Do you ever reinstall your OS to start fresh?

[ED209]

I only ever re install if the system starts to slow down or I get issues with the OS itself nothing else can fix.

still running a clean install from W10 when it was released

 

[clockwork.satan]

I've got in the habit of doing a clean install, then taking a backup of it while it's in a nice, completely clean state. That way, I can do a restore without having to go through the faff of reinstalling Windows and all of the drivers and stuff.

 

[Cycrow]

I used to reinstall quite often (at least a few times a year)

but now with SSD's and modern OS, its not as necessary, so now i only reinstall if i have a major upgrade (like a new motherboard)

 

[subbytna]

I reinstall windows fresh every 6 months. Keeps the pc tidy and fast. Just use Norton Ghost to reimage the drive and you can do a fresh install in 10 mins or less

 

[pastymuncher]

I only do a clean install these days on a platform change (cpu & motherboard). Any other reason I really don't see the point with a good OS and SSD's.

 

[gradyhawks]

I used to reinstall at the first spot of bother... now days I just live with it. Usually do it now with a change of hardware.

 

[smilertoo]

At least once a year.

 

[CK61938]

In the 6 and a half years that I have had my two PC's, never had to reinstall the OS unless they were new OSes. So went from Vista to 7 within that time. Only recently have I had to do fresh installs as I have since upgraded my PC's. Still with Win7 as I am not yet ready to move to Win10. When I do, it will be fresh installs. Both machines have SSDs for the OS. Tho the gaming machine now has two extra SSDs for all my games. 1.5TB in total. The other PC has an extra 1TB SSD and 2x 3TB HDDs.

 

[Woden]

Using A fresh windows install is like sleeping in clean sheets. You can't beat it.

 

[BluD]

Yeah idd. The best thing about a fresh install is the boot time, feels like an ipad when you turn it on and a few seconds later your in windows. Seeems like no matter how many times you clean up your registry and delete unused programs, it never goes back to that speed.

 

[Grimley]

Nope the only time I'll format is if something major goes wrong. I'm not one for having masses of stuff installed anyway and I've got most of my stuff on separate drives.

This. Well, since I started using SSD's & started keeping my files on a separate HD anyway. Reason? if an SSD goes that's it, no chance of backing up while you may have some chance of doing so with an HDD (I backup my files on a regular basis anyway)

Besides, the W7 discs I have right now are now 5 years old, it takes an age to download & install all the updates.

I will get round to installing W10 though (when I can be arsed to)

 

[Deathjester]

I've just upgraded to Win 10, once I've used it for a bit I'll do a full clean re-install and go from there.

I like to do it reasonably often, however I won't clear down my separate drives.

 

[MooMoo444]

I find Windows will hide stuff here there and bloody everywhere, so you end up with not much space left on C after a while. A fresh install fixes that right up.

 

[Sparx]

+1 to most people here, before with mech HDDs I would reinstall maybe once a year or so. Since I've had an SSD the last circa 3 years, I've maybe reinstalled once and that was when I moved to the Win10 Preview at the start of the year. SSDs are a fantastic upgrade!

 

[Teaf]

Reinstalled once in 5 years and that was due to my SSD dying. I don't even bother reinstalling if I'm installing a new motherboard anymore. SSD's are amazing, and as long as you just take care of your OS with uninstalling rubbish, cleaning the registry and what not then I don't really see a need to a "just because" reinstall anymore. Sure back in Windows XP days you kinda had to after 6 months, but these days definitely not.

 

[Luckystrike123]

In all the years I have had a PC I have not done a re-install unless the OS has corrupted.

I defrag the system every so often and keep on top of start up programs so I have never seen the need to do a fresh install.

 

[chippy08]

I must be the one who does it the most some times weekly thats what you get when children use your pc and not there own.

 

[Freddie1980]

When I was running XP and a mechanical hard drive wiping the hard drive and reformatting was the only way of keeping your system running quickly (maybe 2x a year). Only first ever build I bought 2x 60Gb hard drives and but a copy of XP on both that way I had a spare if one install went wrong and I had to copy the files over. These days I just backup to an external drive and flatten if required which is hardly ever.

For those of you worried about SSD life and reformatting you should read this and stop worrying. SSD Endurance Experiment.

 

[Grey M@a]

Same as yourself OP, when I built a new PC I would be testing things out and installing programs and utilities etc. Once testing was done and I knew what I wanted to run and the tweaks I would put in place I would do a fresh install and then keep things clean and only install what I was using.

Now I tend to build it and get it sorted, fresh install and then with SSD's etc like others have said, you don't really notice the system bog down as much. With SSD's the only time I rebuilt in the last 18 months was due to moving to windows 10 and reinstalling Windows once the licence was swapped over from Win 8.1.

Other than that, if I swap motherboards/cpu or a HD fails then I will always do a clean build, saves faffing with driver issues etc When I was younger and in uni etc I had time to waste on spending days tweaking everything, now I get it up and running and then watch what I am installing on the systems.

Use the laptop for pretty much everything now and then the gaming PC has the bare essentials on it and then the games. Laptop is imaged so if I kill it, takes 20 minutes to get the image back on

 

[V F]

In all the years I have had a PC I have not done a re-install unless the OS has corrupted.

I defrag the system every so often and keep on top of start up programs so I have never seen the need to do a fresh install.

I once remember going 6 years and it was still healthy. Even transferring installs to new motherboard/cpu and such. As long as the previous drivers were removed and still never had issues.