Windows XP: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS?
- 8/21/09 2:39 PM
Formatting means removing problems
by tushargupta_b4u - 8/15/09 8:26 PM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Well,the main reason that people give advice for formatting hard drive and reinstalling windows OS is because after you format a hard disk all the problems that existed before in Windows are vanished.
Sometimes,such problems arise in Windows which can not be easily fixed or can be fixed only by professionals.So,it is best advice for common people.
But it is also not very good idea to format hard disk frequently as it can lead to creation of bad sector in hard disk which destroys it.So,prefer not formatting hard disk over small problems in Windows.The best solution other than formatting is Windows System Restore Feature which is hardly used by most people.
Why reformatting your hard drive and reinstall OS
by bajajanil - 8/15/09 9:47 PM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Before we come to reformating the hard drive
please create the parttions in your hard drive if you have not already done.
so that you dont have to format all the partitions
every time.
The reason you need to format the c drive regularly is becuse after some time you will notice that windows has become very slow and painful to work with.
this is because of the fact that a lot of virus attach them selves to the executable files.
To avoid formatting you c drive very often
avoid opening mails from un known persons
before you give your mail id to any one take his / her mail id and white list it.
dont down load any attachments unless the person who has sent you the file has told you what he is sending
at times even he does not know that his pc is sending virus to all this mail ids without his knowledge
dont visit any unknow web site
first try out the sites you hear about from an untrusted source from a cyper cafe.
and finally send me a mail at netpc@in.com and i will give you a pc with out a hard disc which will address your problem.
anil bajaj
9341211280
bangalore
India
Don't they have antivirus software in Bangalore?
by rbsjrx - 8/16/09 6:07 AM In reply to: Why reformatting your hard drive and reinstall OS by bajajanilThe subject says it all...
Solution for the reason behind reformatting the hard drive
by sumanbhagat7 - 8/15/09 9:49 PM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There might be bad sectors in your hard drives. Try removing them. The other problem can be there might be some data read error from your windows xp cd while installation. Try installing windows xp from a fresh cd. Last but not the least, install genuine windows and activate the windows update service from the control panel.
The Last Resort
by alswilling - 8/21/09 2:00 PM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Formatting the hard drive and completely reinstalling the operating system (OS) should always be the <b>last resort</b> and reserved for the absolutely worst case scenarios.
It's consuming, sometimes frustrating, and almost always results in lost data, even if you think you've backed up everything to an external source. Hopefully you are backing up your personal files anyway, just in case it comes to this, but inevitably something is missed.
If service packs and updates have been installed, they will also have to be reinstalled, because you are essentially starting with a clean slate. Also, any software that is not part of the OS will have to be reinstalled. Then there's the task of moving your personal files and folders back to the hard drive.
I have run my computer for more than five years now, and I have never once had to format the hard drive and reinstall the OS.
<b>There are times</b> when taking such drastic measures are justified, though. If you have a <b>Worm or virus infection that won't go away</b> that is eating up your OS, then formating and reinstalling the OS may be your only option. In such a case, the anti-virus software may be disabled or corrupted by the virus or Worm, and you may not be able to get online to download and run the appropriate virus or Worm remover application; and your CD or DVD drive may not function correctly to enable you to run a disk containing such utilities, assuming that you have identified the little monster. In such an instance, formatting the hard drive and reinstalling everything is the only option left to you.
<b>Best way to avoid reinfection</b>
In the above scenario, the best rule of thumb is to format your hard drive, shut down the computer altogether for 10 minutes or so to clear the RAM and get rid of any copies that the Worm or virus may have written of itself to the RAM, and then completely reinstall the operating system using a clean copy. Some say that one to two minutes shutdown time is sufficient, but RAM can sometimes take longer than that to clear. To be on the safe side, it wouldn't hurt to also unplug the power cord from the computer during that time. It is important to clear the RAM before reinstalling the operating system. That is the chief means by which an infection reinfects the operating system, even one where the hard drive has been formatted and the OS reinstalled.
Note that I indicated that a "clean" copy of the OS be installed. Some machines, like HP for example, partition off part of the hard drive and put the system recovery and restore files on that small partition instead of providing CDs for that purpose. That is actually a dangerous way to do it; because if the OS is infected when the user sets a restore point, a copy of that infection is saved on that partition when the restore point is set. Then, every time the user restores his system or formats and reinstalls the operating system, he is reinstalling the same infection. Some machines, such as the Compaq Presario, give the user the option of making a set of recovery CDs when the machine is first set up. I advise doing that. That way, there is a clean OS to reinstall on the computer if it ever comes to that.
<b>Another reason for formatting and reinstalling the OS</b> is wear and tear on certain files due to installation, uninstallation of software, deleting important files by the user just because he or she doesn't know their function, or damage caused by frequent virus infections that get past the anti-virus program. After infection, if the virus infects certain dll or exe files, those files are often damaged during the anti-virus's "cleaning" process or deleted altogether. The absence of those files may not be immediately noticeable, but their absence can cause errors in the OS, failure of some applications to launch or function properly, and even BSOD (blue screen of death) errors. In such cases, knowing which files need to be replaced can be difficult if not impossible.
Sometimes checking the system for errors (double-click My Computer, right click the C:\ drive, click Properties, click the Tools tab, click on the "check now" button under the "Error-checking" option, check "Automatically fix file system errors" option, click Start, reboot if necessary) will identify and repair any file system errors. If that doesn't resolve the problem, then formatting and reinstalling the OS will be necessary in order to restore the OS to optimal performance.
<b>The other reason to format and reinstall an OS</b> is if the hard drive fails and a new hard drive has to be installed. That is one scenario where you will definitely need disks containing a clean copy of the OS, because the hard disk that contains the system restore partition is no longer functional. Disks containing the OS are the only way that the OS can be reinstalled.
<b>Other than the circumstances given here</b>, formatting and reinstalling the is not OS necessary. It is not a good practice to do it on a regularly scheduled basis. As stated previously, it should be seen as strictly a last resort.
<b>Things that you should do regularly</b> to keep your system optimized are checking the system for errors and defragmenting your hard drive. Set up a schedule based on how much you use your machine and how much you install and uninstall software, images, sound files, multimedia files, document files, etc. Machines that are used heavily should be defragmented at least every two weeks. Always check the system for errors first, then defragment the hard drive.
<b>Another good habit</b> would be to empty your browser's cache at least once a day, or set up your browser so it will clear the cache and delete cookies every time you shut down the browser. A crowded cache can affect browsing and make it seem like something is wrong when it really isn't.
<b>An Ounce of Prevention</b>
If you use the system file checker and defrag regularly, keep your anti-virus program up to date and running, and keep your registry optimized, there should be no reason why you should have to format your hard drive and reinstall the OS.
<b>The registry can make or break a computer</b>--literally--but I will recommend a good little program that will safely allow you to delete registry entries that refer to software, images, or other items that have been uninstalled or deleted from the computer. This is not an advertisement. I am making this recommendation based on my own experience. Ashampoo's WinOptimizer is a safe utility to use. It shows a list of registry entries that can be deleted, the former locations of the files corresponding to the registry entries, and the reason why each registry entry can and should be deleted. Before deleting any registry entries, WinOptimizer will make a backup copy of the registry before deleting any entries. You also have the option of unchecking any item that you are not comfortable deleting.
So, should you format and reinstall the OS regularly? NO
Should you regularly check for system file errors, defrag, and optimize the registry? YES
Message was edited by: admin to edit typo in post pointed out by author
TYPO CORRECTION
by alswilling - 8/15/09 11:00 PM In reply to: The Last Resort by alswillingPlease forgive the typo in the following paragraph of my post:
<b>Other than the circumstances given here</b>, formatting and reinstalling the OS necessary.
It should read as follows:
<b>Other than the circumstances given here</b>, formatting and reinstalling the OS is not necessary.
Sorry!
Re-Formatting hard drive
by puppadave - 8/16/09 7:08 AM In reply to: TYPO CORRECTION by alswillingStephanie...
If you have read all of the replies and posting from all 141, you have probably noted that some are from guys and gals that are expert in the IT field and some are just plain ordinary "advanced" users...
It is sometimes tough to do the advanced procedures for the average user and most procedures require a degree of "self-confidence" in your own abilities....Before you persue any type of repair(s) and/or re-formatting, consider doing some of the simple things.... (to answer the poster who ask "where did I lean this procedure?" to my suggestion of cleaning the dat file... been in computers only since 1982 and learned a few things the hard way....
GOOD LUCK Stephanie... let US all know how you make out.... puppadave
Foolishness
by scaramouche - 8/16/09 5:21 PM In reply to: TYPO CORRECTION by alswillingYou seem to have come to the same conclusion that I have. My Blog reads: "There is no good reason for reformatting your hard drive unless there is a problem that cannot otherwise be resolved." I have much to my schagrin seen so called Technicians (COMPtia) reformat customers drive and thereby losing a great deal of data because they are either to lazy or simply don't know how to solve the problem. I'm lost without spell check. Sorry.
Regards,
Tom
There is no valid reason! Do I win the Million Dollars?
by warpete - 8/16/09 8:07 AM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
This is a Pet Peeve of mine Stephanie. I don't know if you are married--or have a boyfriend, but if he started developing physical problems or just generally slowed down a bit, would you replace him with a new one? Maybe that's a bad example. Anyway, reinstallation of any Operating System should only be performed as a last resort, but it doesn't have to be painful. You SHOULD have a full System backup available should corruption occur (Virus, sneaky Malware etc.). But, in the absense of corruption, generally your Hardware would be the prime suspect causing problems. When advised to reinstall, I would not really consider that to be "BAD" advice, just the unknowledgable "easy way out", which could actually lead to more frustration. "Bad" advice would be if you were told to hit your PC with a hammer a few times to shock it back to life as we all did with our old TV's. If you have a hardware problem--and no Operating System, it's tough to diagnose without another working system. I can understand if you are dead in the water, but if not, you first need to hone your diagnostic skills a bit. Something so simple as one memory module working its way loose in the socket due to constant heating and cooling could be all that is wrong. (Usually it IS memory that causes the problems, by the way). You may have corrupted drivers because you didn't uninstall the old drivers before installing the new ones. Let me keep this short---if it ain't broken---don't ever try to fix it. There are scenarios where a reinstall is needed, but as a general rule you must exhaust all other possibilities first. Every six months---NO. Every year--NO. Every other year---NO. Your PC can get PMS also--just try to be compassionate, understanding, don't throw anything and you will get through it!
It's a Geek Thing
by JohnBoy1012 - 8/16/09 10:39 AM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Reformatting your hard drive and re-installing Windows simply let's you return your computer to the state it was when you bought it - a clean slate so to speak. The problem with this advice is that most of the time the people asking for help haven't the slightest idea of how to perform these tasks. There is far more to the re-install process than simply inserting and running your Windows restore disk. The majority of people giving this advice are mostly "computer geeks" who have gone through the process many times and, I believe, are trying to show off their computer prowess more than actually help. Before I ever tried the reformat/restore process on my main home computer I ran through it several times on older less used computers I had laying around. This gave me a rough idea of how difficult it might be. Even with this preparation problems arose. It is not something that should be attempted by a first timer on a computer with valuable data on it. The people that give this advice should also be willing to leave an email address, and be willing to guide the questioner through every step and pitfall involved, otherwise the the advice is useless.
It's about keeping tidy and orderly.
by Guerito - 8/16/09 11:02 AM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Is your room or your house a mess? Do you forget where you put things or when you put away your things there's not enough room so you end up storing half your collection of stuff in one place and the other half somewhere else so when you want to find something you end up looking in two places instead of one?
Much like a hard drive your room or your house needs order to run smoothly. A hard drive, believe it or not, is not efficient at storing your files and folders in an orderly manner. It works on the 'first come, first served (or saved in this case)'. The first files that you install on your hard drive, more than likely your OS, will be stored contiguously (one after the other) on your hard drive starting at the middle of the disc and writing out (if you've ever seen a partially burnt CDR/DVDR then you can see where the files end). Let's say the next files you save are some photos. The hard drive saves these files directly after the OS files ends. Then you install some device drivers, like before the hard drive continues saving in odrer. Now for some reason you delete all the photos you put on before. The space on the hard drive that held the photos, say it is 10mb, is now available to save to. Now you decide to save 20mb of documents to your drive. The drive saves to the first available free space, which was where your photos were, but it's not big enough, so it saves 10mb of documents there, skips over the drivers you installed and saves the other 10mb where the drivers files end. Your drive and your files are now fragmented (scatterd) across your drive. That was one example, now imagine how many times you delete, copy, cut, paste and install programs and files. It gets quite messy after a while and this slows down your computer because the hard drive read/write head is constantly skipping around the drive looking for the files it needs to run your programs. Defragmenting your drive will solve this, no need to reinstall.
When you get progams errors, blue screens and/or freezes on more than one application then it might be due to your registry being corrupted. Like previously installing and unistalling programs causes defragmentation but more seriously uninstalled programs can leave behind traces of themselves in the registry. Maybe just a 'thumbs file' or a 'icon image' but sometimes they are not completely deleted from the registry. Akmost all computers have remnants of old programs listed in their registry which are dormant. The worst case scenario is when your computer won't boot because a registry file is missing or corrupt. How did that happen? You didn't delete it! Imagine you had a list of 100 things to check everyday you woke up some were important others weren't worth the effort because they yeilded no result but you had to do them anyway and every week the list increased by 1 and decreased by 1 that's what the registry does everytime you BOOT. So the registry is a very delicate list and with just one item nissing or one item corrupt, your computer could fail.
Registry 'fixers/defrags/cures' do a spmewhat reasonable job of sorting the useless from the useful files but they may not detect a file that is shared by more than one application and delete it.
You can't beat a reinstall to put your computer back into pristine order and speed. Even if you have no problems I would suggest every six months a clean reinstall is a good thing just like cleaning your room.
It all depends...
by Zouch - 8/16/09 12:32 PM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Stephanie,
Good question. I'm actually a believer in reinstalling Windows periodically, usually once a year or so, though not on all my machines. I'm an independent IT consultant and I do use a couple of machines to check out solutions I'm recommending to my clients. Those machines typically get new software installed and de-installed frequently during this process. If the de-installation was clean, i.e. restored my machine to the state it was in before I installed a particular package, there would be less need for a periodic re-load. But it doesn't work that way! Very few packages completely clean up after themselves, they leave directories and registry entries lying around and over time, the machine just clogs up with all this junk. A re-install will clear all of this up.
But in more normal usage, if you aren't installing new stuff, you might expect that your machine will stay relatively clean. While it's better than a frequently changing machine, you are still actually installing new "stuff" - patches and new releases from various manufacturers, anti-malware signatures, etc. And your running programs will be keeping log files and building caches and other working files that don't get cleaned up. This can affect the performance and stability of your system - a reload will clear up all this junk, just like a spring clean in your house.
Ah, you say but if you do this, won't the programs just re-install all their patches and undo all your good work? Well, no, not entirely. Let's take Internet Explorer as an example (as they say in the music halls - Please! Sorry, couldn't resist!). Anyway, Microsoft have a policy of patching security holes and continuously improving their products - how well they succeed is a debate for another day. But if you watch your monthly patches (you do patch regularly, don't you?) you will see that IE gets a patch or two most months. Then every few months, MS will issue a consolidated update that rolls up all the previous patches, to improve stability. But, their regular patch policy maintains the ability to roll back patches, should there be a conflict with some other component pf your system. To that end, they maintain a copy of all these patch uninstallers - if you turn on "show system files" and use Windows Explorer to look at the Windows folder, you will see a whole list of entries at the top in blue - these are the patch files we are talking about. Just look, do NOT touch unless you really know what you are doing! Now, back to our IE example, if you reload your system, when the patches are installed only the last cumulative patch and anything subsequent to it will be reinstalled, eliminating the earlier obsolete files.
Other reasons you might want to reload your system is because you have some kind of bug which is crashing the system and there comes a point when continuing to try to fix the problem becomes just too time consuming and a reload may be a quicker solution. Similarly, a virus or Trojan may prove impossible to get rid of by any other means. Or, of course, your hard disk may be showing signs of approaching end of life and you may decide to take the opportunity to start afresh.
I also reload for major updates, such as service packs but in this case, I slipstream the new SP on to my distribution disk so I start with a really clean system without leftover junk from the earlier release. This is for more advanced users and beyond today's discussion.
So, if a reload offers these possibilities for a clean up, why don't we all do it regularly? Simple answer - it is NOT a trivial exercise. You have to extract ALL of your user data, including that from all the files that Windows and other applications store on your hard drive; you have to preserve all your system settings; you then have to wipe your disk clean; finally, you need to reload Windows AND all your applications, after which you can re-import your system settings and all your user data. If you were to try this for the first time, think in terms of a couple of days, rather than hours - with practice, you can get it down to a couple of hours or so. Not for the faint hearted!
One way to speed things u a bit in some circumstances is the method I use on my test machines. When I've loaded up and tested a clean system, complete with all my standard applications, before I do anything else, I take a full disk image dump of the system - I use Acronis TrueImage for this but there are many options. Then, when I've completed testing my client's application set, I just wipe the disk and reload my image dump to give me a clean system without the hassle of re-installing all the applications.
On the other hand, I have a friend, who never reloaded his system once in the five years between buying and scrapping it. It did slow down and become a tad unstable towards the end but it worked for him. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Hope that helps.
Reformatting Your Hard Drive
by scaramouche - 8/16/09 1:01 PM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There is no good reason for reformatting your hard drive unless there is a problem that cannot otherwise be resolved.
Spring Cleaning
by pacdave - 8/16/09 1:02 PM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Remember when you first moved into your house? Nothing was there... clean. Then you moved in. Over the years, you kept bringing things in storing stuff under the bed, in the drawers, in the closet. Before long, it's hard to find things. There's dust. There's things you don't need anymore. A good spring cleaning (and a yard sale) brings things back under control. Your computer is the same one. Remember when you got it out of the box and fired it up? Fast! Then you installed programs, files, pictures. Then you deleted items... maybe moved things around. You did product updates, went online, maybe downloaded (not intentionally) spyware, malware, and oh no, viruses. Reformatting your hard drive and performing a fresh Windows install (and product updates) brings your computer back to the fresh out of the box feel. Cleans out all the dust, bad stuff and leftover program remnants and gives you a chance to reinstall only what you use. How often? I don't go by a set schedule. It depends on how much stuff you have on your computer and how poor your computer's performance is. Big thing to remember before reformatting... do you have your program installation disks and drivers? Do you need to save files, emails, photos, bookmarks, etc? Once you reformat, everything is gone. Get an external drive and save what you need before starting. Have fun!! It takes a while when starting over but in the end, it's worth it!!
Reinstalling windows xp
by fanor20 - 8/16/09 4:30 PM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Bob T ask about how to fix hes blue screen computer.I had the same problem with one of my computers and the only way to fix it was changing the memory modules. Probably one of the modules is bad
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
