exocet_cm
In memory of dadkins
Premium
join:2003-03-23
New Orleans, LA
clubs:  
 ·Cox HSI
·Suddenlink
 ·Cingular Wireless
 ·AT&T Southeast
·Charter Pipeline
| reply to lmacmil
Re: [XPHome] How often do you do a clean install?
I used to do re-installs about every year or year 1/2 which always came with a new hard drive.
Ever since I put a 500gb HDD in my laptop I haven't reinstalled Windows XP Pro/Vista (its a dual boot) in a little over a year and have no plans on reinstalling the OS' unless I put a bigger HDD in my lappy. Even when I get Windows 7 I plan on tri-booting everything on this one drive without reinstalling the other OS'.
--
"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons..." - T.S Eliot
"I have often regretted my speech, never my silence." - Publilius Syrus
Ma blog: »www.johndball.com |
|
Dryden
join:2002-07-26
Bensenville, IL | reply to Exidor
Used to be yearly with Win98 and previous - then less frequently with XP. Since moving to Vista on realease day one I've reinstalled one time and that was because I hosed the machine. |
|
Exidor
Premium
join:2001-05-04
Brampton, ON | reply to lmacmil
Original install 1/09/03...no noticeable smells.  |
|
dave
Premium,MVM
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio
·Verizon Online DSL
 ·Verizon FIOS
| reply to r81984
said by r81984  :said by dave :said by r81984 :Why would you waste your time doing all that?? So that the registry will be 'fresh' of course. There's nothing so off-putting as a registry that has a, um, stale odor that even its best friends won't tell it about. Are you serious??? Let's see: vague allusions to personal hygiene products in the context of a tree-structured disk database. What are the chances I'm being serious? |
|
Rxdoxx
Premium,Mod
join:2000-11-03
Middle River, MD
clubs:
·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast
Host:
Software
Washington & Balti..
| reply to lmacmil
Installed 3/21/05 XP Pro
I've tweaked things so heavy that I dread ever having to go through, screenshot is just an example of a small area worked on.
I delete, I use registry cleaners, anything I can to keep the system running smoothly. Never reinstalled short of a total meltdown.
--
Was a Cruise Fanatic, one cruise on Princess cured me. Bleah |
|
jabarnut
Light Years Away
Premium,MVM
join:2005-01-22
Galaxy M31 | reply to r81984
Heh...only if you are. |
|
r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium
join:2001-11-14
St John'S, NL
 ·magicjack.com
·Cox HSI
·Insight Communicat..
·AT&T Midwest
| reply to jabarnut
said by jabarnut :said by r81984 : Are you serious??? lol....are you serious about dave being serious??? Are YOU serious???
--
For those of you playing a drinking game.... MY FRIENDS! |
|
jabarnut
Light Years Away
Premium,MVM
join:2005-01-22
Galaxy M31
| reply to r81984
said by r81984 : Are you serious??? lol....are you serious about dave being serious???
--
I had a life once.....now I have a Computer and a Modem. |
|
dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
1 edit | reply to dave
I think it will be ok if I leave these for now |
said by dave :said by r81984 :Why would you waste your time doing all that?? So that the registry will be 'fresh' of course. There's nothing so off-putting as a registry that has a, um, stale odor that even its best friends won't tell it about. Nothing like running a reg cleaner either. 
--
Think outside the Fox... Opera |
|
r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium
join:2001-11-14
St John'S, NL
·magicjack.com
·Cox HSI
·Insight Communicat..
·AT&T Midwest
| reply to dave
said by dave :said by r81984 :Why would you waste your time doing all that?? So that the registry will be 'fresh' of course. There's nothing so off-putting as a registry that has a, um, stale odor that even its best friends won't tell it about. Are you serious???
Why are people are so paranoid about what they do not understand?
--
For those of you playing a drinking game.... MY FRIENDS! |
|
dave
Premium,MVM
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio
·Verizon Online DSL
·Verizon FIOS
| reply to r81984
said by r81984 :Why would you waste your time doing all that?? So that the registry will be 'fresh' of course.
There's nothing so off-putting as a registry that has a, um, stale odor that even its best friends won't tell it about. |
|
r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium
join:2001-11-14
St John'S, NL
·magicjack.com
·Cox HSI
·Insight Communicat..
·AT&T Midwest
| reply to KB24
said by KB24 :
Usually I do it yearly.
It would take about 5 hours to do everything. Backing up your hard drive to external drive will take an hour...thats about 50G or so worth of files. Actual installation is 30 to 45 minutes...driver installation is another 20 minutes. Applications about half an hour...or install by demand. Then putting back your 50G is another 1 hour...then customizing it like it use to be another 15 minutes.
It's okay because I usually leave the OS installation and the backing up of files and putting it back. So I'm only in front of the computer for a total of 1.5 hours.
This will clean all those dll's you don't need and registry will be fresh. Also you don't need to look for those applications you don't need anymore or plain useless and uninstall it one by one.
Why would you waste your time doing all that???
--
For those of you playing a drinking game.... MY FRIENDS! |
|
burner50
Pinlifter
Premium,VIP
join:2002-06-05
EN22wm | reply to lmacmil
every 12-18mo no matter what, every 60 days on my wifes computer... If my wife didnt use my computers i would probably not have to do it at all. |
|
dave
Premium,MVM
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio
·Verizon Online DSL
·Verizon FIOS
2 edits | reply to Wolfie00
I meant that the overall Windows NT 5.0 project was apparently a disaster area, not that the software that was eventually released was a disaster area (apart from the conversion to a stupid marketing-driven naming convention, namely "Windows 2000").
By 'disaster', I'm talking about promised features being dropped, the whole thing about this being the version planned for integration with the consumer OS (which is why they renamed it, bah!) and then it wasn't. Not to mention the schedule slips. I think there was even a development reset in Windows 2000, the same way there was reported to be one in Vista.
Alas, it was a long time ago in software-years, and I have forgotten the events that were at the time burned into my brain (as a developer eagerly awaiting the death of Windows 9x, a clear case where one should be careful what one wishes for in case it comes true). |
|
mikefxu
join:2004-10-05
Titusville, FL
| reply to lmacmil
For both work workstation and home laptop, every 6-9 months. I use to run from OS upgrades now I try them out when they are beta. My XPS M140/Inspiron 630M came with XP, then ran Vista, and now running Windows 7. Supposedly it is impossible to run Windows 7 on the Intel 915 chipset but after a 1 or 2 hours of monkeying around I got it working. I like tinkering and when I really screw things up its easier to do a reinstall most the time, since I have few necessary programs.
--
6 Wireless Workstations: WildBlue Satellite:WildBlue-1 Gateway:Laredo Beam:123 on 1.5Mbps/256Kbps plan at Knob Noster, Missouri.
5 Wireless Workstations: WildBlue Beam: 32 on 1.0Mbps/200Kbps plan at Pueblo Pintado, New Mexico. |
|
ultracooldave
@verizon.net
| reply to lmacmil
I use acronis imaging for 17 partitions on 8 computers-could not live without it!
I generally create a small partition (50gig) on which the main programs and OS resides, any data goes on other partitions. This way, should I want to do a "clean install" the size is small and to restore an image only takes a few minutes.
I usually have one image of just the initial install, another image of the usual main programs and another image of the whole OS partition which is updated every week or so. Anything really important like my ms money back-up I keep on an ext. harddrive.
The whole idea of imaging is no matter what happens to your OS partition-virus, registry problem, new prog or update problem, harddrive fail-you are in a position to quickly restore without actually going through the actual install/activation of each and every program and setting. |
|
louist
And So It Goes
Premium
join:2001-12-01
Oakland Gardens, NY | reply to lmacmil
I image all XP machines and find that I need to refresh systems about ever 18 months on average.
HOWEVER: I have 3 Vista machines that have never needed such treatment. Working fine even after as much as 18 months. |
|
Tyreman
join:2002-10-08
1 edit | reply to Wolfie00
XP actually is still pretty popular around.
Lot of businesss use it and home consumers.
Its been a real hanger on.
--
Southern Ontario,Canada |
|
Tyreman
join:2002-10-08
| reply to lmacmil
Using Acronis here with Vista 32 so I just load another image.
In the old days if doing a lot of programs and uninstalling on say 98 then reformat once a year maybe.
I may have hosed it once or twice and had to do it sooner i forget now
I didn't have Acronis then
When I ran XP (I still have it loaded on another drive to my current setup) the first load of XP I tortured it to see what it would do then reformatted again in a I think about 2 months
I then started using Acronis.
--
Southern Ontario,Canada |
|
benc
Premium
join:2007-06-17
Glen Carbon, IL
·Charter Pipeline
·Future Nine Corpor..
·Callcentric
·AT&T Midwest
| reply to lmacmil
Usually, I wait until I figure that everything breaks. I keep the data I want to keep on a second hard drive, both because it makes installing the OS easier (a special backup isn't necessary), and because in some cases the performance is probably better.
Although generally speaking, years can pass before I do an OS reinstall.
I did perform an install back in February, but that was because I replaced the mobo, CPU, RAM, Video Card, Sound Card, and Power Supply. That and because of the amount of RAM, I had to switch to XP-64 (since I didn't want to do Vista).
Other than that, I probably wouldn't have performed the reinstall.
To test or use other OSes, I just use Virtualbox. If I make a huge mistake, then no big deal. I wipe out the virtual PC and no harm done.
On this note, I used to know a guy that performed a reinstall every six months, and he used Linux. That sounds a bit excessive I think, given the fact that it involves a lot of work and of course you aren't paid to do it. |
|
