Reformat.... or just System Restore???

[RuffRyder88]

I am buying a new graphics card and ram, so I thought I would do a fresh install of XP to get the maximum performance.

However, I can't really be bothered...

So I was thinking of just doinga system restore.

I made a restore point just after I had installed windows+ essential programs the first time round, so could i just restore that?

Would this give me the same performance as actually doing a clean install of windows?

regards,
bob.

[bubba gump]

IT should be fine if you just add the vid card, but im not sure about RAM

I would NEVER take a system restore over a reformat, but I imagine you would be able to just do a reformat and a backup of everything...thats what I would do but im not sure if it is necesary.

And until you install the drivers and stuff, the boot times would probably be a noticeable amount faster, but not too much of a system improvement.

[mayagrafix]

I agree. A new video card should not requiere a full re-install. If it was a new MoBo, then I would go with the OS re-instal "de-rigour".

NOTE: if you are using ATI, full un-install of ATI CATALYST control panel and drivers is highly recomended!

[DaddyB]

I think you should just uninstall the old vid card's drivers, turn the system off and pop the new card in. It's either that or a format.

System restore works pretty well for going back short amounts of time but going back any serious amount of time can cause some issues. If you do a restore be prepared to have everything that you have downloaded since the restore point was made deleted, all files that you have made/changed may be deleted/restored (ie. word, jpeg, avi). It can really make a mess of your system... I have seen it duplicate and rename large folders (ie. if you installed a patch to UT2K3 it may duplicate the entire folder and name it UT2K3(1) and then restore the original to the UT2K3 folder).

So if you use system restore back up all your important stuff first and be prepared to do a format just in case. I would highly reccomend you just uninstall the old drivers and live with it for now if you don't want to format.

[RuffRyder88]

i think i'll just reformat...

The reason being i am now using an nvidia card, and going to an ati, and don't want any of the problems that i have heard of.

[Audioaficionado]

It's too drastic to reformat every time there's a problem.

There's apps that will eradicate you nVidia drivers and then you just install the ATI drivers.

A bit of googling will get you all you need including the latest ATI drivers.

[Redstone]

There's apps that will eradicate you nVidia drivers and then you just install the ATI drivers.

Driver Cleaner 1.5

[fernis]

I think you will be better off reformating your drive and starting from scratch. You will likely see better performance from your new card too.

[Audioaficionado]

Originally posted by fernis
I think you will be better off reformating your drive and starting from scratch. You will likely see better performance from your new card too.

You don't need to reformat to fix this.

[SafirXP]

hell... i reformat, reinstall & stuff every 5/6 weeks. keep my OS smooth & fast that way! takes up half a day easily with all the stuff that i've to install. now you know what i'll suggest you... :)

[Audioaficionado]

Originally posted by SafirXP
hell... i reformat, reinstall & stuff every 5/6 weeks. keep my OS smooth & fast that way! takes up half a day easily with all the stuff that i've to install. now you know what i'll suggest you... :)

LOL, who am I to dictate what you guys do for a hobby :p

[Grande Juan]

I don't think that you need to, just make sure the old drivers are completly gone. I have been running winxp since the first day you could buy it, without doing a reinstall, runs smooth and fast as ever. Have changed cpus, willy to a northie, gpus MX 400 to a ti4600 and added memory also two different NICs. Not to mention numerous overclocking mishaps. And sp1 on top of all that. No noticable slowness or any other problems yet.

[cmcquistion]

Originally posted by Audioaficionado


You don't need to reformat to fix this.

I'm with you. There is NO need to reformat, just for this.

Of course, if you just want to reformat, that is your preregoative, but it is absolutely NOT NECESSARY.

Going from Nvidia to ATI is no big deal. Uninstall your Nvidia drivers, then download and run detonator destroyer. If you really want to be thorough, you can run RegCleaner after that.

Then, install your new video card and it's new (probably buggy, because they're ATI) drivers.