurance Man

HOLY CRAP! EVERY 2 MONTHS!?!?!?!?!

Well in total it only takes me about 2 hours to have everything up and running again, I find myself getting the latest pcf cd, and having a look at every stupid little thing. I then uninstall all the little programs but i no in the back of my head, that crap probably left a few of its friends behind, and they are slowing me down.

zuma

I dont format....but to keep thing running smoothly I use DriveImage to load a fresh Image of WinXP onto the OS Drive every month or so.

Honestly, formatting and reinstalling from scratch must do your head in!!!

Khannie

TimAy wrote:

I have my Hard drive partitioned about 8 ways, which makes it way easier to format.

Hmmmm. I used to do this when I had an 8GB drive (it was huge at the time) but haven't had it partitioned in ages. I'm probably getting sloppier as I get older.

Endurance Man

Honestly, formatting and reinstalling from scratch must do your head in!!!

Why?? . Its like spring cleaning and i enjoy a good spring clean. It makes it a lot easier when u have 2 hdd, all my stuff is stored on 1 and just my operating system on the other. No backing up or any of that rubish. When it comes to the day, i just format, reinstall, and add my few programs, easy jod

maidhc

I do a reformat every 12-18 mths or so. Its often enough IMHO. It's far too much trouble to do it any more often. I know you can make an image, but then the chances are you will be left with old version of drivers etc.

I normally reserve christmas day for that job, and do all the computers. Slow day, and you can watch TV at the same time.

zuma

Endurance Man wrote:

Why?? . Its like spring cleaning and i enjoy a good spring clean. It makes it a lot easier when u have 2 hdd, all my stuff is stored on 1 and just my operating system on the other. No backing up or any of that rubish. When it comes to the day, i just format, reinstall, and add my few programs, easy jod

Why???
Well to load a fresh install onto my computer using Acronis DriveImage takes about 10minutes and its all automated.
Start it up...go for a cup of tea...and when I return I have a fully working OS without any need to modify/install anything else.

Why dont you use an Image creation program instead of going through the sillyness of reinstalling an OS everytime????

Ruu_Old

havent reformatted in a while though i need to boost up this laptop sometime soon. every 6 months is probably safe enough. i need to get a backup program thingy.

jozi

Format then install and then ghost after first boot into windows, next time you want to format just gost back to the clean install instead of having to install windows again.
When you have to whole os installed and drivers etc you could ghost again, save you the hasle next time. Only thing is in the furure you'll have old drivers on ghosting back. I had to ghost back cause i was having problems recentlly and iwas glad i had a fully setup os, only took about 10mins and i was back up and running.

Jozi

kazzer

Jozi,

Is it easy to ghost XP? How do you do it; an external hard drive, spanned over multiple dvds? How many dvds would you need for XP? Cheers