How easy is it to reformat my PC

chickmug

I have so many annoying things going wrong and feel the time is right for a reformat. Is it easy and is there any 'easy to follow' web link that would help me?

Joe_Bloggs

@chickmug
Consider trying a new or unused hard disk as the basis for the testing the situation that you propose. The bonus of this approach is that you will not lose any information that was left on your old hard disk You may find that you need the latest drivers and stuff but do not have copies on CD. You may find you can't access the internet, to get them, because you can't get the drivers for the network interface . If you could access your old drive then you can get access to essential material you has previously saved there.
J_B.

It also might be worth considering making a boot disk that would stress test the hardware. http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

silkyuk9

chickmug wrote: »

I have so many annoying things going wrong and feel the time is right for a reformat. Is it easy and is there any 'easy to follow' web link that would help me?

Reformatting is a very easy process, but installing everything once that is done is a long process that takes a good few hours.

if you have a 'reload' cd just incert it and follow instructions.

once your hard drive is wiped clean you will just have the basic settings and software that your pc came with.

all you need to do then is just reinstall all your software, update all your drivers and if everything goes to plan it will be ok.

Now, if you try to 'reload' the cd and errors become known you are in trouble, you will not beable to get your pc working again unless you are knowledgable about computers.

My pc has 3 hard drives i use XP on 2 of them and Vista on the 3rd, so i can choose which OS i want to use, and if i ever need to reformat and something goes wrong i jhave the backups of my other hard drives.

Usually the process goes without a hitch, but ibve been using computers for a lot of years so i can say im a little more compitant than some other users, but i have known and it has happened to me that i have had only one hard drive and the reload process has not gone according to plan, and i have lost my system completely.

Saying that i have reformatted pc's around 20 or 30 times and only once has there been problems.

wallbash

Formatting is a great way to spring clean. Most of us have some rubbish on our PC. As the time to reinstall , after the normal OS and then MS office , good time to re-evaluate all those 'essential ' programs that we rarely use.

da1seggy

Agree with point about using this to evaluate what you do/don't need. I upgraded to Vista a month ago, and during this process I realised I had so much software used once and never again.

Before you format the drive, make sure you've got all the latest drivers and a backup of all the little things that you will most likely forget aside from your personal documents - e.g., internet bookmarks & saved passwords, personal mailbox folders if you use outlook/outlook express, saved game files etc.

chickmug

Joe_Bloggs wrote: »

@chickmug
Consider trying a new or unused hard disk as the basis for the testing the situation that you propose. The bonus of this approach is that you will not lose any information that was left on your old hard disk You may find that you need the latest drivers and stuff but do not have copies on CD. You may find you can't access the internet, to get them, because you can't get the drivers for the network interface . If you could access your old drive then you can get access to essential material you has previously saved there.
J_B.

Hi Joe_Bloggs
Do you know is this possible on a 120 gb USB external hard drive?

Joe_Bloggs

@Chickmug
I would say this is possible on an external 120Mb USB drive.
1) You could take the drive out of its enclosure and interface it directly with your computer hard drive interfaces. Often IDE or SATA.
2)You could leave the drive in its caddy and get it to boot via USB. This may be a bit slow but it is possible and may well prove a point.
J_B.