Ah nothin like a fresh format..

[Tastycakes]

Nothing like a fresh format to get rid of spyware and to remember that GTA San Andreas save files dont save in the \program files\ directory which i backed up on another HDD. Oy, running a file recovery program to try and find that shit lol. Hours of gaming gone

Anyway just wondering how often you guys reformat? I usually go about 1-4 months before i pop in the ol windows xp disc.

[jdrumstik]

I used to go about 3 to 5 months and then I switched to Mac OS X. Beautiful. But I Still dual boot windows for those rare apps that I just can't do without.

But yea nothing like a fresh restart. However you can get it running even leaner with xpLite and with regscrubxp

[Yodums]

I usually do it every 3 months. All my personal data files are on a slave drive and I don't use very many programs, so reinstalling them is no problem. Takes an hour and a half, tops.

[incideagent]

every 6 months, sometimes sooner, but im reformatting early this time, got new motherboard/hard drive/video card and stuff, about time though lol. i store all my stuff on a w2k3 server except for the mp3's, they are stored on the itunes server running slack. -kris

[JerrfyLube]

Fresh format?!? Spyware and virus's??!??!?!? Whats that??


Signed,

OS X user...

[funke]

my xp has been running everyday, all day for 3 years - without a hitch. fire wall diabled and just AVG.

microsoft is *** - but not bad as they used to be. most problems are related to DU (Dumb User) errors

+ macs are not special - just good advertising.
everything they do uo can do with a pc, and a vendors sell boxes and screens in 100 million configurations

[Tastycakes]

Originally Posted by JerrfyLube

Fresh format?!? Spyware and virus's??!??!?!? Whats that??


Signed,

OS X user...

[JerrfyLube]

Originally Posted by funke

microsoft is *** - but not bad as they used to be.

That statement right there tells me that you know NOTHING about computers, operating systems or software....

It should read, "Microsoft used to not be bad, now they are ***!"

Back in the day(Win 95\98 era), Windows was easy to use, easy to setup, fairly stable, easy to make bootleg copies of...etc. Now, forget it...

[Shark Tek]

Originally Posted by Tastycakes

Nothing like a fresh format to get rid of spyware and to remember that GTA San Andreas save files dont save in the \program files\ directory which i backed up on another HDD. Oy, running a file recovery program to try and find that shit lol. Hours of gaming gone

Anyway just wondering how often you guys reformat? I usually go about 1-4 months before i pop in the ol windows xp disc.

Why you don't prepare a document with a list of what things you need to backup prior a reformat.

For example.


1- GTA Gaming Profile - C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\GTA

2- Firefox - C:\Documents and Settings\Joe\Application Data\Mozilla

3- Sonicstage - Run Backup utility and remove current computer from the authorized devices


With this document you will make sure that you wont forget to backup anything


Free tips by M. Diaz - Computer Engineer.

[atruhondagrl]

OS X FTMFW!!!!

[moxom]

I reinstall Windows every 12-18 months. I use Acronis TrueImage to create an image of my OS and applications. Takes about 10 minutes to restore a fresh copy.

BTW, for those of you that may upgrade to to Vista, it is very easy to install. The setup application is better than the bare bones text screen that Win users are use to.

[crazyj]

Get a new MAC Book pro and use parallels !!!! Good times switching between an actual install of Windows XP / vista and mac OSx!!!!

Good Fun Indeed!

[skiddy]

I used to format every 1-3 months because I was always updating my hardware. Last time I reformatted was Feb '06 when I got a new cpu/mobo, and it's still running just as solid as before.

[dentrecords]

It's really a shame that installations of Windows get so clogged up with garbage and other crap that a reinstall is the only real viable option.

Crap Cleaner (CCleaner) helps with a lot of stuff that's left behind. That, your preference of antispyware/virus apps and a periodic defrag work pretty well for me. I'm a total nut when my pc doesn't work properly, I do fairly advanced usage with scripts, etc and it typically works pretty well. I've set up another computer to automatically sync all documents I save every few hours... I've had enough bad experiences to make me realize just how worthwhile an updated backup is. I used to use RAID, but if your file index gets corrupted.. it just gets replicated to the other drive. Good tip from Shark Tek to make a checklist of important files to backup.. I go a few steps further, record all programs I have installed, copy shortcuts, other settings (majority of my checklist is here), have a few (ok a lot) registry tweaks scripted for a fresh install, service packs backed up/slipstreamed into installations.

God.. I really do appreciate how rock solid my Mac is in comparison to my fragile (read incredibly high maintenance) pc. Not to totally bash on pcs, I use them daily, it's a necessary evil, but I don't appreciate having to take so many ridiculous measures with extra software just to keep the bloody thing in a usable state.

[Driving91LX]

Originally Posted by JerrfyLube

That statement right there tells me that you know NOTHING about computers, operating systems or software....

It should read, "Microsoft used to not be bad, now they are ***!"

Back in the day(Win 95\98 era), Windows was easy to use, easy to setup, fairly stable, easy to make bootleg copies of...etc. Now, forget it...

Yea the good old days. If a copied CD didn't work you just go to www.gamecopyworld.com and get the patch. And Windows activation? What's that?!
Question: I have a network with 3 PC's (and a Wii) and want to use the one in the basement (Win2000 server) as my back-up PC. Know of some free back-up software? I don't want to resort to my own XCopy .bat file :)

[dentrecords]

SyncBack works great.

It's what I rely on.

http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/syncback-hub.html

[Driving91LX]

Originally Posted by dentrecords

SyncBack works great.

It's what I rely on.

http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/syncback-hub.html

That looks good as it has the "networked drive" feature but it's not free enough
Yea, I'm a cheapskate when it comes to software. Kind of ironic since I'm a programmer.

[dentrecords]

Originally Posted by Driving91LX

That looks good as it has the "networked drive" feature but it's not free enough
Yea, I'm a cheapskate when it comes to software. Kind of ironic since I'm a programmer.

Yeah, it's free.

http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html

http://www.2brightsparks.com/assets/...Back_Setup.zip

[Janizary]

For my decicated 'gaming only' PC I have a Norton Ghost image saved just after the OS install, updated, drivers, fixes, patches, etc. with only a few monitoring programs loaded. After a couple of months I just 're-load' the image and install whatever new games I am playing.

The HTPC also has a ghost image, but never restored it. Since this pretty much does only DVR and upscaling, it runs just peachy.

The Kid's play room PC gets its Ghost image restored about every 6 months (I hate the junk that somes with 'kid' programs. Bogs things down.

The office PC is similar to the gaming PC with the exception that office and productivity programs were also loaded just before the 'ghost' image was taken. File storage is on a separate partition so I just refresh the OS/Program partion now and then to keep things fresh, flush out any unwanted programs, and install whatever I currently am using.

Using ghost images does lead to a bit of MS UPDATE patching, but it has worked fine for me, and take very little time.

[Driving91LX]

Originally Posted by dentrecords

Yeah, it's free.

http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html

http://www.2brightsparks.com/assets/...Back_Setup.zip

Thanks much!
I only saw the link to SyncBackSE ($30) on the site the first time.