How often do you reinstall?

[Keeperos]

Depends, At one time I used the same installation for almost 2 years (!!!) other times I did an installation after a few months.

Generally, as I got more accustomed to the nature of WinXP (and more importantly, when I FINALLY accepted the fact that Norton IS (2005) hasn't been ANY good, except for screwing up your system BADLY with no good reason, and switched) I've been able to keep my installations longer.

BTW, my current system has been around since December the 1st, 2005 (when I got my new 250 SATA II WD Chaviar SE16 ), that makes it about 8 months old, in these 8 months I rarely shut it down/rebooted it (I leave my PC open 24/7 for downloads ) and I still have no problems (other than the apparent fact that I need more than my lousy 512 MB RAM but I don't want to update but rather upgrade my system when the time is right...).

So, in general I feel that WinXP (Pro) can be a truly stable system if you treat them nicely

Edited July 25, 2006 by Keeperos

[313361669]

once a week!

[spacesurfer]

Depends, At one time I used the same installation for almost 2 years (!!!) other times I did an installation after a few months.

That's odd. I've been using Norton Internet Security 2005 Antispyware version and haven't had a problem. I've never had any spyware problem.

I know people hate Norton products but it's worked for me so far.

[spacesurfer]

once a week!

Where does one find the time to install once a week?

[an_talpur]

well, i reinstall OS once a month(average).

Edited July 27, 2006 by an_talpur

[prx984]

once a week!

Where does one find the time to install once a week?

i reinstall a lot too, but im a kid, so i have tons of time

Edited July 27, 2006 by Cygnus

[Jeremy]

Reformatting and reinstalling is such a waste of time now that I've become used to imaging software. Takes me 5-6 minutes to rollback to a perfectly working OS, no trouble whatsoever. I just can't watch it take over a hour to reformat and then another 20-30 minutes to install Windows, then 2 hours to install and configure everything. The only time I think I would bother to reformat is when I was creating a new image file from scratch. I'm kind of picky about what goes on in my registry.

[an_talpur]

Reformatting and reinstalling is such a waste of time now that I've become used to imaging software. Takes me 5-6 minutes to rollback to a perfectly working OS, no trouble whatsoever. I just can't watch it take over a hour to reformat and then another 20-30 minutes to install Windows, then 2 hours to install and configure everything. The only time I think I would bother to reformat is when I was creating a new image file from scratch. I'm kind of picky about what goes on in my registry.

hey jeremy, i want to learn about that imaging software any link, or any thread.

thanks

[Smeeeprig]

I have to say I'm one of those who did a new unattanded disk every month and was continuously testing new disks but now I've moved over to imaging the hard disk. I do the following once a month after patch day:

1. Roll back to last base image of Windows XP and Office 2003

2. Update XP with autopacther and then go to Microsoft update for anything else

3. Create new base image

4. Reinstall programs

Takes about 30 mins in all.

[Andromeda43]

I'm amazed! But not amuzed

With all the information that's out there on how to keep ones computer clean, neat and running at rull efficiency, still there are those reformatting and reinstalling windows.

Why, I scream, at my computer screen.....WHY?

It's absurd, insane and a huge waste of valuable man/woman hours.

If that were done in the business community, the costs in time lost and manpower would be astronomical.

I managed a huge mainframe computer for my County for about two years. Every evening we did an "End of Day" backup of everything done on that computer, all over the county, for that day.

At the end of the month we did a total system backup. It took several hours to complete.

Today, home computers are nothing but micro-miniature Mainframes.

They run a whole lot faster too.

When I set up a new system or a rebuilt one for one of my customers, I tweak it, tune it, and get it as perfect as humanly possible and then I make a Ghost Image of the C: drive and save it to a bootable DVD.

Toshiba does this for their Restore DVD's.

If ever the HD shoots craps or some piece of crapolaware screws it up, I can do a restore in about 30 minutes from the DVD and be right back in business, with everything exactly the way it was when I did the Ghost backup. There's absolutely NO reason to ever reinstall from an XP CD.

I do this on my own system at least twice a week after doing a very thorough HD cleanup.

With proper HD maintenance, I still get my entire C: drive on a single DVD.

I've posted my entire process in another thread, this very day. I won't repeat it here.

Good Luck,

Andromeda43

[sebaxz]

Once a Month but if the system works fine with the tweaks, once a year....i play 2 much with tuneups and registry values

[zakum]

Depending on what stuff i download and test, but usually once a month.

Thinking of doing an image with ghost sometime

[Andromeda43]

When you've screwed up the registry to where windows won't boot again, then the Ghost Image is your best friend, but....

For those little Ooooops where you've just screwed up your desktop or something simple, a quick

System Restore will solve the problem in just a few minutes.

Use the appropriate fix for the problem at hand.

Using C4 to crack eggs would be a bit of "OverKill" don't you agree?

Reinstalling windows to fix a small problem is likewise 'OverKill'.

That's the type of response I'd expect from the "Geek Squad" but not from a real tech.

NO tech would blow up his house to kill a few ants.

That's a pretty rediculous analogy right? So is reinstalling XP when you don't really have to.

Since the day I first installed XP, several years ago, I've never reformatted and reinstalled XP.

The Ghost.exe file (Norton's Ghost 2003) and mouse.com on a bootable floppy or CD does the best job of making a disk image of anything I've ever seen in 26 years.

It's quick, easy, highly efficient and sometimes just plain FUN!

Following a backup with an immediate restore, does a fabulous Defrag.

As seen Here.

I'll share all the info on how to make this disk for anyone seriously wanting it.

Cheers,

Andromeda43

[spacesurfer]

only 9 more votes and we hit 200!

[Kelsenellenelvian]

WOW OMG he can ADD! LOL just kidding and trying to blow off some steam...