How often do you reinstall windows?

I tend to back everything up, format and reinstall my OS every 6 months or so This way i am having a fresh start, my PC stays fast and i only reinstall the software i need. So there are never any old games i no longer play etc.

What about everyone else?

 

i reformat whenever there's a problem that can't be solved. usually every year or so.

 

I tend to do it every 6 months, or unless I have a serious problem. Main reason for doing clean installs for me apart from speed is stabilty being a business user.

 

I have never re-installed windows yet. Not on my XP machine, and not on my Vista machine.

 

Windows XP Pro SP2 - Every 6 months, but not because of any problems.
Windows Vista Home Premium - Thrice a week. Just finished for this week, 20 minutes ago.

 

Why 3 times a week Silas? Isn't that overdoing it?

 

For a while I was reinstalling Windows constantly, as I tried different dual-quadruple booting configurations. I'd keep wanting to play with some new linux distro, or bsd, or osx86. This windows installation (xp) has been here for a year so far, and I see it staying for another two.. until whenever I have a reason to upgrade Windows or the computer.

 

Why do you reinstall Windows so often? I've only installed it once on each computer because I've never encountered problems...

 

At least evey 2 or 3 months. But recently I had to do it over 15 times due to HDD malfunctions/corrputions.

But all is well atm..

 

I would like thank the following for my achievement -
1) Incredible new Windows Installer, that frucked itself up, and hence could not be installed then!! Catch-22?
2) The superb Windows Media Player 11, which got screwed, and can NOT be installed on Vista.
3) The super-duper security things, that won't allow me to delete a file that I downloaded on Desktop (the windows drive), so I tried workarounds (taking secuirty in my hands etc), and but still didn't help!
4) Control Panel icons not opening up! Even after I click the .cpl file in the Windows Directory.
5) Roxio software, that installs Lowerfilters in the Windows Registry, that makes the DVD+/-RW drive to go invisible, and if you uninstall it, it won't re-install! Even after using every patch, and following both Microsoft's and Roxio's way on how to install it.
6) To remove DELL's bloatware.
7) To enable AHCI!
8) Internet Explorer (use it for GMail), WMP, Windows Defender, Games, Mail, Contact and Calendar won't open for some reason, along with many other MS products!
9) Superfetch going ape-**** on my notebook.


Please note, none of the problems happened again, other than Roxio's. It came with the drive, and I don't want to use pirated software.

Thank you!

 

I too like a few others here follow the 6month rule when it comes to reinstalling windows as it usually slows down over time. My current installation(vista) will be reinstalled once SP1 comes out.

 

I think one clean install would suffice for nearly everyone's computer. I also had the Roxio software problem where it installed Lowerfilters into the Registry and Windows wouldnt recognize the optical disc drive...but one clean install and correct drivers solves it.

 

I know. They didn't happen to me at the same time, they happened to me AFTER a clean install, one by one.

Install 1, Problem 1....Install 2, Problem 2....Install 3, Problem 3, Problem 1....Install 4, Problem 4....like this.

 

How unfortunate...hopefully you dont encounter any more problems which require you to reinstall Windows

 

I'll do a new installation once every six months to a year. That seems about the average time here...

 

. XP: last installation, zillion years ago. In between got another bigger drive, but just acronis the whole thing over
. Vista: last installation was when beta test over

(defrag once a month or two, back up to external drive or dvd/cd when drives got close to 80% full)

both comps still running smooth

cheers ...

 

Six installations today alone (testing ssds) Thank god for Vista Ultimate Complete PC Restore!!

Heres my pit below:

 

TWO m1330's?! You must be either very rich, or very poor!

 

Or very busy and very pleased with the machines.

 

same here......defrag over 2 weeks or so.....doesn't take long with diskeeper...so its ok

 

I just take care of it the first time. Never have to reformat.

 

I only re-install if I can't rectify a problem. I used to do it once a year but with so many programs to reload it gets tiring to do so.

 

Cal and bmwrob:

I can tell you I only paid 1339 Cdn taxes included for one as described in my sig block (shhh and the monitor). I cannot disclose the price I paid for the other but you can guess it must have been very close to that. I have purchased 5 systems and granted one exchange for an
M1210 from Dell since the M1330 release.

On is with a reporter in Brandon, Manitoba, another with a Computer Engineering student in Toronto, Ontario and the last...with a relative.

I have been very very lucky all have been of a very high build quality.

 

Well, then, sounds to me like you have been pleased! LOL

 

Never for me. Don't see the need.

 

I got this machine 2 years and 10 months ago, and I haven't reinstalled. I'm still using the pre-installed XP installation it arrived with. (I've certainly defragged a few times, installed and uninstalled some programs, and tweaked a bunch of stuff... msconfig etc.)

 

Check the sig... with my laptop I think I'm averaging 2 per month but I think I finally got everything running perfectly for once. I can reformat and install everything in about 3 hours - not sure if I should be proud of that lol.

I used to do reformats every 6-8 months but for some reason my desktop is responding really well to Vista, installed in February and haven't touched it since.

 

Once you have everything installed and ready to go, why not image the drive at that point to DVDs. Then the "reinstall" won't take anywhere NEAR three hours. A half hour to forty five minutes at the most.

Gary

 

Just out of curiosity, what app do you use to create the image?

 

I use an old copy of Ghost. Ghost 2003 to be precise. It boots from a PC-DOS enabled CD and images about 20 gig in less than 45 minutes. That is to my third partiton on my hard drive, formated as Fat32 so the PC-DOS can see it. I have also used BootIT-NG as well, it's a bit cryptic to use but hasd fantastic partition management built in, including a great boot loader app that can hide partitions from various boot configurations.

Gary

 

Great! I haven't used Ghost for awhile. Glad to hear that it's still popular. Also, thanks for the tip about the third partition w/ the FAT32 partition.

Regards,

D

 

Remember I am using an OLD version. The newest one appears to try to run WHILE Vista is running! Not sure how that can work when backing up a partition? I haven't talked with anyone running the newer versions of Ghost.

Gary

 

Roughly, once a year or so (give or take). I try to image but to be honest normally end up changing a lot of the programs I use so end up just doing a fresh install.

At the point where my Windows Directory is taking most of it's 20GB partition signals me that Windows is tired and needs to be reinstalled (and I need to get rid of junk that I've installed over the year and no-longer actually use).

 

I have Ghost 9.0. It worked perfectly with Windows XP Pro SP2. Will it work with Windows Vista Home Premium as well? I mean it might copy/clone the drive, will it let me boot from it's CD, and then let me restore?

Thanks.

 

I have not tried it with Ghost 9. Only Ghost 2003.

Gary

 

Ghost 9 is more recent than Ghost 2003. Though it won't work with Vista, because Vista has .Net Frameworks 2.0, and earlier versions of Ghost needs 1.1. It (.Net framworks) is not backward compatible. Or sos I learnt on the Internet.

 

I re-install Only if suspect of Viruses Malware or Spyware infested my comp

 

But you can have .Net 1.1 and .Net 2.0 on the same machine. I develop with .Net and have both installed right now. I even installed 1.1 AFTER already having 2.0 on Vista.

Ghost2003 doesn't require EITHER version of .Net.

Gary

 

And Ghost 2003 let's you boot from it's CD (in Windows Vista) shall you encounter a problem that leads to a full drive restore (from the saved image) as the only option?

 

Not quite sure what you are asking, but ghost 2003 will not run "in Vista". You must boot it (actually PC-DOS which the runs Ghost 2003) to run. There is a small app that worked under Win2000 and Win XP (haven't tried it under Vista and never used it in 2000 or XP) that lets you explore a Ghost image and recover individual files.

But I have used Ghost 2003 to image and latter restore a Vista boot partition.

Gary

P.S. I am not sure I would fully trust any imaging app that tried to image a partition while that partition was active. Even with no other applications running, the registry is not going to be totally static. That's why I like Ghost 2003. BootIT-NG works the same way. You boot it and the primary OS is NOT running when you image it. Anyone know how Acronis or the other image apps do this?

 

When I first got my laptop, I reformatted it a few times in the first month as I install lots of third party software. Once I finalized my list of software, I haven't reinstalled since. Same with my desktop. It's gone over three years since a reinstall.

 

This is how it works in Ghost 9.0. You install it, and it will make a bootable CD, with essential Windows components on it. Then, you make an image of a file/directory or the whole drive (I don't remember if I needed to boot from the Ghost CD to do it, as I never had to use it on XP). If you encounter a problem, and want to restore, you had the following options -

1) Open the Ghost software in Windows, and open the back-up/image file in it, chose the file, and restore.
2) If you had to restore an entire drive, or your Windows won't boot, then boot from the CD, browse, and restore it from there, with it's graphical user interface.

What I mean to ask is, can I do option 2 with Ghost 2003, in Windows Vista Home Premium?

 

Silas,

I have used Ghost 2003 to image and restore a Vista Ultimate partition. I can't imagine that it would not also work with Vista Home Premium.

Gary

 

I reinstall pretty frequently - once every 3 to 6 months on most of my computers, though if there is a major cluster**** (to borrow a word from the Daily Show) on my system, it gets reformatted more often. Case in point: my T61, which has seen about 7 reformats since July, and will have at least one more in the near future.

I also reinstall Windows after any major hardware change, of course (add RAM, upgrade accelerator cards, etc.). Linux, Solaris, OSX86, and various flavors of BSD get batted around a lot, but all on their own partitions separate of the Windows installations. I re/uninstall those so frequently it isn't worth keeping track.

 

" . . . a major cluster **** . . . " from the Daily Show?? I can remember a DI often telling our Boot Camp platoon that our marching abilities very closely resembled a cluster ****! lol Haven't heard (read?) that phrase in many years.

Can't get over how often so many of you do the reinstallations. I understand the rationales given and they seem to make sense, but even with the use of True Image or other similar app, that's just too much work for me. You gents are much more dedicated to your machines than am I, it seems.