Planning a OS Reformat - need tips!

Hessian · 22 Mar 2008 at 12:35

Hey Guys, I'm fed up with Vista so I'm planning on reformatting down to XP Pro, but I've never really done a reformat properly, so I was wondering if there was any good walkthrough's or tips?

My Current setup is:
1 x 80GB for OS and related files
1 x 250GB for Software
1 x 250GB for Media Files

I definitely want to reformat the OS one, but will I need to reformat the Software HD as well so I can reinstall the software, because presumably the won't connect up with the new OS because of missing dll's etc?

Any greatly appreciated!

Dark_Angel · 22 Mar 2008 at 12:36

Are they seperate hard drives, or are any drives partions?

Hessian · 22 Mar 2008 at 12:42

3 individual drives!

Dark_Angel · 22 Mar 2008 at 13:21

Ok...

Well, software (if it is installed) generally won't work if windows is deleted and reinstalled. The software needs to be installed again too generally (a few programs and games are exceptions - but they are rare)

So generally most people nuke their software too.

Oh and one more thing, some people actually unplug the drives they dont wanna format and reconnect them later

I have a friend that now does that constantly after he accidently erased the wrong drive

Hessian · 22 Mar 2008 at 13:25

hehe okay, I'm gonna keep the media HDD as it is because it's all jsut individual files, images, films, etc. so I'm assuming that the new OS will just pick that up and see the files as they are?

A while ago someone requested a program to list all the current software installed, so it's easy to reinstall, but I can't find it now, anyone got any recommendations?

And one final thing, what's the easiest and best way to reformat a HDD, is it to use the normal windows process or is there a 3rd party program which does a better job?

Edit: Found the software to list applications: www.listmaker.cc