How often do you re-format your hard drive?

[Andrew D. Gable]

At least it isn't WinME.....

You mean Windows (Kill)ME. I'm so glad I got a new system and ditched ME completely.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Thanks for the advice everyone, just got done with my re-format and everything seems ok...

Just be sure to get patch levels up-to-date, I have seen too manty people re-install and then forget to bring their patches current.

 

[Galethorn]

I 'essentially' reformatted last when I did a major upgrade this last spring. I went from an Athlon XP 1700 to a Barton 2600 with DDR memory. Anyway, it's a family tradition to do a fresh install of windows (and all major programs) whenever a new motherboard is installed.

So, that was 5 months ago, give or take. Before that, my most recent reformat was when I upgraded from a slot-1 board with a celeron 300 running at 450 (those things sure ran great) to a t-bird 1400 in the fall of 2001.

Add that up, and you get a fully functional install of the beta of XP lasting 3.5 years without trouble. Now, it could have gone longer, if it weren't for the motherboard upgrade. I don't expect to need a reformat for another couple years, but I've been known to be wrong. Then again, I don't do a lot of downloading and superfluous installs of software, and I don't tend to install a lot of hardware.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

On one machine, been using Win98SE since '99, and haven't reformatted once. Livin' on the edge!

I am not sure about the starting date (it must be somewhat later than 99 - maybe 2001/2002? I am always unable to remember when I got any of the computers I had in my life), but I never had to reformat my PC with Win98SE.

I added a new hard drive and changed the graphics board so far. I (de/re)installed several games and software over time.

The two worst things I can remember where when I updated my Win98 (via Internet update), and were to lazy to restart it after the explorer update. That nearly destroyed the system, but I was able to reinstall the Explorer components that seemed to cause the problem.
The second one was updating my video drivers - I am not sure if something just went wrong during the installation or the drivers are bad, but switching back to the old drivers worked.

My notebook uses Windows XP Professional, and it is similar "stable". The notebook itself has some problems, though. It sometimes simply shuts down while playing Jagged Alliance 2 or Master of Orion II (maybe it doesn`t like second editions? )
I guess it is a heat problem or so - it doesn´t happen when working with Word.

Windows 98SE seems a bit of a gamble - many people seem to have big trouble with it, but some get a perfect system thanks to it.
(The current stability of my 98SE system is also a reason why I did decide against installing a parallel Linux system or updating to Windows XP. If I ever get a new PC, I will do so, but for now...)

Mustrum Ridcully