That time of the year again...

Well, after installing and deleting loads of programs, moving files all over the place, getting a few viruses every once in a while, etc etc etc the time has come when I need to format my PC and start over again since tweaking and cleaning it just doesn't improve the performance any more...

I really hate this, it takes me a whole day to get all my programs installed again... but it does feel great when your PC responds in a few seconds instead of hanging for a minute driving you crazy...

 

Yeah, I decided to reformat this morning.

It's just getting slower and slower all the time.

No viruses, but I figure that I should have more than 20 gig free on a 250 gig drive.

 

Mine is long overdue but I decided on just buying a new one instead. Works out cheaper probably if I count the hours.

From many years experience I can recommend this set-up:

Split your stuff into 3 hard drives.

1 for the OS and 'must have' programs.
2 for other programs.
3 for all your files. Sites, music, video, pics etc.

That way, after a fresh install you can x-copy a 1:1 image of the #1 disk so whenever it gets messy it's a matter of copying the image back and you're up and running again. #2 is likely to contain some crap entries so redo that one and #3 can be kept at all time.

 

I actually have a drive just called "Trial Programs". This is for all the stuff you download on a whim and use once. If I end up liking it and know I would use it a lot I move it to the main drive.

You would be amazed how much I clear off that drive each month.

 

I did the same thing back about 9 months ago. It's a lot easier just to go buy a new one. lol

 

You read my mind, tops

I have 2 drives, so I will reinstall xp and my most used programs one one, and Ill keep my 10gb of mp3's and movies on this one...

Saves me big time not having to backup all this stuff

 

Wow only 10GB's of media files? Makes me feel like im a huge criminal. I have at least 10x that..... but i own all the cd's too (most of them). Its just more convenient in mp3 format and organized electronically.

 

I'll be doing mine at the end of summer, I need to get an external HD for my laptop, 27gb of 35gb being music is not good on my laptop HD

 

Just a recommendation, once you have your OS, your main apps you use, drivers installed, etc. take a ghost image of that drive and store it onto a separate HD or CD/DVD. When things start to go south and you need to reformat, just pop the ghost image down and in 10 minutes you're back to where you were before.

 

Excellent idea

 

Oh ahh, ohhh uhhhhh yessssss. Definately a when Harry met Sally moment in the Mella household.