How often do you reinstall?

[Seal]

Well guys? How often do you reinstall? Post your OS too.

Seal

[mbentley]

windows xp professional - only when necessary (probably averages to about once a year) once i get so much crap accumulated...

windows 2000 professional - never

[stompah]

I just buy a new HD when windows clogs up.

[kaltag]

every5-6 months or unless I fudge something up :) xp pro/98

[KiKaL]

When ever I feel like my comp is full of useless crap....usually when I have 20gig left of my 75gig drive. It just annoys me when it gets close to full. especiall with 10gigs left. I love having a nice fresh install of Win XP with just the main programs I use.

[JimmyG]

Since I got W2K and have started backing up with Norton Ghost to a second hard drive, I have never reinstalled and don't plan to.

[Johnny Knoxville]

every week

[phungilax]

Originally posted by Johnny Knoxville
every week

wow. thats really often. i have a lot of webpage and multimedia programs (premire, flash, photoshop, etc.) so i dont' like to reinstall often. going through all that backup and reinstallation is hell, even with a firewire drive.

i do it about twice a year. once the speed of my computer gets boggled down with junk.

[BJM]

I used to reinstall about every other monty with win98.I haven't reinstalled once with xp pro!Been close to a year now.

[JigPu]

I used to format/reinstall every 6 months or so. But now that the computer has died, I've got XP on both systems and can't really tell how often I'm going to reinstall them.

Probably gonna keep the 6 mo. average though :D
JigPu

[Seal]

Hmmmm i think its about time for a reinstall for me, its been about 3 months since i last reinstalled, i use it alot and i miss the feeling of a fresh reinstall, nothing beats it! Quick boot ups, quick shut downs and a quick running computer in general. Although technically i never really ahve to reinstall i do just because i want my system running 100% all the time.

Also it gets rid of the useless crap i dont use, and never will!

Seal

[Titan386]

My OSes are in the sig, windows I rarely have a need to reinstall, the only time I've done it so far was to redo my partition scheme. But I forsee having to do it on a regular basis, as it seems to be getting a little bogged down over time.

My linux reinstalls only happen directly after I make a very stupid and destructive mistake :) Four times and counting...

[rUfUnKy]

WinXP PRo- about every 3 months ..I dont bother defraging, I just reformat ..Though it takes me a whole day of installing and tweaking to get everything back the way I like it :D

[inspectorhammer]

i usually end up reinstalling every 5 or 6 months becuase somethings gets all corrupted and never works right agian. Im about to right now since drivers dont like it when you upgrade to win98SE then uninstall upgrade cuz its a bad copy :)

Cant overclock stabilly if stock doesnt run stable!

[jspam]

I usually don't reinstall, that takes way to long. I made a Norton Ghost image when XP SP1 came out. Ghosting only takes a few minutes, and I'm back up. All that's left is to install new updates and any software that is not on the image. I also usually make a new image.

[ArBiTaL 24]

On Win98 it was about every 3 weeks, but now on XP pro about every 2-3 months. I backup to CD-RW about every 2 weeks.

[Seal]

I ghost too but i find that i cant successfully ghost and restore a windows xp image (win wont load for some reason) so what i usually do is install everything perfectly on windows me and ghost it, when i restore all i have to do is put win xp on install and everythings done.

[Beast Of Blight]

I normally have to reinstall four or five times a month.

to the point to where I have bought a seperate Harddrive to keep my info on.

For some reason, My windows develops the constant fetish for crashing with errors against Kernal32. My day is not complete unless I get four Kernal32 errors a day. :|


Win98

[John1975]

3 times a year. once before school starts, once after first semister during christmas and once at the start of summer.

Win 98 (came with my comp which I got 2 weeks after bill gates crashed the win 98 machine on national TV.)

[CPFitz14]

Urge to o/c tends to corrupt my hard drive a lot:D. I haven't reinstalled w2k in the last month, but I installed 4 times in one week before that. Twice in one day even:D

-CPFitz-

[Bull]

I used to reinstall every month but now only if my hard drive bites the dust which did once. I have win xp home. I keep my hard drive cleaned up manually. I have too much stuff on my computer to reload. I haven't had any problems with it since July when my hard drive bit the dust.

[deathstar13]

win 98se once a week or upto 4 times in one day.
win2kpro- on raid0 197fsb.its been on there 3 weeks and not one problem.self heals :) i could just kiss bill for this.98se was almost bad enough to keep me from high fsb due to so many hdd corruptions.

[tsintse]

win2k @ work... a yr now with no reinstall, a couple service packs though :)

winxpro @ home ... every month or two after I screw something up and can't get it back to just the way i like it :P

[Captain Slug]

Win98SE

It needs a yearly formatting. I backup anything I want to keep onto a second hard drive then format the main drive. (that or I just install a new drive as main and slowly suck what I want off the old one).

[ThePerfectCore]

Backup is a bitch? Reinstalling takes forever? You people must be doing something wrong...

And whenever I think it needs it, which could vary anywhere from three weeks to two months. Never been longer than three months, though.

[DDR-PIII]

Hmmm about everythime it starts to get slow, i just think it's easyer than removing stuff and tweakning so i just format and install ):

XP Pro

[Oni]

Win2k Professsional. Whenever I screw something up very badly, or have a big hardware change.

[The VTech]

WinXP Pro without SP1
Whenever I notice small glitches or if I totally jack something up from trying to be a programmer for MSFT.

[Seal]

how do you lot back up? do you just drag and drop files or do you use some sort of program?

[mbentley]

Originally posted by ThePerfectCore
Backup is a bitch? Reinstalling takes forever? You people must be doing something wrong...

And whenever I think it needs it, which could vary anywhere from three weeks to two months. Never been longer than three months, though.

it really all just depends on how much stuff you have. i have a lot of programs that i have to download and i can't actually save the install files. for example, i don't think that i can save microsoft visual studio.net because i get it from school and it has a special download app. i don't always save my installation files simply because i don't want them taking up hard drive space. it can take me about a full weekend to get a computer to back how i want it to be. i am just picky like that...

[Frodo Baggins]

Originally posted by stompah
I just buy a new HD when windows clogs up.

lol, BS

I prolly do it once every year. For me, I have aton of stuff I don't like to lose (and with my 56k mdem it's hard to get it back) so I have to organisze what i want backed up, take out my HD, bring it to Yodum's house then get him to burn it on a cd (don't have a burner) then I go home, einstall the HD, then bam!

[AMD'er]

I do it when I notice something is wrong or when I add new major hardware like video card or something like that...I usually try to do so every 2 or 3 months..

I hate to do it but its a necessary process...but it so much eaiser when you have a 2 or 3 HD setup where your OS is the only thing on one drive and all your programs, music, movies, etc...are on a seperate drive....

NOW THE BIG QUESTION IS....HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?

for me about 25 mins...

**EDIT***
Not tring to steal thread but I was wondering about the lenght of time it takes people to reinstall...its a way that helps determine the speed of your comptuer.

[DAGO]

When I used to run Win98SE I would reinstall several times a year, but with WinXP I don't really see myself reinstalling except in the case of disaster...This OS is stable and trouble-free in comparison to 95/98, so hopefully NEVER...:D

[DocClock aka MadClocker]

Primary computer: Abit be6,PIII 600e@800,AIW128, win2k since it came out...upgraded to XP 3mo's ago..never had to reinstall.

Gaming rig: (the one in my sig) w98se averages to 1 1/2 years between format.

Someone questioned how long it takes to reinstall, that all depends on the speed of your equipment, and the amount of frills you load on.

I've never timed it(the reinstall), but it always seems to take forever, and I always need to d'l a file b4 it's finished..but I have been writing a list of things to have ready and to do b4 the install that helps make it smoother...like copying the .cab files to the hdd 1st...never know when a comp will loose the cd drive in the middle of an install (It happened to me).

[Seal]

Hmm how long it takes.... Its bit wierd for me. i use norton ghost. I've never got it to boot up from a ghost image if its xp so what i do is:

Fresh format (30mins)
Ghost restore to perfect install of windows me+all drivers (5mins)
Install XP (bout 25mins)

So in total if i was installing just the OS would take bout 30mins to xp.

(im well proud of my reinstall speed)

Realistically it takes about a day though because i have to do all my backups (at least 1hr) and put all my progs like office and my games back on etc....

Seal

[deRusett]

I reinstall every 3 months or so, OR when ever I go on a mass tweeking fest and fingure it would be easier to reinstall the fix


Its easier to format after every semester then find everything I made and then delete it, and fix any thing I may have tweeked to get a project to work.

I use WIndows XP Pro on my main PC and Win2K on my other one, well win2k or linux depending on what I need it for

[EmTSea19]

Oops, reinstall?

My bad.

This is my first computer and I've had it about 5 years, and I have never reinstalled Windows. I have Windows 98. I don't even know if I have a disk to do it. If it came with my Gateway, then I have it.

I am building a new computer, but I am giving this one to my Mom. I am having some problems with it lately, I wonder if it's due to never reinstalling? Hhhhmmmmm......

[Decaf]

twice a year seems right, never scheduled though, something always just seems to happen, like the time the wife dropped the laptop, doh.

[ronin1967]

I have 2 copies of Windows XP(Home Edition & Pro-Corporate Version). I have installed XP Home at least 40 times. Pro only twice. There were a few days where I have done 6+ installs, but I have issues...

[DocClock aka MadClocker]

Ok, Just after posting to this thread, I borked my win98 instalation on my laptop with some old dos sram card, and could not boot except by step by step confirmation...it would hang trying to I.D. the pc cards wether they were in or not, so I upgraded to win2k.
I purchased the laptop on 9-12-98, and upgraded yesterday, so that os lasted for over 4 yrs, and if I hadn't borked it, I think it could have lasted another two. I haven't benched it yet, but it still takes forever to load. I expect this install to last at least another 4+ yrs....now if I can only find enough hdd space to install the service packs

[UnWishedLegacy]

With Win M.E (hold the laughter) I re-install on average every 6months.

I had my system (in sig) for just over a year and I messed something up trying to clean a virus- but I ended up corrupting my Explorer file (the whole GUI proggy that is the basis of the damn Windows "experience"- down the drain).

since then I had to re-install once and I THINK (I'm not sure as I have an OEM version and no manuals) I found a rescue feature as it fixed my problems (I tried 98Lite- didn't like the problems it gave me and didn't fix the things I wanted it to).

But if I don't need to re-install before Easter- I'd be very surprised. (but by then I might have a copy of Win2k that i've seen sitting all alone and sad looking at work :D )

[itizme]

I imagine once to twice a year, but the drive I have the OS on is not the drive I downlaod or store anything I need on so for me I just do it whenever I feel like it (after trying some failed microsoft beta driver most likely) and smile with the gains a fresh drive accomplishes.
OS=XP-Pro
c drive = 20gig for OS/programs/swap file. Never even half full
d drive = 80 gig for backup/downloads/needed files/etc
Absolutely love two drives, but still burn my d drive files on occasion just in case!

[EmTSea19]

How do you re-install? Do you get rid of your current copy, then re-install or???

I'm not doing anything to this computer until I have the one I am building up and working. When it is, I am going to tweak this one.

[subconcept]

Windows Xp Pro
I format and reinstall every 2 months i'd say I like keeping it clean and not cluttered with junk.

All ym good files and programs/games are on another partition and my mp3s are on another drive.

So theres nothing to worry about backing up, quick and easy. Plus xp with a quick format only takes about 20 min, then your back in windows installing drives and stuff.

[john240sx]

i restore the image i made at least once a month. in about 2 weeks i have to sit through the install process again though, going from Nvidia to ATI and i don't want any trace of Nvidia drivers.

oh yeah, XP Pro.

[XyKo]

LOL with my old computer, I have to reinstall every 3-5 months. it just ****es me off how i usually download a bunch of crap and my computer get so slow.

[XyKo]

oops forgot OS window xp pro

[BGPatterson]

Windows 2000 pro

I do it every couple of months, or if windows gets hooped for some reason. Otherwise i have on occasion not had to do it for like six months or more, unlike my old win98 box.

[wheatbix]

I'll probably format the windows partition about once a year, and delete everything about once every two years. Seems like a long time, but I try to keep my computers clean

[TimWest]

Win 98 about once a year, not that I schedule it or anything.

I haven't done a XP one yet.... I bought a retail machine in a moment of desperation last year. The idea of using a recovery CD scares me to death......lol

[Cjwinnit]

Holy thread resurrection! :)

Yeah, I had my OS on a hdd, put it in another computer a year ago, then another a few months ago. Still haven't re-installed.

[Seal]

hehe, ne1 on linux? how often are your reinstalls?

[diggingforgold]

Only when something messes up or the speed isnt what it should be. There is no set time, it's just whenever it decides to screw up.

Formatting and installing XP on my raid setup is a pain in the butt. I have no floppy, but windows insists that I install the raid drivers from a floppy disk. So I have to hang an old floppy out of my computer and shuffle through a munch of disks. Then I have to tell it a million times to USE THE FILES ON THE DISK, NOT FILES INCLUDED WITH XP.

It takes almost an entire day to format and reinstall on this rig. And when things go wrong, they really go wrong. That's why I don't like raid. It's fast and all, but there's too much work involved when troubleshooting or formatting and reinstalling.

[mbentley]

hmm... well for my laptop, i have reinstalled 4 times in the past week :rolleyes: i first reinstalled windows 2000 just because it was starting to run out of hard drive space (i only have 3 gb) and then i decided to put win2k server (which finally installed, yay!) and then i got a smart failure error... :mad: so i then check the drive and it found 7 bad clusters and it blocked them off and then i reinstalled win2k server and it seems to be running fine for now...

[clash]

I use Linux, i never reinstall.....