ahhh... the freshness of a newly formatted PC

[eilsoe]

just reformatted it :love:



who else here just loves a freshly formatted PC? :P


*sniff*



smells like a brand new car :thumb:


and it runs like a dream again... :P :love:

[senocular]

now you just have to remember not to install so much crap on it again ;)

[reverendflash]

now you just have to remember not to install so much crap on it again ;)
Is that possible?

I've never been able to...

Mines always filled up with useless apps, which I never use, so I uninstall those which allow me to...

and I'm right back in the same spot again...

You'd think I'd ghost the darn thing once I got the core progs installed, but nooooooo. That'd be smart...

:D

[senocular]

:sure: yeah, Im never able to either. I get about a month with the bare necessities on there and a "install on demand" attitude, but it all goes to heck not too long after that. My home desktop has been going strong for about 2 years now without a fresh cleaning; I guess its time to pull an Eilsoe :P

[kirupa]

Yes - I format my PCs every few months because of the new PC smell also :) While I usually don't have a lot of unnecessary programs installed anyway, I like formatting my PC before installing a major service pack. I'll definitely format again once Service Pack 2 for XP is released.

There is just something peaceful about booting up your PC for the first time after a format, pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del, and seeing only a few processes on the screen!

:ub:

[DDD]

lol....I just did my first one by myself (thanks rev, k, 28, dropkick, Max, teet and sen and others who answered my lame brain format questions). And it went nothing near smooth...But I am glad I got thru it. And it does feel good. With every format my cpu went through I have gottem more and more organized with my installing and folder arranging. Maybe about 10 more I'll be totally organized....lol

[eilsoe]

lol: "Pull an Eilsoe"... :P


It was basically the end of the road for my sake. After one too many fistshakes at the PC, I just whipped out that shiny XP CD, stuck it in, and laughed my arse off... :P

[ya3]

ahaha. i just did a fresh install of W2K on my P3-800,
it is a nice feeling :)

then what do i do? boot up IE to do WindowsUpdate and
get all the patch thingos, and before i know it, the same
annoying AdBar installs itself into IE out of nowhere!!!
see this: http://arach.net.au/~tsg/wahhh!!!.JPG

still... things are pretty snappy on a fresh pc. its just a matter of
time before it gets bogged down.

[evolution]

You got a copy of windows blinds on their, also, why use IE, when there are browers like FireFox, and Safari?....your a crazy rebel..:kommie:

[ya3]

yah, i use firefox, but i hadn't installed it yet. plus, i dont think you can do WindowsUpdate from anything but IE...

[evolution]

ya I think you need IE for windows update, but other then that, I never use IE. To many bugs, and it runs so slow...**** microsoft:kommie:

[kirupa]

I can't wait to format all of my comps at the same time. This time, I'm planning on having each one have a different skin.

I used to format all the time (every few weeks) when I benchmarked my PC using 3DMark2001. Then I realized that I could spend my time and money doing better things besides trying to get a few extra points on the screen.

:P

[evolution]

What you mean skins, is everybody but me using windows blinds?...or are you all using linux...? man I hate being out of the loop..

[Krilnon]

I'm using StyleXP.

[evolution]

Isn't that made by the same company? ....

[muffins]

What do you guys do to back up all your pertinant info, just burn it?

-duck :cap:

[DDD]

I used a program called "Back up my PC" by stomp. It worked very well. In the past I used Norton Ghost.

[teet]

What do you guys do to back up all your pertinant info, just burn it?

If you're lucky enought have more than one computer, and a fairly large harddrive in your other machine, you could always just copy the files over to the other harddrive (heck, what am I saying...you only need a spare hdd really...you can even use "xcopy /c /h /e /k" to backup EVERYTHING).

Otherwise, your only other option would probably be to burn it to disk (you could get a partitioning program like Partition Magic...create a new partition, copy your files over to that partition, and then format the old partition, but that's a lot of work).

-teet

[evolution]

I either upload all to the local network here at home, or just ghost it, which ever im in the mood to do.:thumb:

[kirupa]

evolution - no, I would never use Windowblinds or Style XP! After a format, I use a modified uxtheme.dll that enables skins in XP. Here is a program that does it for you: http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=177436

:rambo:

[senocular]

I think all that StyleXP does is fix the uxtheme.dll for you... that was my impression at least... and maybe thats what it used to be but they had since changed it? Anyway, I used to use windowblinds but after xp have just used a hacked uxtheme.dll - its not hard to do.

As for files on teh formatting side, I have a nice little firewire drive I keep basically everything on. The only thing I need to do after a cleaning is reinstall apps. (basically)

[DDD]

yea Sen. I just bought an external drive and I have a process that backups everything to there every other day. ANd only gets the new files. SO next time I do a format I wont have to worry about data.

[evolution]

@kirupa, when I uses that patch can I use like any theme then, like ones from wincustomize.com or even ones that I make?...

[kirupa]

@kirupa, when I uses that patch can I use like any theme then, like ones from wincustomize.com or even ones that I make?...I think any style would work. I've only used the styles I found on neowin, though I am sure others would work also.

DDD - that's a really good idea. If you don't mind me asking, which external drive did you purchase? I've been looking at getting one of those, and I've kinda narrowed it down to Iomega's 120GB Firewire/USB2.0 version.

[Krilnon]

DDD- What "process" are you using? This could be very helpful to me.

Kirupa- Or, you could go with this nice 1TB external drive. LOL.

Lacie Bigger Disk (http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10118)

[jarviscares]

forgive me for my newbiness... but what is ghosting?

[DDD]

@K and Krilnon
I have the 80gb Iomega external. It comes with norton ghost and some iomega software that back ups incrementally if there are new files to get. I also use "Back up my PC" by stomp/veritas. It has a utility that you can set to run jobs to back up data. I use my network for that and have a file server it goes to. One of my main focuses for 2004 for my business was to organize better. SO I do this and use Quickbooks.

jarvis: Ghosting is basically backing up your entire HDD in the event there is a crash you can restore everything from a few cds. www.symantec.com for more info on it.

[tucker]

xi cant format my hd cuz i dont have the disks to my flash mx and adobe.....or my internet



D=

[Maxtr0sity]

Or, when formatting, partition your one HD into two. Store all your important stuff on the parititioned and if needing a format, just format C, vowla.