Hi all,
I have noticed a noticeable slowing of my computer over the last year or so and was wondering how often you all reformat? I have a friend who says he reformats his about every year just to keep things fresh and Im just wondering if thats really necessary?

I have an external hard drive which would make backing up my files easy but have never reformatted so wondering if thats really the way to go.

Is this the best way to get my computer back up to speed?

If anyone has any suggestions Id appreciate it.

Thanks

Hello,

I use my computer pretty heavily I have 3 jobs: 1. Tech support for http://www.thehosted.com 2. Web designer for a local company and 3. Freelance web designer http://www.the-pixel.com. I have 2 internal drives one is 250 GB and the other is 320 GB. I also have 2 external drives 1 is 160 GB the other is 250 GB. I format my computer about ever 6 to 8 months if not sooner. All I do is put all my important information either on my internal 320 GB or on one of my external harddrives. This makes my format go fast and pain free. Then once the format is completed I have all my important files and software setup files. Setting my computer up the way it was before the format goes faster then you might think.

The reason why your computer is slow is maybe you need to upgrade. I have 2 GB with a Duo Core 2.0 processor. Another reason could be you have numerous virus or spyware. You could have to many program starting up when your computer starts up such as iPod or Zune software (if you have them) that you dont need. A good way to check out what programs start when your computer starts up is "Start > Run > msconfig > Startup Tab". This displays ALL the programs that startup when your computer starts up. I would suggest if you dont know what they do don't disable them. I dont want you coming back and blaming me for your computer messing up LoL. I hope I was helpful I know my post got a bit long and I'm sure by now people have stop reading it. If you are to this point thank you for listening to me go on and on.

formating can be very easy

1. Save files externally
2. Enter BIOS (f2 or whatever your key is)
3. Turn off all Start Up items besides CD DRIVE (look for the "boot menu")
4. Enter Xp disc .
5. Locate the partition that is full, and direct windows to Format it.
6. Install fresh copy of Windows Xp (or whatever)
7. Update all drivers/programs


I do this every 6 months to a year and it really helps refresh speed. It sounds harder than it is, if you just follow the steps it is simple.

What pixel said about start up programs is good advice too, but I suggest reformatting for real improvement.

Oh, I would format also but some people really really don't like to format and will do ANYTHING in order to avoid it. I don't think its that hard its one of those things the more you do it the easier it becomes for you.

Use disk defragmentation method rather than formatting .

Easy and effective to speed up the drivers .

When you work on your system for a long time, some memory locations loss its address and system is not recognized these bad sector. So So reformatting is necessary in 6 to 8 month. We also use the disk fragmentation instead of reformatting.

I don't think that often formatting of your computer will get rid the slowing problem of it, you may use disk fragmentation like what they say than reformatting it!

^You're sayomg that fragmenting the drive will improve speed, but formatting the entire disc and freshly installing will not

I think what John is saying is that if he saves everything on another drive, reformats and then puts everything back on it he might not solve the problem. Why? because something he is doing may be causing the original slow down. If he is infected and just puts it back on...what was the point. If he allows everything to start-up again, what was the point... See where I am going with this. Sometimes it is best to learn how to take care of your pc rather than just swipe it clean every time you run into trouble.

^How often do you think it is the files you store (mp3s,pdfs, Secure programs etc) that slow down the computer? Hardly ever. Slow downs occur over time with the growth of file bits, cookies, misc data, the process of installing, uninstalling and of course spy ware. Also if you fill up the drive or run too many processes with little memory. You can maintain your Pc's health daily, but overall formatting is a good practice.

Not mentioned above is spyware or other background programs that take up processor time.

I have two hard drives on my pc's. I keep all data including email, mydocs, etc on drive 2. I do a new install of the os on disk 1 including formating. I add in my programs. Then I do a disk image using Norton Ghost 2003. I name it image-july1708 or whatever.

Doing this, once a year or more often you can do a restore. It takes you back to the way your computer was on july 17 in this case without disturbing any data. You then need to do windows updates and install any new programs or changes you made in the last year. Then I do another backup.

This gets rid of any spyware, virus's, background programs you don't want such as yahoo messenger (just an example, my wife alway sticks it on my pc). You could do this in conjunction with formating. I'm not sure if that would do any good. I always see dramatic improvements in speed when I do this. The nice thing is the restore is just a couple of clicks. Updating Windows is the most time consuming part.

It is actually very common for spyware and viruses to be sitting in user files. Your isp discs are full of spyware. Actually depending on where he bought his computer and what brand, it \may have came with spyware. Doesn't Dell charge like $49.something to remove the spyware they install on their systems. I suppose it is just personal preference on my part. I see infected computers all day long, the best option is to teach the person how to take care of the problem rather than temporarily ignore it. Technicians have become lazy and resort to the "let's swipe it" solution. I am definitely not saying that it is a bad practice to do so ever so often. I just wanted to reinforce that it is not the solution to an underlying problem.

reformatting is good but not always the best answer if your computer is emnsley slow its a definate

My suggestion would be to open your task manager (Ctrl - Alt - Delete) and post a screenshot.. if we see your processes running and memory usage, we might be able to tell you what is slowing it down

Also what are your computer specs? Ram/processor/size of hard drive?

i used to reformat my pc everytime i found it slow i don't how many months/years it is..but first I save all of my files in D drive..

Originally Posted by jv17

i used to reformat my pc everytime i found it slow i don't how many months/years it is..but first I save all of my files in D drive..

you do not need to format your pc to be fast. try fixing your registry..and remove some startup objects. this will save you more time

I don't re-format my drive unless I'm forced to (crash or some other disaster). It's just not necessary for me. While I use my machine pretty heavily, it's not as simple as reformatting the drive - it's the DAYS it takes to reset my computer to exactly the way I want it and reinstalling a ton of software, and that's not even taking into account the hours and hours it takes just to reapply endless patches to WinXp !! It just takes more time than it's worth. My machine isn't dragging, no errors, so no logical reason for me to reformat.

Bdevil,

Here are a number of tools you can use to optimize performance on your computer.

First, clean out junk files and temporary files using a program such as CCleaner (www.ccleaner.com). I also use another app called Tuneup Utilities (www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities) which can clean up files and junk registry entries.

Run a full virus/spyware scan to detect and remove any malicious software you may have. Since no one tool is ever 100% effective, I'll usually run deep scans for two or more programs to be safe. Two tools I encourage you to try are a free trial of VIPRE (www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Home-Home-Office/VIPRE) and SpyBot (www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html).

Once you've removed the malicious software and the temporary files and junk, run a disk defrag on your hard drive. Use a third-party defrag app such as UltimateDefrag (www.disktrix.com/UDDescription.htm) to do this. UltimateDefrag is fast, and has a feature to consolidate the data on your hard drive. It will improve the speed at which your files and programs are accessed.

Tuneup Utilities also has a feature to defrag your registry, which you may also want to, depending on how many junk entries were found and removed before. Defragging your registry will require a reboot.

Also, click on Start > Run, and type in "msconfig", and hit enter. Then click on the "Startup" tab. Go through this list, and uncheck programs that you do not need to start up automatically when your computer boots up (there will probably be a fair few). This will dramatically increase the speed at which your computer boots up.

Hope that helps!

I format my hard drive 4 times a year. It's better to reformat your hard drive because you can remove unimportant files including non-usable system files. If you would like to speed up your PC, purchase some windows tweaking tools.