How often do you reinstall your OS???

[kukubau]

Hi!
I just wanna know how often one reinstalls his/her Operating System, whatever that may be.

[Methadon]

I do it around every other month, it is not a rutin that I've got.
I guess I just like a new fresh OS install, everything runs so smooth and nice.

On my C drive I only have my OS and my software installed, I doesn't store anything else there.
I just copy my software configs and my bookmarks to another disc, that's all I need.

[kukubau]

Same here. I usually don't copy any of my bookmarks. Don't know why, I just don't do it. I should do that. Only the installed OS and that's it. Fresh install: format partition and kabuum, new OS in 15 min! Sometimes I use DriveImage or Norton Ghsot(same thing really).

[Methadon]

Same here. I usually don't copy any of my bookmarks. Don't know why, I just don't do it. I should do that.

Without my browser bookmarks I would be totaly lost on the net.

[al1uk]

Only when the OS is screwed. My pc is a family computer , so I can't do it regularly. Even if i could, i wouldn't. too much hassle, installing everything. only 1 hd is worth using in my pc, my other hd is too slow to copy all our work and stuff.

[Chocky]

Last time - after I've changed motherboard. It's not a big deal to reinstall OS, but installation and configuration of all other software requires too much time.

[AnalCobra]

I don't do it monthly but often, all 3-4 months.
Windows gets so slow if you have much apps installed and after 3-4 months there are always other problems with windows.
After reinstalling it works very fine.
I've also only windows and the installed apps on C:, on D: there are "My Files"(documents, music, installations of apps....) and on my external i've my images and some games installed.
So it takes not much time to reinstall and renconfigurate windows.

[Kinlaadare]

The less the better... and usually when I have to reinstall, I reinstall 3 OS : 2 xp 32b (one for burning & imaging, and one for leisure) and one 64b (work). I hope vista will solve that sort of problem (M$ said it will... wait and see )

[Underheaven]

Re: how often backup?

I haven't reinstalled since 2003. I make regular backups. Maybe you should ask how often do I restore my OS? I'd say about every 6 months. However I just had a hard drive failure so I'm in the process of going through all my files.

[Dllfile]

Depends on if the system is having probs, unstable, or seems slow and any tweaks I have applied after going back and trying to "re-tweak" it as well as do automated cleanups using batch files ect.., if it still just seems a bit on the slow side, I just pop in my custom restore disk made with DriveImage. and in a couple mins, back to how I had it when I first installed cept minus the sound and video drivers This way I can choose to install a fresh clean driver install.

I use another PC to store anything I want to keep such as bookmarks, ect.. Then its as simple as copying back over once I get the OS Restored and drivers installed. System is already pre-tweaked, cept drivers like nVidia of course.

All in All roughly 10 mins and I am back to a fresh install with drivers.

Then comes the longer part, deciding what programs I want to install or what games.

Lately, I have been doing it once a month the past few months now, but normally, 3-4 months.

[carlos12345]

i do mine about every 2 months only really because i try something i really know in the back of my mind is going to balls everything up but thats how we learn.on my main drive i only run os and software everything else gos on to another drive..unless i get the erg to try it there and then.thats normaly whan the reinstall comes in.
AMD athlon(tm)64 processor 3400+
gigabyte nforce3 motherboard
1536mb DDR-SDRAM kingston
nvidia geforce 6600 le
maxtor 80gb hard drive
maxtor 160gb hard drive
samsung 120gb hard drive
samsung 120gb hard drive
lg multi dvd/cd rewriter
sony dvd rw
creative sb live 5.1
happauge wintv
win xp pro sp2

[stile]

I only re-install when I am absolutely forced to do so, that has ranged from 2 weeks to 2 years between re-installs.

[estimablesir]

oooo this is a great question. Everyone thinks I'm nuts. I collect so much crap on my computer between my addiction to GordianKnot and video games that I loose track of everything. I do it about once a month, sometimes twice a month if it really gets bad. I recently started ghosting my machine, because I'm tired of going through the install process. To give you an idea of how often I do it, I know my install key by heart!

[lmgava]

Hi!
I just wanna know how often one reinstalls his/her Operating System, whatever that may be.

Two or three years. I do often a total backup image before and after doing important changes / installation and I do daily backup of important file / configuration settings.

So when something goes wrong (sometimes happen) I simply restore the backup image (20 minutes top) and I restore the needed/changed files form the daily backup (5-10 minutes).

30-45 minutes top to be back exactly where I was the day before a total disaster.

[Goenk]

I reinstall it about all 2-3 months.
But not really from scratch, using a TrueImage (Really a nice programm) Backup of WindowsXP incl the Fixes available makes it a bit faster.
Drivers and Programms all from Scratch, so only the really needed ones are installed.