Re-Installing your OS
By mirage108
@mirage108 (3402)
United States
August 23, 2008 2:08pm CST
I have read many a discussions on here and can never figure out why so many when they have problems with the OS that the first option is to re-install the OS.
Some have stated that they do it up to 2 times a year just to keep it a clean system. some re-install it due to a virus WHY?
There is a Disk clean up utility built in to the OS why not use it? Problem with the OS why not use the fix and repair options? System slowing down Just clean the system of temp files and defrag? Problem with the disk drive. There is an old utility called chkdsk will do the same thing as a format and take a lot less time that formatting and re-installing everything (which can take days to get everything back to normal. Only thing is you have to reboot and it will run at boot up. from the dos prompt which will fix and repair your disk drive and file system? Virus on your computer (I just saw this today) why not try a new virus scanner and run it from the CD or have a recovery disk it if gets into the Boot Sector.
Point is it takes a lot more time to re-install the OS properly than trying the other options first.
2 people like this
7 responses
@hacker4ever (297)
• Philippines
23 Aug 08
There are lots of reasons for reinstalling OS. Although Windows is provided its every OS a set of administrative tools that can help boost and maintain performance, it is sometimes not enough to fix every performance issue in the PC. Depending on the usage, the hard disk will degrade its performance as the time passes even if you'll run defragmentation and other administrative tools every day. Bugs will have a buildup in your system. Virus attacks may also contribute to slowdown of PC's performance because depending on the type of virus that attacked your system, it leaves an undesirable effect on your PC's performance even if the PC has been already cleaned. Another reason for this is to reduce the overall file size of your PC. This is useful when you have a smaller hard disk capacity since having your hard disk that's nearly full slows down your PC. Reinstalling may be time consuming but it's the best repair option compared to any existing repair programs.
@mirage108 (3402)
• United States
23 Aug 08
I have had all those issue you mentioned and still didn't re-install or format and re-install the OS the utilities provided took care of the problem so tell me why the utilities work for me and wont for what seems everyone else?
1 person likes this
@hacker4ever (297)
• Philippines
23 Aug 08
It depends on the PC usage. So, if you are not an advanced PC user, you might not experience huge problems that requires OS reinstallation.
@likaes (496)
• Singapore
24 Aug 08
I agree. Reformatting allows for a clean slate and you notice an immediate increase in performance after doing so. I've recently formatted a laptop filled up with spyware and found it much easier to just reformat and install it with anti-spyware and anti-virus programs instead, and found a noticeable boost in speed. It allows you to get rid of applications that never quite uninstalled themselves fully, or remove applications that you no longer require but keep on your Hard Drive anyway. The clean-up utilities you mentioned will never do as well as a good job as that.
@know21 (1250)
• United States
23 Aug 08
I seen a discussion on here last night of someone finding a virus on there computer; so they were going to format there OS because of it. What I can't figure out how did they know they had a virus. They must have a anti virus software that detected it. So why not have it remove the virus also; instead of formatting the whole computer?
@mirage108 (3402)
• United States
23 Aug 08
I agree with you. although there are times it is necessary to re-install the OS I wouldn't for a virus. there are other options
@mirage108 (3402)
• United States
26 Aug 08
What are you doing with a Back up everything then reformat and re-install. if there is a problem then the backup has the problem and when you restore from the backup your putting the problem back onto your system
@shana123 (2095)
• India
24 Aug 08
I dont know any stuff about internet a virus affected our system and the anti spyware wasnt able to delete the virus and i wasnt online for the past 4 to 5 days and it has been really irritating our test engineer got $10.5 as a fee i dont know how many times will my system be like this... and now the speed and everything is fine.. i think i should follow your tips...
@mirage108 (3402)
• United States
24 Aug 08
Thank you for commenting. The point of this discussion was there are a lot that just format and re-install the OS when they have problems when there is possibly another way and might be faster.
@dogsnme (1264)
• United States
23 Aug 08
Some people probably don't know about all the options or understand enough about the options available for tidying up their OS or removing a virus from their system. With older OS's and especially before the seemingly endless numbers of antivrus software came along, sometimes the best and only way to fix these problems was to reinstall the OS. So, they're probably just relying on a seemingly tried and true method to resolve these issues. Heck, it took me awhile before I realized the importance of regularly updating the antivirus software to catch new viruses.
@mirage108 (3402)
• United States
23 Aug 08
This may be true but there are a lot out there to ask questions of why not ask first. Also maybe they will read this discussion and then realize that there are other options to try first
@insulin (2479)
• Philippines
24 Aug 08
I saw some discussions too about it but I don't mind it at all..That is what I am usually doing in my pc if I have some problems.Defrag,clean up or restore or etc..I am using this tuneup utilities 2008 and it really works for me..Help me a lot to minimize some problems.I changed my anti virus too..I am using Nod32 now for almost 1 year and It's not giving me a problem at at all..God bless and have a nice day 
@monkeysay (228)
• Singapore
24 Aug 08
Would just like to add that System Restore (XP, Vista) is a popular alternative as well. As long as you have it enabled, you can restore your computer's condition to any day. Works good if you have been infected with viruses, spyware, etc.
Even if you don't have backups, you can get help from technicians/experts. For virus problems, I have found www.parasitedb.com/removal to be extremely helpful.
My point is, I never consider reformatting an option. There is always a better way to solve problems.
@mirage108 (3402)
• United States
24 Aug 08
I know I have that feature enabled on all my pc's and both xp and vista if it is there and you don't use it, to me that is being crazy.
@drzeuss (130)
• United States
23 Aug 08
i know what you mean. Years ago when i first started teaching myself all around pc repair, each time i looked up info about how to get rid of a virus, i'd see "format/reinstall" on some websites.
On old Win9x machines i found it to be easy if not quick and dirty but once i moved on to XP i figured out all i had to do was reboot using the XP disk and either choose the Recovery Console or "repair" the installation.
For a virus i learned, quickly, that there is a plethora of antivirus software out there. It seems there's one for every personality.
So one should never reformat/reinstall their OS simply because of a virus.
The only reason i now reinstall an OS on my personal computers is when i get bored with the OS and look for something else to play with. Such as the case with this old laptop i'm on at the moment which has gone from Linux to XP to Windows 2000 Pro in the last few days. Just for kicks.
@mirage108 (3402)
• United States
23 Aug 08
I totally agree. seems some people don't trust the anti-virus program to completly remove the virus or they dont keep it updated and they update it after they get the virus which then might not remove the virus.
