How often does one have to format?

cryptic1

cryptic1

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Hello chaps :),

It's rather strange that I haven't formatted and reinstalled my OS since September 2010. I remember I used to attempt once every two months with XP and Vista was almost every month. Win 7 is just a pleasure and I wondered if you guys formatted and re-installed your OS in the last six months? Is there any need with Win 7?

I noticed an old thread http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/116301-What-is-your-virtual-machines-setup which has refreshed my interest hence my question. I want to clear up some space and want to dabble in VMs again.
 
If you PC is running fine, don't format. I used to do it regularly with XP, but very seldom with Windows 7. I formatted my Media Center the other day only because I wanted to install Windows 7 with SP1. Until then, it was running for over a year.
 
... about every six months, but at least once a year. I upgrade my hard drives often enough to warrant it.
 
Huh? Why would you want to do that? Except when changing drives or motherboard. XP sits on my drive and occasionally I would boot into it, the rest of the time I use Linux, but to format a drive what for? Except of course for the first time.
 
I never format unless I'm installing onto a new hdd. My current Vista machine has been going for a few years on its current drive. I sometimes defragment if I'm feeling generous. I do run Spinrite in maintenance mode though about twice a year - mainly to refresh the sectors and ensure the drive is in a good condition.

I do not understand the reasons given by folk who reformat their drives and reinstall their OS, unless they use Win XP of course. That OS was horrible.
 
Well Ive got XP, works well enough installed it 2 years after it came out on a 20gig drive which was big at the time.. have not reinstalled since.
 
I had an installation of xp with every app under the sun and that was a bit screwed. But normal PC's with just the few apps you use etc I've never found a need to reformat xp. Haven't been using 7 long enough to tell yet.
 
cryptic1 said:
It's rather strange that I haven't formatted and reinstalled my OS since September 2010. I remember I used to attempt once every two months with XP and Vista was almost every month. Win 7 is just a pleasure and I wondered if you guys formatted and re-installed your OS in the last six months? Is there any need with Win 7?
Click to expand...

I used to reinstall Windows XP & Vista at least every 6 months. Just to speed it up again. But Windows 7 seems to stay fast, so I haven't reinstalled since September 2010. Really nice to finally have a decent OS.
 
Viva said:
I used to reinstall Windows XP & Vista at least every 6 months. Just to speed it up again. But Windows 7 seems to stay fast, so I haven't reinstalled since September 2010. Really nice to finally have a decent OS.
Click to expand...

Ja, that was supposed to be the philosophy, clean up lost registry entries, orphaned DLL files, residue of uninstalled programs, etc. etc.
But it does not seem as necessary though now with Win 7.
 
Whenever it becomes necessary & I have the time. Scheduling it with a calendar is a dubious approach at best.
 
When everyone had/still used Windows XP one would format every few months like 3, or 4 this is cause the windows started to go rotten cause of all the bugs and untidiness. But now with Windows 7 there really isn't a need to do regular formatting, cause Windows 7 so mush easier to maintain and keep clean unlike Windows XP. So these days you only really format if you have a damn good reason to, otherwise leave it be, why fix something that isn't broken?
 
I format once every four years or so, around the time I upgrade.
 
I'll probably format when Win 8 beta comes out. Even then I'd try to simply install it on my current Linux partition, without breaking my current Win 7 install.
 
With windows 95, 98 and ME, every 2nd month or so.

XP lasted 6 months or so at a time.
Windows 7 has lasted a year without a format so far.

With OS X Tiger, that lasted about a year, but Leopard was not very stable, and to reinstall a few times over a year, Snow Leopard wasn't much better.

Windows 7 is superior to Leopard in pretty much every way.
 
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