WHEN DID YOU LAST DO A RE-INSTALL ? ?

I've had my setup since about the same time you've had yours and I had to do a system restore this past holiday. It was no fun either. Took a few days just to get things workable.

I forget...been awhile.Last time was to remove OEM install...got rid of all the craplets.

Jan 06 - reformat via partitioned recovery - no disk
put me back to pristine July 03 condition

have you any idea of how many updates came out between july03-jan06? I do.
any idea of how long it takes to reupdate on dialup? (i got 16 more to go)

mike b1954, I'm like you and have you by one year.

I have an off the shelf Gateway desktop. Have added memory, changed out vidio card, added a Win TV card and replaced the DVD drive twice.

Once or twice I thought I would have to do a complete XP reinstall, but was able to get things back working with using safe mode and restore.

Once a week, run scans, once a day check for updates to the security, anti-virus/spyware and clean up programs. If anything I probably have too many clean up and anti-spyware programs.

Did a complete reinstall from disc , which is about 2 years old, last fall. Good thing i had DSL for all those updates

Luckily this was before I started using all of the Stardock software. I'm not looking forward to the next time I need to do one or when I get a new pc and end up needing to reinstall all of the skins I've downloaded from backup into the right directories for the Stardock apps.

nah screw the system restore,i got vista ultimate x64 and the best of the best...well actually THEE GREATEST feature is i can do a full (complete) PC back up i installed all my games, my antivirus,firewall,anti spyware and all my other programs, activated and updated my protection programs (antivirus,firewall and anti spyware) disconnected from the net and cleared out ALL my cookies and temp files ETC.then i did the complete pc back up.if my HDD takes a shit, i simply install a new one and do the complete PC restore and BAM all my stuff comes back just the way it was before the failure

Not a hard question to answer here.. I usually do a new install whenever I see as needed. I use a lot of business software so it has to be installed clean for domain usage. Plus with that in mind we frown on reinstalling domains - but in my case I do it a lot. Mainly because it works better for me that way. Like with the new sp1 for vista I had already installed like 5 times during the testing and then after the final rtm I still had to redo my install to complete my driver update installs. This was due to the way sp1 does such drivers as it installs. But I did a special install for my chipsets and hardware that was internally ready at first and then another with drivers for after sp1 for external hardware. Plus I installed clean with sp1 by not installing any past windows updates. Those are covered with sp1 updates installed with sp1.
So I figure I do an install almost every other month or so during testing. With of course the usual image backups to fall back on in times I just want to start with what I once had and such.
Re installing an OS is easy as you make it with of course understanding how your system needs are meet by what you use.
Good luck and I do recommend reinstalling for problems which can not be resolved by usual task of just cleaning or editing such for a better performance. Finding the whys and why nots is the key to having a good OS and having it the way you want it to operate.

SGT  

sorry for the double post but i don't seem to see the edit button.

also i activate and fully update the OS as well (i always update the protection programs first) then i clear out all my cookies,temp files ETC with CCleaner then i do the complete pc restore.

25 Jan, 2005.

I know that because I have a Drive Image backup that dates to then.

I do them weekly...and the latest is numbered 114 ....so near enough to 114 weeks...;)

oh i don't even bother doing any back up's since that one..when i do a complete pc restore all i do is re-update my protection programs,install the SP1 then do the rest of the updates..atleast it's better then XP...LOL when i had to do a install i had to do it from a fresh install....i hope when they make winblow 7 they keep the complete pc back up feature or i find some way of making installable restore disc(s) (like the one you get when you buy a system.usually they will give you both the dvd complete pc restoredvd and it will also be on a second partition on the HDD)

Wow .... I didn't expect a response like that !! Thanks , folks !!

It's certainly interesting to see how we all 'manage our systems',so to speak ...

" Keep'em clean to keep 'em mean , eh ? ? !! "

Installed On: Saturday, October 13 2007

I despise formatting, it's always such a pain in the ass. The only reason I did that reinstall is because I totally rebuilt and upgraded my computer.

nah formatting isn't that bad...i got webroots window washer,window washer allows you to make a bootable floppy or cd that erases eveything on the HDD including the partition basically it "zeros" the drive back to the way it was when you first bought the HDD.before i even do any pc restores i use that then i do the restore.also my restore dvd's are dated back to 2/2/2007.

Dec 2007. I dumped my dual boot for Vista only. I've never once felt like going back 

Got this one Aug. 2006 not had to reinstall.

june 2007 for me, and i am planning on a complete reformat and reinstall in june 2008.
not that it's needed but i do it anyway

About every 6 months needed or not  

February 06: Got my Vista64-System back then. Still going strong....

Edit-button missing:



That should have been February 07 of course

whatwhere...don't try to change hard drive size if you have to replace your drive. One of Microsoft's security features is that it will not let you restore to a different size drive than you created your backup from. Stupidest thing I have ever heard of. Also, don't think you can get around this by playing around with partition sizes as last time I checked, there was no way around the drive size check.

Formatting is just time consuming...and yes...a pain in the butt. Had to do that a few times before I got stopped adding crap to my system that I would end up deleting anyway and in the process screw something up. But since I bought Acronis True Image Home Edition I never have to do that again. All I do now is make updated system backups when I add anything major...otherwise I just copy new folders to my external hard drive. So much easier to hit a button and walk away!

I use this method also and I re-format at least twice a year, maybe once. I have cable so it takes about a full day to install everything.

Yeah, True Image is the way to go.

My last 're-install' was just restoring a previous image I had when something went wonky. I make a new image about every week or so.

I also image my data drive ... the one with skins, WIP, etc.

I use First Defense-ISR (similar to Acronis)and do several images. Something goes wrong short of an HDD going south I just re-boot to a previous image and voila. Of course all critical data is also backed up on external drives and/or to DVD. Formatting is a pain I don't wish to endure unless necessary.