Format every x year(s)/months vs. good maintenance techniques

[deh1217]

Hi,
I was curious as to personal opinions regarding reformatting versus not (i.e. regular maintenance only needed).
I have seen a few schools of thought on this. There are those that claim a good reformatting and reinstalling o/s and apps is a good thing to do occasionally; and of course restoring data from the backup you always perform .
This was something regarding this subject I read years ago and it seemed to make sense.

However I saw that some people scoff at this and say reformatting is not necessary if one truly knows what they are doing (cleaning temps, scandisk, defrag, properly uninstalling programs, keeping registy clean). I would have to go back to some NG archives but some these people were MVPs and they tended to almost make it seem that the only person that needs to reformat is one that doesn't know how to maintain thier system.

So what is your take on this? If you believe in reformat roughly how often although I know that is a loaded question.
If you believe that reformat is unnecessary what are your maintenance practices to keep machine optimal (driver update check, defrag, etc.)?


Have a Great Day,
D

[MacGyver]

If you constantly install and uninstall stuff, you are bound to get something messed up somewhere. That's just a fact of a multitasking operating system that uses shared files between different programs.

[DANIMAL]

I personally haven't had to format in about a year the main thing I try to do after installing or uninstalling anything, is running Regclean and windows clean up, and eveytime I get off the internet I do a clean up of all temo internet files.
So for me it has been working.But I'm sure in the near future I will be formatting.

[DocPC]

Each of my personal boxes gets a reformat/re-install every 6 months. I have done it that way for years.

I agree with Mac. Lots of programs like to share .dll's and system files.

I install/uninstall tons of stuff and always feel better about the machines after a clean install. They always bench a little better as well.

[Outcoded]

My personal machines just get reghosted everytime I **** them up. I'm always messing about with stuff so with all the best preventitive maintainance in the world, sooner or later they'll slow down or just stop working. Only takes 1/2 hour compared to spending that every week crawling through the registry, or about 3 days for a full reinstall.

[kato2274]

I'm a firm believer in a reformat and reinstall every 6 months or so. It's spring cleaning for my PC.

It also helps me trim the list of programs installed because when I am spending a day inserting game and application CD-ROMS, I really think about how much I use them and some don't get reinstalled.

I'm eventually going to move to the system I use for PC's I build for people which puts a ghost image on a seperate disk or partition with contents of my documents, Outlook express emails, MP3's, and JPEG's. A restore of the ghost image only kills the favorites, which are easy to back up before hand.

[Sandman72]

I pretty much rebuild my pc about every 6 months. I mess around with it a lot and am constantly uninstalling and installing things. I just recently went through the great format of 2001. (never rebuild when angry) Forgot bunch of data that is all bye bye now. Oh well nothing irreplaceable.

[Stanley_Kubrick]

Agreed.
Format/Reload semi-annually or more frequently if system acts squirerly.

[flyboy747]

It's been about a year since I've formated and reinstalled. I used to do it about every 6 months or so and then now, when I think that I'll do it one afternoon, something always comes up and then I put it off and just keep putting it off and it never gets done. I can tell now that I need to do something because during the past few months, I have greatly noticed my machine slowing down and Windows taking longer to come up and whatever and several strange things beginning to take place.

If anyone wants to come do it for me for free, I'll be glad to let you.

BTW- Happy birthday to me!

[ChipCreep]

The power users on my network actually need their PCs re-imaged less often (due to more diligent use of scandisk, defrag, registry repair and other maintenance)than the rank and file users with the 3 or 4 application, "cookie cutter" setup. They are the ones who foul their nests especially with all the unnecessary downloaded trash and unintended spyware that comes with it. Whenever a rank and file user leaves our company, I just reimage the PC then, rather than try to clean up the mess they leave.

[DocPC]

Happy Birthday flyboy!

[WebHead]

I used to reformat and reinstall about once or twice a year. But since I've been using XP Home Ed., my system is sooooo stable, and runs so nicely, and everything is soooo clean and very manageable, and I just don't feel that I have a need to do that anymore. This is truly the best MS OS I've ever used IMO.

[Renée]

I do regular, thorough maintenance and registry cleaning, and I do uninstalls as cleanly and thoroughly as I can. Still, my husband shares the PC with me, and his wanton usage of it makes me feel the need for a reformat every year and a half or so.

[clauded]

i upgrade my main system so often that good maintenance is all i need,
clauded

[Crazy02]

I use to re-format every 6 mos or sooner if i messed it up by playing around, I got tired of plugging cd's for 8 or so hours, so I loaded everything I use all updates and did a ghost image burnt to 5 cd's (5.5g or so), so now any little thing goes wrong 35 mins iam back to square one, from there its just a matter of adding a couple of new apps. :-Þ

Cheers