Reformatting POLL - share your thoughts

Did you REFORMAT your new Laptop?, or will you ?

 

LOL considering I went through all of that trouble creating a guide, it would be crazy of me to answer No.

I've reformatted about 4 or 5 times in the past year. The worst part about it is installing all of the software and getting everything back to the way you had it.

 

I did around 5 min after i got it except if i read SouthernGirl's Guide i would of still had my MediaDirect working, lol, but too late now

 

I always do that. Nothing like a freshly formatted HD with only the apps you want and services you need starting up. Always faster than what it comes with.

 

No . . . Have done it many times on desktop systems. Much easier just to uninstall what I don't want and let RegScubXP clean up the registry for me. (And I'm lazy) !

 

I always format a bought machine, desktop or laptop, within minutes of getting it. All I do is boot into it to make sure the system functions properly and then away goes the junkware. It's not a lot of work. It just takes time. Thanks to SouthernGirl's guide I knew what the weird partitions were and how to preserve MediaDirect, so everything's great with the exception of the incorrect CD key for the Audigy software. New copy is on it's way, and the sound still functions, so this is really just an aggravation.

 

I will do it in the future, when I have 20 hours to spare, (drivers,software CDs collected, expected error messages) Just uninstalled all the crap I recognized.

When I do, I will RUN to SouthernGirl's Guide !

 

ya know, i was surprised at how quickly i reformatted my laptop. i had very little trouble, and i gotta say, a lot of it is thanks to SG's handy guide. it went by much quicker than when i format my desktops.

 

I agree, I followed her guide too and finished formatting/reinstalling windows in only 1 hour, no problems at all, went very smoothly. It did just what the guide said and all in the right order. The hardest/longest part is getting windows updates, installing drivers and apps, etc.

 

the first thing I do with all my computers, is put on a fresh windows install, update everything, especially windows, install my core apps, then I create 2 backup images, keep one at home and one at work, then all you need to do is backup your data files, reformat when need be, restore your image, then your data, and you have a fresh install in minutes, I usually make a new restore disk every 6 months to a year, just update whatever needs to be updated and make a new image

 

i formatted my notebook after playing with it for couple of days. didnt knew about any guide, so just formatted it like a pc. fortunately, everything was working after the format, the media buttons, media direct etc. had just one issue that too with the video adaptor drivers.
regarding the effect in performance: there was some significant increase in performance after the format. ran over 70 processes and the notebook didnt even hinted about trickling a sweat. it ran just szmmmooooth.

 

Well, usually I reformat as soon as I get a PC, btu this time I decided to go the uninstall route instead. Both took overall about the same amount of time -- the only difference was I could spread the time spent out over a few days with an Uninstall junk route.

I got my system as clean as I would have with a reinstall, and have been very happ with the results.

Now, thats not to say I won't reformat at some point, but I've generally been happy with what I accomplished.

 

Basically, your first question needs to be how are you going to partition the drive?

Most people just throw everything on C:\, but it makes a lot of sense to have
C:\Windows
D:\Programs
E:\DATA
F:\Trial OS's
etc. - F:\ is optional.
This way, you can ghost your C:\ partition with all drivers, and if WinXP goes south, you can be back and running in 5 minutes without having to re-install all your programs and drivers and what-not, or worrying about losing your data.

I have never done this, but if you are going to do so, it makes sense to wipe and reformat, as you might lose data when you set up the partitions, and you can't reliably transfer the programs from C:\ to D:\ anyway without uninstalling and re-installing them.

If you are going to keep everything in a big C:\ Drive, you can do it either way, but if you have never re-formatted, IMHO, you are safer just uninstalling things as you don't end up having to hunt for the one driver you forgot to save.

 

I formatted to clear out mediadirect and the restore partion so I would have more space on the hard drive

 

Heck yeah! I downloaded all the drivers on my usb flash drive, ordered all of the discs, read SG's guide and MM's long Media Direct thread. Awesome resources.

 

No, too lazy unless I really have to. The first time I turn on my new laptop is to remove all the junkwares. It runs fine with me without any delay or slow down. I use Photoshop CS2 with raw file no problem at all.

 

it runs fine before, but afterwards it was quite clean. the best part about it was getting a d: partition for data and installing fresh omega drivers, my 3dmark05 score got about a 100 point boost

 

I think the only hard thing about reformatting your hard drive is that you have to have the disks. I had to call/email Dell to get my recovery disk's which was a pain cause I somehow got their Hardware Support instead of Technical Support and it has taken 2 weeks to arrive. Reformatting can be very beneficial, especally if you don't want to remove a load of spyware/adware off your computer. The difficult thing for me is when my cousin has to reinstall his OS and I have to give him explicit directions on how to do everything (over the phone ).

 

I love reformatting the computer. I never use an image disk because I usually whenever I format all the programs are in their new versions. I only use about four or five major programs, and a bunch of small multimedia tools (media players, codecs, etc).

Some people say that formatting often wears out the hard disc. It may - but I feel it is well worth it since computers are so zippy afterward.

 

I was very stuborn about reformatting my harddrive, I was really aginst it. I also thought it would be very hard to do. But after my whole long horrible deal with a major bluescreen issue, which in the end turned out to be a bad stick of memory, I reformatted in an effort to fix the issue. Now that ive done it I am definitly pro reformatting. It really wasnt that hard to do, as long as you read up on how to do it you'll be ok. Souther Girls guide is a great asset to someone who wants to reformat.

 

only when I haev to due to blue screens or unfixable errors. Otherwise I dont bother.

 

This is mildy ontopic, anyone have a disk image backup of their diag partition? Hmmm? <3

 

I used my 6400 for a couple of days with all the junk on, just to make sure everything was working, and then I did a clean install including deleting the restore partition, but kept the MediaDirect partition, which I repaired.

When I got a 1300 I think I booted it up once to make sure it was working and then went straight to a clean install, including deleting the restore partition.

 

I don't reformat. I usually uninstall all the software I don't want, and then check the Windows task manager for extra services that are unneeded. I disable all services that are unneeded through Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services.

However, I should add that I own a Latitude, which comes with a lower amount of preinstalled junk than the Inspiron.

 

No, it's not worth it. I just uninstall what I don't need and then customize everything as desired. One advantage of doing it this way is that you can enjoy your notebook right away and don't have to spend countless hours and even days reinstalling all software that you need.

 

It takes about 2 hours to do a complete reformat and reinstall of all of the drivers. I don't reinstall most of the software so that's not a concern for me. It's more of a hassle in my mind to find what I want to keep and what I need and delete and registry clean everything that I don't want than it is to just wipe the hard drive.

 

Believe me, I will format my computer every 3 months.

Its the best definitely.

 

Waste of time, just uninstall the factory crap and defrag. My dad just got a dell and thats what I did for him.

I have had experience at work with disk images, and I wouldnt reccomend making an image and reinstalling that way. Files can become corrupted very easily while creating an image. Hope this helps

 

I have reformatted twice and have owned my machine for 3 months. Thanks to SouthernGirl's Primer on reformatting, it was like she was there showing you how to do it.

It is a time consuming effort so the second time before I reformatted, I backed up or downloaded what I was going to put back into my computer on an external hard drive. I will say that this saved a LOT OF TIME. Additionally, I had takeng the Installation disks and made VCDs using virtual drive to install the software - again, that save a significant amount of time, also....

 

Is there such a thing as buying a clean computer with no bloatware on it at all? Are we just forced to accept software we never asked for? If we buy a customized computer, why can't there be a "no bloatware" box that we can check. We're paying our money, why can't the computer come to the house EXACTLY the way we want it? With ONLY the programs requested?

 

the smaller custom makers will ship laptops like that. otherwise, the corporate dealings are the cause for your bloatware, the software companies pay to have trial versions and what not installed so that they can get advertisement out there for their software. it's a small price to pay for a machine, and reformatting really isn't all that bad.

 

I've reformatted my desktop before. But after receiving my new laptop and customizing, along with defraging the hard drive many times, I have it running very fast.

 

I guess my question is more about the principle of the thing. Maybe reformatting isn't a big deal, but I've read about it taking 2 hours to do this. Maybe that's not a big chunk of time in the grand scheme of life, but it is time wasted when they can just not put the crap on there in the first place. And yeah, I understand the big manufactures are paying to have the software on there. Just seems unfair to be stuck trying to get it all off.

 

nLite might speed things up. I haven't tried it yet, but check out pt9386's post in the Best Free Software for Windows thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1486112&postcount=162

 

Whether you reformat or delete unwanted programs/bloatware it's still going to take time.

After reading this and other forums for time before I got my laptop, it seemed nearly everyone that reformatted had a problem, so I took the later route and used Mark's guide. From a post I started earier:

It seems most of the forum user problems typically start after a so-called "clean install".

Rather then reformat, I took MarkMcK's advice and deleted the junkware without suffering any problems. The 1st to go was Mcafee AV, then Norton Ghost and then the rest. Once I deleted those, I downloaded and ran PC Optimizer which deleted about 200 register entries, NOD32, Adaware, and Spybot.

Knock on wood, I haven't had a single problem and everything's been running fast and smooth.

Well, it's been to months and it's still running fast and smooth. It's takes 40 seconds to restart and somewhat less to boot up.

Mark's guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=48490

 

I disagree with this statement. I've done walk throughs around 10 times in the last two weeks, and only had 1 problem. The problem is that users who are familiar with formatting just jump right in there without researching anything. I can't really blame them since I would do the same thing, but even users that don't format or no junkware (like the latitudes), you still might have trouble.

 

Hey Southern Girl,

No offense intended, I know you worked hard putting together the sticky and have helped many others. My point is it just seems like more people that post problems always start "I reformatted my HD and ........."

Of course, I may be a little bias since I took the add/remove route and may have overlooked some of posts reffering to those problems, but I haven't had any and can't recall any that also took that route.

It's likely I'll have to reformat at one time or another in the future, but out of the box, I think it's unnecessary.

 

LOL, no offense taken. I was just pointing out that I don't think alot of these problems are system errors. They seem to be more user error than anything.

 

Disclaimer - I am neither a hardware vendor, nor affiliated with any software company, so this is pure conjecture.

Cyndi525 - I understand where you are coming from, but let me give you my perspective (and play devil's advocate).

First off - you will likely spend two hours on config one way or another, unless you find a custom builder who will let you check off exactly what you want on the machine. A reformat takes about that long b/c Windows itself takes at least 45 minutes to load, before you get to driver installation, etc. Removing bloatware and cleaning the registry and defragging the HD (without a re-format) will also take that long. On the other hand, if you got a clean system, downloading, installing, and updating the Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam, Firewall, Office Suite, and CD media that you want would take about that long as well.

The manufacturers see this as a Win-Win, and largely they are right. They get paid by the software companies to include the trialware or free versions of their software. Some of these programs are annoying (Norton or McAfee, IMHO), some (such as Roxio or Nero or Cybersoft (??)) are really useful and I am glad I don't have to acquire them myself. Some (Microsoft Office) are teasers, where the program is pretty good, but I probably wouldn't buy it if a trial version wasn't included on the machine. But the bottom line is that having the software installed reduces the cost of the machine, and it can usually be removed pretty easily.

Now, the question is - would you pay $150-$200 more to not have the software installed? - maybe, but I doubt many others would.

Finally - (playing devil's advocate) Let's say I was a hardware vendor, I think setting up what you are asking for could be difficult to do.

Do I have a big checklist as follows:

Internet Security Trial - installed (free)
Internet Security Trial - not installed (add $20)

Also, keep in mind that likely McAfee would offer me the $20 per system savings if I am going to give customers the option of getting my system with either McAfee or Norton installed.

Aside from that, Windows itself ships with MSN Explorer, Windows Messenger, Calculator, Solitaire, Hearts, etc., etc. Do my customers want these components or not? Do I as a vendor include checkboxes for all these components and then have to take the time to select or deselect them when I am loading the OS to the system? How much more do I have to charge for the system if I do so???

Just food for thought. . .

 

Thanks Tiger, you make very good points. I never thought about the preloaded software that I actually don't mind. I guess I was kinda thinking they should offer a laptop with nothing on it for people who already have Windows, office, etc. But I can see that it would still take a while to get it all installed.

Would I pay a couple hundred more not to have the software on there? No.

You have convinced me and that's not easy to do. Thank! :->

 

Well, I did a reformat and everything is working fine so I voted the first. But I don't want to have to do it again. It's not really a bad experience, it's just a little annoying. So much stuff to take care of and I'm a little lazy sometimes. But I was having problems with XP not loading DirectX so I reformatted and noticed a big difference. I'm glad I did it, but I don't plan on doing it again anytime soon. Downloading drivers is the worst part cause for some reason my M90 came with a driver CD for an M65, so I have to go online to get graphics drivers and media card reader drivers.

 

As someone else mentioned, you can get that from a reseller. Power Notebooks for example will even sell you a notebook with no operating system.

OTOH, this bothers me in an illogical way, b/c every computer I have bought recently came with it's own OS.

I don't want to strip the OS off a previous computer to re-sell it without an OS, and I don't think I can legally sell the old one and install the same version on a new one.

But it bothers me to spend $150 more for an OS as opposed to having it "built-into the price". If that makes sense.

 

I've downloaded drivers before laptop came from Dell, everything went smoothly. I don't see reasons for complaints, beside user inexpierience.

The original partition ran with 70 processes; right now I'm at 23.

 

It was so easy, especially with Southern Girl's guide. But if you can't follow instructions, then don't reformat.

 

I have six desktops and two laptops at home, and they all get reformatted about twice a year. Modern OS's like XP make it a snap compared to installing NT4 (or NT 3.51) as I used to do all the time. There's just nothing to it.

 

i got my laptop a few weeks ago, formatted it last week and put xp pro on it because i wasnt sure xp home supported smp properly , easy as pie to do

 

man... i reformatted mine after 3 mins using it brand new out of the box. Set your software the way it is , is easy for me cause i'm always burn different softwares to one disc, and i have a nice collection of softwares.

 

when i checked how many processes were running on the background when i got my m1210 out of the box i felt sick... so i formatted

 

Reformats always come easy for me. I enjoy reformatting when i have too. Usually because i know my Dell is up to date on the latest drivers, and if i uninstalled programs, the old registrys would be removed.

Getting a new Dell, it's a must to reformat

 

Here's what i did with my e1705.

Took it out, booted it up and made sure wireless sound and video worked, then i ran MediaDirect to make sure that worked then i reformatted to get rid of all the bloatware