Is formating the answer?

I believe that you need to figure out why it broke and fix it and I have been fixing computers for over twenty years. I cannot remember the last time formatted to fix one.

My current computer was originally an IBM Aptiva that I bought in 97. I updated it from Windows 95 to Windows 98. I then ghosted the drive to a bigger drive and put it on an Intel D850GB. After that I updated it to XP and moved all of the applications to a second drive without reinstalling them. I was able to do this because I took the time to understand the OS.

 

Formatting just makes things run so much better.
I take it one step further. I flash my BIOS before the format.
The SP2 CD is free form Microsoft. I keep my security apps and any other data on a DVD & also on a 1 gig GeekSquad flash drive.

Imaging is good. I preached Ghost or Drive Image years ago, now there are others that do just as well. This is good for Buisness's.

Today apps like Shadowuser (Shadowsurfer), Deepfreeze, VMWear ect are nice secuity apps for home users. Reboot and all is well.

The main reason I reformat is not because of some simple system file problems ect. I do it because now days alot of nasties are NOT detected and so you can go on all you want spending days trying to fix it when an hour reformat fixes it better. Now days with Dell, HP ect including restore CD's
it is a peice of cake for home users. Just put the CD in and reboot and off you go.

It always boils down to each their own.

Now days everybody uses kernel drivers in their security apps. It has become a cluster yea. All those poking around at the kernel level just cause problems for Windows. Soon we will see a firewall, spyware, AV all incorporated in to Windows. I guess this would be to best way since it all becomes nitted to the OS. It appears MS listens to it's users but also seems a bit behind the game.

Now go do the right thing!!! Order a XP2 Cd today


con

 

Those that used Windows 9x can remember all the corruption that was so common. This was because all programs could write to eachother's memory space, so after a given period of time of normal usage and apps that were not coded perfectly (what app is?) corruption that was beyond what could easily be fixed was inevitable. In the NT based versions (NT/2k/XP/2003), user mode apps can't do this, however anything in kernel mode can. Normally they make requests to eachother, but they still have this ability, so after using a ton of security apps you may be left with the same mess. In short, I have to second everything that Controller said.

To me this is not a black & white, yes or no, issue. The fact is that over the internet or phone it is very hard to see the bigger picture, and you never know what all the person has done with their computer. There are some problems that will reoccur in a short period of time after formatting, but there are other problems that will never be completely fixed without formatting. There are also times that there are so many problems that it is a far more efficient use of time to just reformat and move on than to try to fix every little problem (such cases are next to impossible to do by internet or phone.)

IMO, if you enjoy trying out many apps and playing with the system, and you do not have strong troubleshooting skills, you should be ready to format at any given time. It can be hard for even experienced pros to pin everything down at times, and at some point it will just become a good idea. Wait a couple years and reformat, even if you don't think you need to, and I can virtually guarantee you will be amazed at the difference in how much more smoothly your system works, including many little glitches you had simply learned to overlook.

Anyone with an interest in security should already have a good backup plan to minimize the hassle of reformatting anyway

 

Having had to start from scratch two times, one learns that back up is the key. This is one of the reasons I found an have stuck with Wilders. Embedded software would make me stop an think about reformatting, if one does not have a back up copy of all the programs it could be a real pain to get everything up an working again. To this day I have quiet a bit of freeware stuff installed on my machine because of having had to reformat. I completely lost quiet a few of the programs that came already installed on this machine, an no way to re obtain them with out having to pay again for the programs (some of them not so cheap either). Good security practices are essential also, and a balanced approach to this end is the best way to go in my opinion.

Thanks
Wildman

 

true, I used to backup always, use images from True Image and Ghost...lately that changed...Since two months now I expercience hardware problems like slowdowns, errors,... if I install/uninstall to much programs in Kernel Mode. Like now my computer is set up ok but I know if I uninstall Tiny Firewall to install Outpost then I'm screwed, my computer will be a lame duck and I get errors. add SafeNSec install and it's finished lol...

I am using firstdefence now and very happy with it...but once in three, four months I do a clean format from my system (while having all the rest backed up at a different place on a different harddisk and I just switch it and I prepare the other one again for the future ... that is working for some time now...

 

Having spent countless hours tracking relatively obscure issues for clients, format is now the second step of my second option - right after a complete backup. Option 1 is use NOD32 or Ad-Aware to clean as appropriate after a backup. If they fail to restore correct functionality then it's straight to the re-format booth for that system. Gremlins beware !!

 

Is formatting the answer? NO. A computer in a stable environment should never have to be reformatted, even windows.

That said there are conditions were a clean swipe may be needed. My personal PC for example. I constantly add and remove programs, I do a lot of beta testing and also do a lot of playing around, occasionally I break my system. Also every now and then, things just get to bogged down. Uninstall routines are most inefficient and the junk factor just goes to high.

Time to start fresh. Most of the time it is a wipe (format) and restore operation; but occasionally I load the OS, and then start the process of reinstalling my software. It's really not a difficult process, I've got all the updates on CD and reinstalling the programs is a piece of cake. Any data file or configuration setup that can be restored are safely backup so I can copy them back over to the fresh install.

Another instance were a format is extremely useful is in a corporate environment. Particularly when roaming profiles are used. Rather then spend hours trying to troubleshoot the problem on a workstation. Wipe the workstation, reload the OS, start a script that automatically configures the workstation with all the required applications.

 

I hardly ever format,
I just boot in Linux and re-image my drive, and within 12 minutes. I have my Windows installations with everything like programs etc. back again!