how often (if at all) do you guys re-install the os?
i usually start fresh every 3-6 months.
i usually start fresh every 3-6 months.
After I switched from Windows ME, I was reinstalling Windows 2000 Professional (obtained from school) about every 6 months until March 2003. After that, I managed to keep it working until September 2007 when I put on Windows XP (also obtained from school).
I do it whenever something catastrophic happens, which is usually once per year. I've had my latest computer for 4.5 years now, and I've reinstalled XP 5-7 times including the initial reinstall over Dell's.
Whenever I change my mobo. Just reinstalled; I've grown numb to the process of installing the appropriate programs, updates & service packs.
I USED to have to always re-install Win2K, back when I had a faulty HDD (which funnily turned out to be an ATA cable w/ a cut line)
I USED to have to always re-install Win2K, back when I had a faulty HDD (which funnily turned out to be an ATA cable w/ a cut line)
about 6 years now I would hate to have to start over and am too lazy to backup so whenever a problem pops up I have to fix it
peppers wrote:
about 6 years now I would hate to have to start over and am too lazy to backup
Just toss your nesdev folder on a CD every month.
Never.
kyuusaku wrote:
I do it whenever something catastrophic happens, which is usually once per year.
Same here. I don't ever bother getting rid of viruses, spyware, etc... I just reinstall the whole thing whenever shit hapens.
To make things real easy, nothing in my "C" drive is important. All my downloads, documents and work are in another partition. And since drive "C" only holds installed software, I can really get rid of it's contents at anytime. In all PC's I set up I use this smaller HD partition for the OS.
I never needed to. I switched systems and once just a new mainboard and it was always fine with DOS, Win3.11 and XP. Win98 was not liking it though.
tokumaru wrote:
kyuusaku wrote:
I do it whenever something catastrophic happens, which is usually once per year.
Same here. I don't ever bother getting rid of viruses, spyware, etc... I just reinstall the whole thing whenever shit hapens.
To make things real easy, nothing in my "C" drive is important. All my downloads, documents and work are in another partition. And since drive "C" only holds installed software, I can really get rid of it's contents at anytime. In all PC's I set up I use this smaller HD partition for the OS.
thats exactly what i do. so technically i don't start completely fresh.
When I needed to reinstall, I just overwritten the previous install & copy teh contents of the previous My Documents folder. Always worked out fine...
I reinstall it every 2 years, or when the things are annoying or f*ckingly slow.
I think it was 2yrs since last time, my HDD just died and I lost everything on it. So I had to get a new one and re-install windows.
But it doesn't happen to often.
But it doesn't happen to often.
I went through DOS->Windows 3.11->95->98SE--along with several major hardware upgrades--without a complete reinstall on my other computer, which is still happily chugging away as a file server. There are still DLLs and random 16-bit apps from 1992 in my System folder!
It's not that hard to maintain a healthy Windows installation. You just need to be careful about what you install, make occasional backups, and pick through the registry for useless crap every now and then.
It's not that hard to maintain a healthy Windows installation. You just need to be careful about what you install, make occasional backups, and pick through the registry for useless crap every now and then.
NotTheCommonDose wrote:
Never.
Ditto. Well almost.
I've had this computer for about 8-9 years now... I think I've installed Win2k a total of 3 times. Once when I first got it, once when I did a reformat (don't remember why I did it though, was so long ago), and one final time when my HD died and I had to get a new one.
Reinstalling every 3-6 months seems pretty extreme. I don't even think I defrag that often.
I just recently used a BartPE disk to chkdsk and jkdefrag a never-reinstalled Windows 98 system from before 2000. It took about 36 hours to do(defrag quit being effective long ago), but the OS is still chugging away, even if somewhat broken and unstable. Works well enough to let another person browse the internet, which is why it's still around.
I never ever had to do a thing such as re-installing the OS with Windows.