Format c: and Windows re-install

[Alec]

I´m curious about the frequency of MURCers installs and reinstalls of Windows. Some of our white hairs have, undoubtedly, Bill Gates´s finger on them.

[GT98]

I do mine about every 6 months or so. Depends on how badly the machine is acting up with new drivers etc after time.

Or if I have a major upgrades to the system. Since I bought put together my new PC in September, its already gotten a new Video Card and Sound Card (the GTXP sucked driver wise and the new driver that came out for it came the same week I got my Audilgy! ) so I'm doing backups of the stuff I need now and will do a full reinstall during the week of Xmas.

Scott

[Sasq]

Only when it fataly crashes, which with the amount of weird stuff I run here, can be every other week

Seriously though, I've never had the intall last more then 6 months on my pc, the girlfriends 2k ran fine for 2 years before I moved the HDD to a new system mind you she only surfs, emails and plays the inbuilt card games

Dan

[VJ]

I agree with GT98, sometimes a clear install can sort out a lot of problems (or prevent some of them).

Installing/deinstalling drivers and or software virtually always leaves its trails, and I feel it is better to avoid conflicts than have a system crash... Prior to reinstalling my Windows, I download all the latest drivers, make sure I have the latest softwareversions (e.g. Acrobat reader 5 in stead of 4) and plugins (flash, ...). I have a list of all sites I need to visit .

Alec: I never considered that paranoid, now you've scared me...

Our laboratory now tends more towards Linux machines running a licensed VmWare (http://www.vmware.com), which is used to run Windows (and -applications). Current machines are bought with somewhere between 700 MB and 1 GB of memory ! Drives are mostly configured with a Linux softwareraid for performance. Some good configurations have been made (several seperate drives, depending on the needed applications, you download the ones you need to run your applications : with d-drive with VC++, e-drive with Coreldraw, ...; yet the C-drive remains the same). If the Windows fails, then just get the original machine back over network, and you're back in business. Second advantage is that the windows can run on machines with varying hardware config (videocard, network, ... it all doesn't matter : the emulated pc always has the same hardware. Major disadavantage is the need for memory/cpu resources (and that gaming is more or less out of the question)... Performance is less of an issue with the latest version (CorelDraw9 runs smooth, ...), using non-realtime (video, audio, ...) applications.
But for home use, this might be less practical...

Currently, I'm configuring my machine to act both as a standalone windows (in dualboot with Linux) and as a machine that can be run from within Linux (VmWare supports this), yet is it not easy to get it configured...


Jörg

[RedRed]

When it plays up.... I get about a year, I guess....

Driveritis is invariably the cause.....


redred

[spoogenet]

And here I was thinking that you were going to poll on whether to format c:, or just reinstall Windows.

I used to format every 6 months to a year, depending on software installation when I was in school. Now I've gone to a much longer cycle by basically not installing new software. I'm getting a new drive soon to replace one of my failing old ones...then I'm going to install a paralell copy of 2k on it and use that for games and other entertaining software....that way I can keep my primary boot clean and functional while not sacrificing too much on the fun factor.

b

[High_Jumbllama]

Ghosting.

I just use Norton Ghost Personal edition on an image of a 98SE install or an image of a complete system install. It won't even interrupt my Mandrake install. That way it takes less than 10 minutes even with a couple of quick reboots.

[Jorden]

I can't say I reformat my hdd and reinstall, or any of the other options in the poll. My last time I reinstalled WinMe over itself, it didn't even help much, since I had deleted my Win2k partition, and I just couldn't reboot anymore.

With a bit of deleting some files off my C: partition plus some telephone help from Gurm (I called him, it's cheaper than him calling me ) I got it running again (delete msdos.sys, boot.ini and io.sys, then from a bootdisk do sys C:, then don't forget to do a scandisk , installed all my scripts for adsl, all my games and directx8.1 again and was back in business.

This morning electricity went off, so my PC has been off all day. Sorry for you who tried to get onto our ftp server.

Jord.

[cbman]

When it was just me using my computer I would do a clean install from backups every month... now with the wife using my good machine an install can last anywhere from 3-6 months.. but sometimes as little as a week depending on how much she "plays" with it.

Gee honey.. look at all the cool programs I downloaded... and all the extra stuff for the Sims and the Housing Design Program and Heroes and Babyz... now can you help me put them in (All 500+ of them)

When she does that I give it a week before it dies... LOL.. or starts acting up enough that I have to spend a few hours hunting down the renegade problem files.