reformat or not reformat

[sinisterpanda]

I'm reformatting my computer tonight, but i seriously question why people suggest reformatting. What does it do except make me have to back everything up and hope against all hopes that I backed up EVERYTHING that is important, search for CD's that have been lost over the years, and redownload the things that i acquired online. I'm not absolutely sure i can reformat my comp, I just am not sure how to do it. Does anyone have a gruesome reformatting story that they want to tell me before 11:59 tonight when i start the reformat? Or anyone have any suggestions?

[hooligan]

last ditch effort, i've never had to reformat. what's your eason?

[sinisterpanda]

my processor keeps on reverting back to pentium M, while it is a Pentium Mobile Centrino. My smelly american friend told me that a reformat should give the problem the old fixarooni...soon to be proven though...

[ism]

Reformatting is the easiest and most direct route. You know how you know there's a better way to drive from point A to point B but you tell people to take the longer way just because there's fewer turns? Ultimately what reformatting does is give you a 100% clean system: fresh OS (basicaly a fresh Windows registry), less fragmented hard drive, and all the default settings.

The path to avoiding what you're trying to avoid is through partitioning and proper data storage. Since reformatting requires formatting an entire drive, put the least amount of unreplacable information on the drive that Windows sits on, and reformat only that (no reason to reformat the rest). Create partitions for your Program Files, and I usually create a "data" drive for mp3s, videos, etc.. I do some slightly advanced stuff like tell Windows to relocate the My Documents folder to the data drive.

If you really want to avoid reformatting, you might be able to get away with booting with a boot disk, and deleting the C:\WINDOWS directory. You'll still need to reinstall programs but then you won't lose your mp3s and data files.

Uhh... a Pentium M is a Centrino. It's a stupid Intel marketing thing.

Centrino is a Pentium M + Intel's wireless technology + bus. That way, when customers ask for "Centrino" Intel sells not only the chip but their bus and wireless technology. When a customer asks for just a "Pentium M" then the retailer can then offer alternative busses (not made by Intel).

[sinisterpanda]

ism what is your profession?

[bluemonq]

handy tip: for doing stuff like changing where the "my documents" folder is in windows (on a another drive, for example), use TweakUI. handy stuff. it also lets you play around with a bunch of cool things. well, i'm a geek, so what do i know?
TweakUI:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

[kitty]

ism what is your profession?

a professional nice guy and know-it-all (in a good way). :)