Walt
Well-Known Member
and boy it's a right royal pain in the a$$. Downloading all the latest drivers again , reinstalling all my application, reconfiguring my network, firewall, virus settings, email, IE etc etc, the list goes on, and on.
The reason I needed to do it was that Windows was just getting so gummed up with old drivers, conflicting drivers, expired shareware, old apps, etc that I was in need of wiping the slate clean and starting afresh.
And despite the work, now and again it is nice to start off with a pristine OS and move forward with all the garbage gone.
I have a 60 Gb HDD, and what I should have done when I first got it, and have subsequently done, is partition it so that the OS sits on its own partition separate from applications and data. So now I have a 12 Gb partition for Windows XP, a 20 Gb partition for applications, and a 24 Gb partition for data.
In the future when I feel the need to reformat and reinstall Windows again I will only need to do the 12 Gb partition, and all my applications and data will be preserved. Life will be so much simpler.
So what am I trying to say? Well if you have the diskspace, partition your HDD like I have mine to simplify matters. And secondly, plan on reinstalling your OS every 6 months or so to get rid of the clutter which inevitably builds up and slowly makes your system unstable.
Despite the work, its worth it ...
Maybe someone else has some general tips for computer management (as there seems to have been a number of OS/stability related questions here recently).
The reason I needed to do it was that Windows was just getting so gummed up with old drivers, conflicting drivers, expired shareware, old apps, etc that I was in need of wiping the slate clean and starting afresh.
And despite the work, now and again it is nice to start off with a pristine OS and move forward with all the garbage gone.
I have a 60 Gb HDD, and what I should have done when I first got it, and have subsequently done, is partition it so that the OS sits on its own partition separate from applications and data. So now I have a 12 Gb partition for Windows XP, a 20 Gb partition for applications, and a 24 Gb partition for data.
In the future when I feel the need to reformat and reinstall Windows again I will only need to do the 12 Gb partition, and all my applications and data will be preserved. Life will be so much simpler.
So what am I trying to say? Well if you have the diskspace, partition your HDD like I have mine to simplify matters. And secondly, plan on reinstalling your OS every 6 months or so to get rid of the clutter which inevitably builds up and slowly makes your system unstable.
Despite the work, its worth it ...
Maybe someone else has some general tips for computer management (as there seems to have been a number of OS/stability related questions here recently).