How often do people reinstall their operating system

About 3 years install on one Linux box, and 1 year on another, reboot every 3 months or so...

Vista has been twice in as many months

I re-format a lot of OTHER peoples machines, make em back all their stuff up etc. so they either:

a) Stop filling it full of crap and learn how to look after it

b) find someone else to fix it.
 
Never if I could get away with it.
Make an image as soon as windows is installed and drivers set up, if your machine breaks totally or you fancy a fresh start, use that instead of watching windows embarass etself again.Then make another one every now and then, and use that to unf*** anything you do wrong on a day to day basis.

Obv only applies to MS stuff. You don't re-install linux, why would you, it doesn't bloat and doesn't use a registry to mess up.
 
I usually reinstall with every new bit of hardware whether it be mobo, cpu or case fan ;) :D

I've got a slipstreamed XP disc with some of the crap cut out that reduces install times and has all the MS updates on. I keep windows on C: then have firefox and thunderbird profiles on D: along with My Documents, Steam and other games. Programs are installed on C: but I have a copy of the original exe's in E: to save time downloading. Latest drivers are also kept on E: for reinstalls. The whole process is over in a couple of hours and important stuff like emails and documents are exactly the same between installations ie. a complete disorganised mess! :p

Music, movies and other "special interest" material ;) kept on media server available to all computers in the house as mapped drives.
 
Everyone saying you keep the installers and drivers lying around etc... How do you always have the latest versions? Because i update programs as use goes along and my original installers are always a fair few months or a year behind what i would be using if i wasn't formatting...
 
LeperousDust said:
Everyone saying you keep the installers and drivers lying around etc... How do you always have the latest versions? Because i update programs as use goes along and my original installers are always a fair few months or a year behind what i would be using if i wasn't formatting...
Click to expand...

Lets say you own an ATi gfx card and its a new month so there's new drivers. You download the drivers (to your driver storage area ;)) then install from there. Next time you reinstall windows you have the latest version. I'll admit that sometimes you can end up a couple of revisions behind with some programs but a lot have notification of newer versions. As with the drivers, download and install from hdd. Its not a perfect system but if you do need to download some newer versions you can do it while you're installing one of the stored exe's :p
 
proberly every 2 months for me, i'm actually addicted to formatting, dunno why i just enjoy a fresh install and going through the phase of setting xp up :o
 
I may download them, but never get round to saving them over the "old" ones so i end up with a load of old revisions :D Its obviously me being unorganised, but i can't see everyone doing this either? I just end up downloading most of my stuff again, which is probably what takes the longest....
 
LeperousDust said:
Everyone saying you keep the installers and drivers lying around etc... How do you always have the latest versions? Because i update programs as use goes along and my original installers are always a fair few months or a year behind what i would be using if i wasn't formatting...
Click to expand...
I have all my installers and drivers archived to an external HDD.

I:\Backup08 then folders for ATI, NVIDIA, MSN etc. Every so often (i.e. when I am bored :p) I'll check the sites for updated versions or use something like FileHippo to download a new prog version, install it then archive it. :)
 
With Vista I'm trying to cut down. With XP it uses to be every few months (maybe longer) depending on the reliability of the system. If I get a driver that screws up or such like then I just nuke it and start again. I backup my Mozilla profiles and have other drives for "stuff".

MarcLister said:
I have all my installers and drivers archived to an external HDD.

I:\Backup08 then folders for ATI, NVIDIA, MSN etc. Every so often (i.e. when I am bored :p) I'll check the sites for updated versions or use something like FileHippo to download a new prog version, install it then archive it. :)
Click to expand...

I used to do this, but the internet's so quick now I do not bother. I just go to filehippo/nvidia and download the latest versions. I only backup my web/e-mail/docs now.
 
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Haven't for a while, but i may due to small problem oin start up.
It just sits there doing nothing i can use a programs that have started up automatically but i cant click on start for about 2 minutes. Have no idea what does that. :confused:
 
My XP installation is about 3 years old and is still fast and responsive. Its been stripped down and tweaked out mind. No so-called registry cleaning frippery or security software installed, except a firewall. A cold boot takes about 35 seconds.

A little known but important tweak: if you still have XP and run a modern, fast PC get XP prefetch control and SWITCH OFF PREFETCHING. If you have an older installation you'll immediately notice how much quicker your boot times are.

;)
 
I like to reinstall mine every so often, some people may say it's two often (reinstall every month and a half maybe), just to keep it stable and running well. It also gets rid of all the small apps I ahve installed which i only ahve use for once in a while. It's also deas easy to do it due to how it's set up. I ahve my WD Raptor X as my system drive and a 400gb drive with all my "Username" folder retargetted on it so all I have to do is format the raptor and reinstall and retarget the username folder and it's just about done.
 
rctneil said:
I like to reinstall mine every so often, some people may say it's two often (reinstall every month and a half maybe), just to keep it stable and running well. It also gets rid of all the small apps I ahve installed which i only ahve use for once in a while. It's also deas easy to do it due to how it's set up. I ahve my WD Raptor X as my system drive and a 400gb drive with all my "Username" folder retargetted on it so all I have to do is format the raptor and reinstall and retarget the username folder and it's just about done.
Click to expand...

I ahve trouble with that too !
 
rctneil said:
I have to do is format the raptor and reinstall and retarget the username folder and it's just about done.
Click to expand...

You can actually change the target of your Documents folder, and your Program folder, hell, even your Windows folder if you really wanted to, in the installation CD so all oyu have to do is reinstall and its already done for you.

I have done a few experiments with this with some varying levels success.

The most simple one I have is with XP I have my Windows folder setup as C:\WinNT\ and this is from my NT4 / 2K days.

Most of my apps are on D:\Program Files\ and while I have my Installations setups with C:\Program Files\ as normal, and I simply change the C: to a D: for Apps I want on D:, I have changed this to default to D:\Programs\ for a laugh and it works just fine.

Similarly I have also setup the user folders also to E:, and I have actually tried variations on tahts too, where I use a seperate HD completely, but also have the HD mounted in C:\Documents and settings\ kind of like *nix box, again varying levels of success or failure depending on your viewpoint, so it can be done.

Just thought Id add that useless bit of fluff.
 
At least twice a year for me, I'm building up for a re-install this weekend. (Vista) I download the latest drivers for all my hardware and updates to software first.
 
Used to do it once every couple months but i've looked after this install and its been going for a good year now, thats after 3 graphics card changes to :)
 
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