noob:should pc be reformated once in awhile

[Mahdrek]

ok i've had my pc for about 2.5 years now
is it long overdue to be reformated or do they even have to be?

im not having any problems but ive played installed lots of different games and such over the years i figure there's a lot of stuff that only a reforamt can find and clean up

thanx for any advice

 

[blackjack]

IF ITS NOT BROKEN DONT FIX IT
Why format your pc if its working ok ,if you want to clean it out abit, use ccleaner or defragment your hard drive after you have removed unnecessary programs,.

 

[Ocelot]

Aye, what blackjack said^^^

 

[Celegorm]

i've heard both sides of this argement, and both have a good point. I tend to agree with "if its not broke, don't fix it" yet at the same time, so much un-needed crap accumulates durring normal use that some people see a great performance boost when they reformat.

personally, i'd leave it up to you. Just keep in mind, if you ahve Itunes, de-authorise the music accounts on there, and back up everything if you decide to do the reformat.

 

[muz]

i've heard both sides of this argement, and both have a good point. I tend to agree with "if its not broke, don't fix it" yet at the same time, so much un-needed crap accumulates durring normal use that some people see a great performance boost when they reformat.

personally, i'd leave it up to you. Just keep in mind, if you ahve Itunes, de-authorise the music accounts on there, and back up everything if you decide to do the reformat.

yeah there is two sides to this argument , some ppl say if it aint broke dont fix it which i agree with cos i mean you know all you need to do is remove unwanted programes and defragment the hard drve and other such maintenance tasks

other people would say all the rubbish that acumulates needs to removed and also reformatting will ensure you have no virusses although antivirus should also solve this

i would say if your system starts runing slower than usual do all the normal maintenance tasks like defrag and cleanup and if they dont wokr then reformat but dont forget backup your important files

 

[Tommy Boy]

Personally I have had a few problems that the only way I have figured to fix them is to do a reformat and I've done it about 3 or 4 times. Right now my current XP install is coming up on 2 years old and my pc seems to be running like a top so I don't think I'll be reformatting any time soon.

BTW, if you want to see the date that windows was installed on your machine, just go to the c:\windows folder and right click it and click properties, then look at the date it was created and that will be the date that windows was installed.

 

[Mahdrek]

ty all, i was for some reason thinking i was going to be told I should reformat at least once a year
yes i do the normal maintenance and run a couple programs to help too

TY

 

[dude_se]

i usually format when i notice my pc is getting slower, if it fcuks up or if i havent done it in a while.

 

[blackjack]

Personally I have had a few problems that the only way I have figured to fix them is to do a reformat and I've done it about 3 or 4 times. Right now my current XP install is coming up on 2 years old and my pc seems to be running like a top so I don't think I'll be reformatting any time soon.

BTW, if you want to see the date that windows was installed on your machine, just go to the c:\windows folder and right click it and click properties, then look at the date it was created and that will be the date that windows was installed.

If you have many problems with a pc and refomat alot, you should get an image software so when you do a clean install put the bare essentials back on like av/firewall printers scanners etc you can then ghost your OS and put it on a partition or disc. this way it would only take you 5mins to go back to a stable OS, no hassle of reinstalling windows and all your programs as they will be already there.

 

[Äߧý∩†H♠H䎀]

I wouldn't bother doing a reformat unless things were getting really slow. Just remove all your unwanted programs and defrag. If there are alot of bad sectors and files that can't be moved maybe you should reformat the drive.