How often do you reformat your hard drive?

I reformat both of my notebooks every month or so..

 

Sorry for the double post peeps. how do i delete the other post?

 

I only do it once. Then use Acronis to make an image to be used if needed.

 

Monthly? Damn. That's dedication. Reinstalling drivers, updates, all my software and preferences is something I LOATHE, so I try to do it as infrequently as humanly possible. I'm trying to convince myself to format my desktop right now... I know I should, but I really, really, dont' wanna.

 

for the first 2 weeks i got my laptop..

i already reformated 3 times LOL

but after that... i haven reformated since (well i only had this laptp for 2 months or so)

i'll only reformat if i really NEED to...

 

hey guys whats the best way to go about reformatting your harddrive? (in terms of backing up things u want, etc. etc.)?

 

Damn... it takes me about a month to get my PC set up the way I like it!

I'll reformat whenever I think my PC is starting to run slow, or it looks like there's more disk space used than there should be. Usually every year or so.

 

when i re-format, will i have any problems loading windows xp on?

i have the cd and serial so im hoping i don't get any problems with that

also, would microsoft office still be able to be installed with the same key and all? i know sometimes if you load office it says that the serial is already in use, etc.?

 

Once. And then I maintain it; I see no reason to constantly reformat the HDD unless there's something wrong. I didn't see it as an option in the poll so I didn't vote.

I have a friend who reformats every 6months to a year but he lets his system get to the point that he has to do it.

 

Once a year or more. Depending on what sort of junk I have built up.

 

Depends on how catastrophically unstable it is AND how much I feel like it but usually about once every 3-4 months. But on occasions multiple times per week

For example now I am not in the mood to go thru a reformat, so I just live thru all the BS. I was getting BSODs a'plenty, but they just stopped for no reason, just like they started for no reason , and now FF is so screwed that sometimes it crashes on start up.

I guess I'll format before I go to summer break, and remove all the software that I won't use when on vacation (school stuff)

 

I never store anything on C: I use my documents/desktop to keep things I am working on at the moment and every couple of weeks (or at the end of university quarter) I move and archive everything on external drives. So it is more of a progressive back up

Plus that way in case something goes REALLY wrong, you can just format C: without worrying much about losing a lot of stuff.

 

Was the serial used on another PC? If yes then you cannot use it to activate on another PC. If it was used on this laptop then there is no problem reactivating. Probably it will already be preactivated, if this is the OS that shipped with your laptop.

MS office: Was it installed and activated on another system? If no, there is no problem installing and activating it on the same hardware/system again.

 

Good tip qwester. I reformat around 4-5 months as well. I need to do one soon but I am too lazy. I think I will do it before school starts this fall.
Tim

 

It can be anywhere from monthly to annually. It all depnds on the crap that builds up and how it affects performance. I had my old gateway go a year without neededing it, and I just bought my averatec/msi notebook and it needs it already.

 

Depends on which version of MS Office, I have 2000 and it doesn't need the key to be confirmed on the web, but it might for later versions.

 

I format my hd two times per year.

JC

 

Monthly because I keep trying to keep something organized but something always goes wrong. Maybe a few GB's lost somewhere? I reinstalled windows 2 days ago heh.

Its not that I want to, Its that I have to!

 

Where's the option for 'Never, unless I really really have to'??? If it ain't broke, don't fix it and for sure don't break it on purpose.

 

What's the point of reformatting so often? I've never reformatted my computer and it runs really fine.

 

I have only had to reformat one of my OWN computers once, and it was my second computer (Windows 95 OS) because it had so many BS viruses built up on it from Napster DLing files.... and i didnt know how to take advantage of an Anti-Virus or a Spyware removal tool.

Other than that one, none of my comuters have had the need for it. Ive had my Celeron Emachine XP desktop for about 5 years, used it constantly up untill february when I got my Sager, it to this day has never been reformatted.



P.S. the trick is taking the time to do a spring cleaning on the entire drive every so often amd running your anti-virus and spyware remover weekly. At least thats what I do

 

i only reformat when it is new or when there is problem. i use to reformat 3 times IN A WEEK! when i first got my computer then 2 more times after that, all in a month period. This is because as it turn out my RAM is to blame (replaced it and it run fine). after that i only been reformating once or twice because of viruses.

Now i haven't reformated my computer in a year and it seems to run stable so not seems to gonna reformat it anytime soon.

if you reformat you computer because it is getting slow. Try getting a REGISTRY CLEANER. i personaly use Registry Mechanic, which make my computer running fast (i mean AFTER-REFORMAT-FAST!) and error free.

 

Doesn't Microsoft put a limit on how many times you can activate? They did me on one of my desktops that's been reformatted a lot.

 

Umm not that i know of.. ive reformated my notebooks many times and there seems to be no limit for me.

 

I recently reformatted my current laptop. It hadn't been reformatted ever, and it's over 3 years old now. Unfortunately, I got a virus that just wouldn't go away, so I decided to reformat and upgrade to XP (yeah, it has 2000 on it). I'm not really sure why Win 2k had so many problems, but my computer runs so much more quickly now. It's like it's not even the same computer. Funny thing, though, Windows XP never asked me for activation. I'm not really sure why, but I'm not complaining.

 

If you use an OEM disk that is the same as your OEM, it shouldnt ask you to activate. If you use a Volume license key it shouldnt ask for activation.
I have a computer that hasnt been formatted in 5 years. Its not used that much therefore not alot of programs are on its 20gig drive (ibm 75gxp7200rpm) . Typically I rarely format, I spent more time installing on new drives than formatting old ones

 

I didn't have an OEM disc for this computer since it came with Win 2k on it. But the disc may have been the OEM disc for another computer. I found it laying around in my house and decided to try it out since I couldn't do anything on the computer the way it was anymore. The virus was eating my memory and telling the computer it had less virtual memory than it actually did.

 

I reformat once every 3-4 months but its been ages since i did it last because im going to replace this laptop anyway.

Once a month!! thats too much i think. Doesnt reformating that often place a HUGE strain on the hard drive? Surely that decreases the life of it or stops it running at max speed from wear and tear?

 

Never!
(I voted annually, because there is not a "never" option).
Refornmatting is murder!! -- it feels like it to me, at least.
My phylosophy is: when I install the software, it is junk. With painstaking effort I progressively customize it to run to perfection. Once it is perfect, why reformatting and restart the process?

 

I used to find myself reformatting about every year, but only when there was spyware or a virus that I couldn't figure out how to get rid of.


But as time goes on, I get better about avoiding the things that cause those problems in the first place. I stick with the programs I need and try not to download questionable trash unless I absolutely need something.


I can't even imagine why anyone would need to reformat on a regular basis more often than once a year (not including when viruses start to run rampant) unless you just have too much time on your hands. If you're having that much trouble keeping your hard drive clean, you probably need to reconsider your downloading habits.