When to Format a Hard Drive

The easy way for me to handle this is to simply copy all pertinant info from the address book,favorites folder,and all data bases they may be using and all outlook express info ect ect! and i copy this info on to a dvd disk and can reinstall after i do a fresh install !:-)
Yes this is a little more time consuming but most people know it wasn’t easy to learn these little tricks of data saving techniecs. and are willing to pay me a few extra bucks for this simple data transfer knowledge:-)
But for the savy Muscle pc user’s there is allways the trusty built in windows XP file transfer wizard which i personally don’t want to trust
anybody up in redmond with my bread and butter so i have not tried it!.
Best of luck as with all windows adventures And we all love you Chris down here in wonderful Sunland CA.-¤¤ÑħT¥ÑõRM1¤¤-

The easy way for me to handle this is to simply copy all pertinant info from the address book,favorites folder,and all data bases they may be using and all outlook express info ect ect! and i copy this info on to a dvd disk and can reinstall after i do a fresh install !:-)
Yes this is a little more time consuming but most people know it wasn’t easy to learn these little tricks of data saving techniecs. and are willing to pay me a few extra bucks for this simple data transfer knowledge:-)
But for the savy Muscle pc user’s there is allways the trusty built in windows XP file transfer wizard which i personally don’t want to trust
anybody up in redmond with my bread and butter so i have not tried it!.
Best of luck as with all windows adventures And we all love you Chris down here in wonderful Sunland CA.-¤¤ÑħT¥ÑõRM1¤¤-

Depends on what you mean by `regularly’.
I suggest reformatting when you need to.

One way to make this a less tedious task is to get yourself in the mindset of knowing it will eventually happen. Here are a few suggestions:

* after a reinstall, make an image of your system so you can restore it if you need to. (Norton Ghost, et al)

* keep ALL DATA on a separate drive, or back up the data to a separate drive (you *are* backing up regularly, aren’t you?)

* use a more stable OS so you don’t have to regularly reformat (did someone say linux?)

* test questionable data or OSes in a separate environment, like a virtual machine or SandboxIE

* keep a list of vital software to reinstall, should you reformat

Depends on what you mean by `regularly’.
I suggest reformatting when you need to.

One way to make this a less tedious task is to get yourself in the mindset of knowing it will eventually happen. Here are a few suggestions:

* after a reinstall, make an image of your system so you can restore it if you need to. (Norton Ghost, et al)

* keep ALL DATA on a separate drive, or back up the data to a separate drive (you *are* backing up regularly, aren’t you?)

* use a more stable OS so you don’t have to regularly reformat (did someone say linux?)

* test questionable data or OSes in a separate environment, like a virtual machine or SandboxIE

* keep a list of vital software to reinstall, should you reformat

Comment on Reformatting Hard Drives for various reasons.

I have adopted a straightforward, but effective strategy to avoid the difficulties associated with hard drive crashes, contaminations and slow-downs.

I purchased a copy of Acronis True Image Home 10.0 backup software [$30 on a Club deal], a SATA-compatible USB external drive case with power supply [$35] (looking to a non-eide future), a couple of eide usb external drive cases with ps [$17 each], a $130 SATA HD, used some existing 40, 60 GB and 80 GB eide HD drives, and [1] cloned my active drive to one of the same size or larger [set that aside], and, [2] performed regular image, and incremenetal backups.

The clone worked fine. When disaster struck, I merely reformatted my drive, determined it was OK, and restored the latest backup from an Acronis backup set. It worked fine and was fast. The clone is still there in case my regular drive dies.

It is all simple enough for most relatively competent users to implement. No worries.

For most of the non-techie folks I’ve done computer work for, reformatting the drive is the only option. They’ve loaded up the machine with so much c**pware and other stuff that *fixing* their problematic computer is impossible.

BUT, given the issue of files it is essential that as much of C: be copied to a spare drive and kept for a while, so that any data missed can be recovered.

For most of the non-techie folks I’ve done computer work for, reformatting the drive is the only option. They’ve loaded up the machine with so much c**pware and other stuff that *fixing* their problematic computer is impossible.

BUT, given the issue of files it is essential that as much of C: be copied to a spare drive and kept for a while, so that any data missed can be recovered.

I’ve had problems with near crashes or total ones and have lost a lot of data. For one, how do I copy my favorites that are saved on AOL? also how do I copy sent mail that I saven on AOL? I’ve always had to start over. Thanks.
Eric

- Hey, did any of you try to use more disks? I partitioned my hard in two: C:\ with about 15GB, and D:\ all the rest. “My Documents”, temporary files, any “user data”, programs without install, is stored on D:\, so I can (and do) a Windows reinstall from scratch at least once a year. All I have to recover is a bunch of short-cuts…
- Also on D:\ I keep an image of a fresh install, just for an emergency case. I do this from 95 era; at my company (with 5000+ users) – this is the LAW, any real problem – just recover the OS from image and in 20 minutes you just go on…

- Well, I forget, but for any software outside of Microsoft, I like to try to crack the install so it will not be to much “connected” with Windows, I copy dll in same forder as exe… that finally it work just copying the folder. Then I place it on D:\…

- Well, I forget, but for any software outside of Microsoft, I like to try to crack the install so it will not be to much “connected” with Windows, I copy dll in same forder as exe… that finally it work just copying the folder. Then I place it on D:\…

- Me again… If I remember well, the ideea was from Linux; I still consider a separate partition for temporary files, but being a lazy guy, I’ll keep with just two partitions…

- Me again… If I remember well, the ideea was from Linux; I still consider a separate partition for temporary files, but being a lazy guy, I’ll keep with just two partitions…

I agree with the previous comments. Don’t keep vital info on C:drive. Use partitions. If C: crashes reinstall or simply put back from an image.

I agree with the previous comments. Don’t keep vital info on C:drive. Use partitions. If C: crashes reinstall or simply put back from an image.

I’m going to re-install soon as I suspect that there is a trojan on it and that like you said yourself chris I’m kinda a power user.

hi all does it hurt the hard drive to formatt it or does it slow down the computer performance? I have reformatted my driver 3 times is this enuf to damage the drive or make it slower or make performance slower?