Formatting a Hard Drive - Pros and Cons

[Vanicent]

I've been toying with the idea of doing this for a while, as I've had my current PC for almost three years now, and I've never formatted the hard drive. Recently, it has been running slower than it used to, and I believe that a format might fix this issue.

Friends at university (when I was a student) told me that it was good practise to format your PC hard drive every couple of years or so. But, since I've never deliberately done this before* I'm not sure how to do it.

It is my understanding that it will put the PC in a "like new" condition, with any traces of anything I had installed completely removed, so (in theory) it should run a lot faster as the registry will also be fresh. From there, I just need to reinstall anything I use now (as the software I used as a student isn't used anymore, along with a few other things) and restore my files from backups.

So, could some of you more experienced PC users (in the technical sense) please explain to me if I am correct with my understanding, what the perks and drawbacks (if any) are, and if there is anything else I shoudl know before doing a format to my PC hard drive?

Thank you.

*I have formatted the hard drive of my old PC, but I don't think it counted as an actual format as it was done using a Recovery Disk to eliminate a virus that had made the PC practically unusable. This put it back into the condition it was in when I got it, and got rid of anything I had ever installed on it since I got it.

EDIT: I have all my important files backed up, and I can reinstall all of my current software as I also have the CDs for them, so as far as I can tell, it would just be a matter of time to do such a format and reinstall anything I currently use.

[davesol]

Make suire you have all the drivers for your hardware handy. You should be able to get most of them off the net if not, as long as you've got the drivers for your modem

[Vanicent]

Yeah, I've got the CD for the broadband modem, so I'm pretty sure the drivers will be on that.

[Daragon]

I've only formatted once or twice and in my opinion its not really worth it that much. Basically formatting completely removes everything on a drive and can take hours to get everything loaded back on that you want to keep - I only format my computer properly about once a year and let my drive cleaner program kill the clutter (one of these will cost you about ?20 but its more convenient than formatting) and my virus/spy ware programs to get rid of everything else.

As for advantages to formatting, clearing EVERYTHING from a drive means exactly that - if there's something buried in there than a virus scanner can't shift, a format will.

Formatting is incredibly easy to do if you want to go ahead with it, just type "format C:" for example into run to format C drive (without quote marks)

[VR46]

Make suire you have all the drivers for your hardware handy. You should be able to get most of them off the net if not, as long as you've got the drivers for your modem

Plus of course XP or whatever operating system you use.

[Vanicent]

That's one of the reasons I'm not sure I'd be able to do a proper format.

The only XP CD I have, that came with the PC, is a Recovery Disk, which I know will put the system back to the way it was when I first got it.

I don't think that's a proper format, is it?

[Ginger Tosser]

Its probably a system image, some recovery disks are like that. So if the factory build image is ****e then the recovered image will be ****e.

It should however wipe your disk clean, which is what your aiming to do.

[wod]

yeah just backup your stuff and use the restore disc as it will save you looking for drivers and such if your unsure about formating the disc

[bob123]

Its really quite easy. Its a bit of a pain replacing everything but the computer just seems to run a lot smoother after the format. Just make sure you save all your personal files and that you know how to re-install your internet connection. The internet is the most important thing you need post format as you can download all your drivers/programs from the net.

[Codger]

One good idea is to install everything you need and configure the appearance and everything else the way you want. Then ghost the hard drive (create a image out of the HD, like a CD image) and you can go back to a fresh installation within the hour anytime you want.

[ascender]

Before XP I really believed, from years of experience, that it was worth doing a full re-buld every 6 months or so with any version of Windows. XP seems to have changed that though, thankfully.