How often do you format your computer?

reformatting is abit of over kill generally, Only time I really re-format my pc is if I am selling my pc or giving it to friends, 99% of virus's can be sorted if you know what your doing, plus safe mode is a great way to trouble shoot.

i have the habit of formatting system once in a year or just when i need. i use the software known as "deep freeze", in my computer. i had installed that software only on c drive. once the system is restarted, including the virus, all progrmas will be erased, whatever we store it newly. on the other drive, it remains safe. i use E-Scan anti virus as well & usu\ing that software, i get rid of virus attack, if i face on d,e, drives, etc., have a nice time!

Unless you are in the business of testing software or actually studying viruses, there is absolutely no need to reformat the hard disk so often. First of all, install a good antivirus and firewall software. AVG Free is as good as any of the paid ones. It just doesn't have some of the extras - like a firewall and anti adware supposrt. Those you can get free elsewhere. Zonealarm firewall is as good as any firewall - again, the difference between the paid version and the free version is a few extra facilities and controls. Next, do not go to the sites which will give you viruses and trojans. Some people have said that reformatting your hard disk is damaging and will slow it down. While every read/write operation has a very small risk of doing damage, and a read/write of the entire surface (which is what formatting does) may wear out the hard disk quicker than otherwise, you have to realise that the reliability of a hard disk is extremely high these days and reformatting has many more positive advantages (when it is necessary) than disadvantages. Reformatting and reinstalling the OS can only make your PC as fast as the day you bought it (other things being equal). With normal use and proper AV protection and firewall, you should NEVER need to reformat. All that should be necessary is proper maintenance in terms of deleting temporary files and defragmenting periodically and, perhaps, optimising the registry from time to time. Even defragmenting is unlikely to be more than an occasional task unless you have a relatively full hard disk and do a lot of editing work with large files.

Hi Gowri, Earlier we were running net in three computers through LAN and had much problem with virus and formatted computer every alternative month. Now we disconnected the LAN facility and running net only in one computer and installed anti virus software. Now my computer is safe from virus and there is no need to format my computer often. It is really a difficult task to formatting computer often as we need to take the back up of all datas and in our office we needed the old files because we have publications here. After formatting I have to search the old article in CD and I think it is time consuming. So I am happy if my computer doesn’t face any problems so that I can escape from the tedious tasks. Hope you will enjoy mylotting.

Hello Gowri, You name suggest you are an Indian, like me. Coming to your topic, I do not face virus attacks on my laptop so I have not formatted it even once since I purchased it, which was in August 2007. People have told me that you should format it at least once in an year but I did not feel the need for it.

I only format my computer If there is a virus that I can't really remove that even anti-virus can't even remove it. Some of my friends say that formatting the computer at least 10 times a year is bad, because it can destroy the inside components of the computer especially the motherboard and the processor sometimes or the worse case scenario although it hasn't happened to me yet, even the hard disk will malfunction. Since A new Operating system will be released soon and hopefully it is very good, I will format my pc again. Hehehehe.

My computer got attacked by a virus and my avg antivirus could not fight it. I found another one, avast and it cleaned my computer nicely without a reformat. Cheers!!

i also format my computer one month one time. format is not good in hard disk

Hi Gowri, I format my computer 2 or 3 times in a month. this is because my brother do something in computer and brings the virus somehow. i dont know what to do with him. better i must buy a seperate computer for me. happy lotting. have a nice day!

Why shall not you install some free anti virus software?It is good to have one rather than formatting your hard disk often.It even consumes more time.I would like to suggest you to install AVG free edition.That will help you better.Cheers!

hello my friend hope you are a new mylotter and hope you start a good discussion for the first one itself any my answer would be i would not format my computer that much quickly as such i do have a good licensed version of antivirus which helps me to avoid the harmness caused by the antivirus and also i have certain malwares and spywares which can help me to kniow about the threat i good post but as my os gets crashed will format the computer other than i will not format i do have some most wanted files and documents in my computer thank you good discussion and happy loting

Hi Gowri I have formatted my system four times in 3 years. The last I formatted dirty formatting. I just formatted my Local Drive without formatting any other drive because There was some important data in other drives. But still unfortunately one of my drive which contained different softwares was formatted unknowingly. I have search for different softwares still don't have all softwares.

i always reformat also my computer every 2 months but i think it could slow your computer when doing it often

last time is one year...i only format it when my computer is attacked by virus...of course often formatting the hard disk is not good...

formatting your computer will harm your computer, can create bad sector in ur harddisk.. its better u install antivirus, antispyware to avoid viruses...

it's not good to always format your computer.aside from copying and transferring data which is really an inconvenience, most of the time, there will some sort of damage in the system. better install antivirus, and update it form time to time because pc virus will also evolve just like living organisms.LOL.

Hello,gowriindia. I agree with spoiledbrat. There is an increased risk of disk breakdown if you format very often, a lot of HDDs are still mechanical.Also on the anti-virus advice,this is the first thing you should do right after an installation...I personally like Avast. You can also try the system restore feature of your PC, even before you consider reformatting. Thanks. Happy mylottin!

30 to 45 days seem to be too frequent for reformatting the hard drive. With proper virus protection, this unnecessary exercise can be brought down. Look into security updates of Windows in Microsoft website and install the newer updates. Some Viruses, worms etc will get cleaned by Antivirus, but they may keep coming back again. Some of the security updates help you in preventing them from coming again and again. Reformatting has this added head ache: You have to reinstall OS and all other software too after formatting which is simply a pain. Also you have to back up your documents, pictures etc if they are really critical and then reload them to your hard disk. One technique I follow is to use the C drive only for OS and all installed software. I don't keep any of my documents, pictures, music, or any other files that I need, in C drive. I keep them all in D drive. I also shift "My documents" folder to D drive. I also keep a backup of all critical files in E drive. More critical ones I backup in pen drive or external Hard drive. So, if at all I have to do a reformatting, I do it only for C drive and reinstall my Software. This way, I don't have to bother about my documents, which are safe in D and E.

well i format my computer every 3 months, as it is not too necessary to format it every month even if there is too much work, like this there are chances for loss of matter forever

I format my pc whenever i think that it is running very slowly and this happens every 20 days.So i format quite frequently these days just to work faster with my pc.