Reformatting...

[ctrl-alt-delete]

I have been considering reformatting my hard drive. However, I have a few questions.

There are two ways I can do it. From the actual hard drive itself, or from a restoration DVD. Which should I choose, and which is safer?

Considering this will be the first time I have ever reformatted, I am slightly worried. Hopefully, everything will be fine, as I am sure it will be.

How often do you reformat your hard drive?

[vegeta1215]

I only do it if I need to install an new OS. Otherwise I never reformat. Sometimes I hear people say that they reformat every month and reinstall Windows (it's not always a month, but some people have a schedule) to fix their computers, and I think that is ridiculous.

When I get rid of my computers I usually wipe them with some secure disc deleting utility. Autoclave is the one I've used the most. It's pretty easy to use - it fits on a floppy disc and you just boot from it.

[moocow]

Get a really big magnet, and slap it onto the side of your harddrive ^-^

[Rainman]

I only reformat whenever the harddrive becomes a confusing mess of files that would be better solved with a clean wipe then spending hours sorting through files.

[Starkist]

I reformatted my girlfriend's hard drive earlier this week. It was a few years old, out-of-the-box HP, and had become overgrown with useless junk. (Not to mention HP's useless junk.) So I hooked up an old computer of mine and backed up all the important stuff and reformatted it with the XP Pro CD. Took a while, but it was a pleasure to get rid of HP's stuff. I reinstalled and brought back the backed up files, and it runs great.

Anyway, to answer your question: Do you run XP, 9x, or something else? Do you have your installation CD?

[Rainman]

Do you have your installation CD?
Lol, yeah make sure you have a working one. I remember reformatting once and then found out that it didn't work. I had to ask around at school for one.

[ShadowTiger]

Whatever way you do it, be sure to back up as much as you bloody can. You really never can know for sure when you don't need such and such file again. But this should be obvious at this point. XD

Much luck in the formatting. What are you formatting for?

[Brasel]

Reformatting once a month is unnecessary, but reformatting every once in awhile isn't a bad idea. I haven't reformatted anything of mine yet, but I've reformatted countless computers here. If you aren't experienced, which you aren't, reformat from the restore disk or the OS installation disk. It'll do most the work for you and reinstall your OS, making it much easier to deal with.