Question about reformatting

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Wed Dec 20, 2000 1:30 pm

Hey there folks,

Over Christmas break I want to reformat my hard drive, any suggestions about making it painless?

Would you recommend saving all the pertinent stuff like drivers to a partition, and reformatting the rest?

Or saving everything to CDRW, then reformatting the entire thing?

And when I do reformatt, is it better to put Win98 in its own partition and make a backup copy? Then next time instead of reformatting I can just go back to that "pristine" copy. Would that work?

messiah · Post by **messiah** » Wed Dec 20, 2000 1:42 pm

Yeah, I format once a month(usually) and I back up all of my drivers,computer name, and hard to find software on CDR beforehand.

As long as you have a working bootdisk, you shouldn't have too many problems.

I have ran into situations in the past where I formatted without backing up my drivers, and of course @home was down all night. After one night of SuperVGA I learned my lesson.

hehe. It shouldn't be too hard for ya though..

[*] Backup important apps
[*] Locate/Make a bootdisk
[*] Boot to disk
[*] choose cd-rom support
[*] slap the new OS in your cdrom
[*] go to C:/ prompt
[*] type C: format /all
[*] When the cleansing is through,
[*] Roll a fatty, and type D:
[*] Then type setup.exe (d:/setup.exe)

This is the only restore feature I use..

Clean Install.

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Wed Dec 20, 2000 2:37 pm

Thanks a lot Messiah.

I already have step 9 down pretty well (not in Humboldt for nothing). Thanks for the advice.

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Wed Dec 20, 2000 2:39 pm

One thing though. Why do you reformat so often? Isn't once a month a bit excessive, or are the benefits actually that great? Thanks

messiah · Post by **messiah** » Wed Dec 20, 2000 2:52 pm

Well, once a month is excessive.

The benefit is having a non-fragmented clean registry, and of course a fresh start.

The reason why I format so often, is simply habit. I learned windows by hacking it, and I have damaged sooo many system files in my time, that it's only a natural reaction to start over. Silly to some, but it's how I work.

Paft · Post by **Paft** » Wed Jan 01, 2003 12:17 pm

How often do the rest of you format?

Randy · Post by **Randy** » Wed Jan 01, 2003 12:33 pm

i usually fdisk evry 6 mnths

poptom · Post by **poptom** » Wed Jan 01, 2003 12:41 pm

Never. I have too much stuff that I don't want to disturb.

incrediblecain · Post by **incrediblecain** » Wed Jan 01, 2003 1:07 pm

I have one computer that is my beater if I feel the urge to tinker, it gets the greif. I have probably reformatted 6 times in the last year.

Joint Chiefs of Staff · Wed Jan 01, 2003 1:25 pm

Format? Only once to get everything pristine and then I just ghost my drives and I'm done in under an hour.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Wed Jan 01, 2003 1:30 pm

Originally posted by Paft
How often do the rest of you format?

only when i mess something up real bad, my old HP machine went almost 3 years on the original factory install with 98se on her

Solarus · Post by **Solarus** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 4:12 pm

messiah wrote:Yeah, I format once a month(usually) and I back up all of my drivers,computer name, and hard to find software on CDR beforehand.

As long as you have a working bootdisk, you shouldn't have too many problems.

I have ran into situations in the past where I formatted without backing up my drivers, and of course @home was down all night. After one night of SuperVGA I learned my lesson.

hehe. It shouldn't be too hard for ya though..

[*] Backup important apps
[*] Locate/Make a bootdisk
[*] Boot to disk
[*] choose cd-rom support
[*] slap the new OS in your cdrom
[*] go to C:/ prompt
[*] type C: format /all
[*] When the cleansing is through,
[*] Roll a fatty, and type D:
[*] Then type setup.exe (d:/setup.exe)

This is the only restore feature I use..

Clean Install.

Wow Messiah...

This is going to be my first time and that's because I have no choice. Can I be given a few pointers? I'm going to install Windows XP Home Edition (full version) and am nervous about it. I'm pretty good with computers. Help people at work all day, but since it's my own home computer, i'm a little nervous. Would appreciate your help.

Microsoft 98 · Post by **Microsoft 98** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 4:25 pm

Once a month to format a computer is little bit way out of line, Maybe every 6 months but come on all you got to do is defrag your hard drive once every week or two.

thepieman · Post by **thepieman** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 5:05 pm

Solarus wrote:Wow Messiah...

This is going to be my first time and that's because I have no choice. Can I be given a few pointers? I'm going to install Windows XP Home Edition (full version) and am nervous about it. I'm pretty good with computers. Help people at work all day, but since it's my own home computer, i'm a little nervous. Would appreciate your help.

XP is simple to do. Boot with the CD in the drive...hit any key to boot with it.
F8 to agree to the user agreement...delete the existing partition, and then hit enter on the empy one you have created and install...its quite simple. Just make sure you have your Ethernet drivers handy in case you need to get internet access to download any other drivers before hand..Get Spybot, Adaware, spysweeper , spywareguard. spywareblaster, and an antivirus and then u can surf away

Pie

fastchevy · Post by **fastchevy** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 5:07 pm

Create an unattended install.
Start it and forget it

poolking · Post by **poolking** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 5:09 pm

So how many people failed to see the last post date of 15+ months ago before posting in here?

Or am I just being picky and obnoxious tonight.

fastchevy · Post by **fastchevy** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 5:16 pm

LOL I noticed, but since there were new responses I thought, what the hell...

thepieman · Post by **thepieman** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 5:20 pm

poolking wrote:So how many people failed to see the last post date of 15+ months ago before posting in here?

Or am I just being picky and obnoxious tonight.

Yeah but Solarus must have came in off a search engine and made a post so I figured Id reply to help out

Pie

Solarus · Post by **Solarus** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 5:33 pm

thepieman wrote:Yeah but Solarus must have came in off a search engine and made a post so I figured Id reply to help out

Pie

Thanks Pie....I'm at a PC at work because I cannot access the internet at home and I was searching for help with reformatting hard drive and saw post. Did I upset anyone? If I did, my apologies, but I'm desperate here. I work at home also and I need my PC. I didn't bother too look at dates. I've never reformatted a hard drive before.

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 7:28 pm

Only when necessary.

thepieman · Post by **thepieman** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 5:15 am

Solarus wrote:Thanks Pie....I'm at a PC at work because I cannot access the internet at home and I was searching for help with reformatting hard drive and saw post. Did I upset anyone? If I did, my apologies, but I'm desperate here. I work at home also and I need my PC. I didn't bother too look at dates. I've never reformatted a hard drive before.

No not at all. Dont worry about it. If you need help feel free to PM me. Im a Tech with 15+ years experience...I can help you if needed.

Pie