Thread: How Many times you format your PC

Simple..how many times ?
Since Windows 7, its Once in last 6 months that too because of my mistake.
When i was using XP which lacks robust security as Windows 7 has, i used to format atleast once a month.

Last time, after 3 months. My hard disc has some bad sectors. May be because of that.

i did it 3 months ago if i remember correcto..

I regularly format & reinstall windows at once a month... Because some software are trial versions... & their crack are hard to find...

it depends on my mood.
sometimes i format 2 times in a month.but sometimes i don't format for long.

Originally Posted by Sumit020

I regularly format & reinstall windows at once a month... Because some software are trial versions... & their crack are hard to find...

i dont think so. Can you name even a single software forwhich you dont have crack ?

Its almost a year now since i last formatted my PC. For the last year i am using windows vista with regular updates and its really stable so i didn't find any reason to format.

I think i formated thrice in 1 n half year.. So an avg. of once/half yr..

offtopic: Is it possible to eliminate/correct bad sectors by formatting..?

hmmmm.. yes its possble , but dont ever try formatting the C drive with it.

Originally Posted by NrN Kill

I think i formated thrice in 1 n half year.. So an avg. of once/half yr..

offtopic: Is it possible to eliminate/correct bad sectors by formatting..?

NO. Bad sectors cannot be removed. But we can replace the windows files that got corrupted due to bad sector.

hmmmm ohh ok this maybe the correct version..

i dont exactly remember when i have formatted my machine, might be 9 -10 months before . Does frequently formatting affects the performance of the harddisk/ pendrives ?.

I used to re-install Windows XP 3-5 times a month. The reason is mostly because I try installing some Linux distros and always causes problem when uninstalling. Now I use Virtualbox for that.

Originally Posted by meetdilip

NO. Bad sectors cannot be removed. But we can replace the windows files that got corrupted due to bad sector.

Is it possible to check the no. of bad sectors?

Originally Posted by NrN Kill

Is it possible to check the no. of bad sectors?

Yes just run the windows checkdisk with option check for bad sectors and after its complete it will show you the summary which also contains no of bad sectors.

Originally Posted by NrN Kill

Is it possible to check the no. of bad sectors?

I use TuneUp Utilities for this purpose. It is a very effective tool.

Hi guys


hey....here is the amazing way to keep away Total formatting of pc,
except nasty hardware problems



and this is The Greatest Solution for all "most of the emergency problems"......

simply install the operating system ..... as an addition... on your other drive
......called as multi-booting system
which is very easy,very usual & incredibly useful.
It means installing operating system again but on ur other drive
so that in emergency ,you can simply shift to the other operating system on ur Hard Disk
and can solve the issues OR can so easily & so quickly format the infected Operating System-Drive

I format my PC only when absolutely necessary. I have done this 5 times in the last 6 years:

1. First time - upgraded from Win 98 to Win 2000
2. Reformatted because of various issues (Win 2000)
3. Upgraded to Win XP/Pro
4. Purchased licensed copy of XP (eight months later)
5. Reformatted because of various issues (XP/Pro)

Originally Posted by Sumit020

I regularly format & reinstall windows at once a month... Because some software are trial versions... & their crack are hard to find...

not a good idea. ur gonna kill ur HDD.

Originally Posted by talktoanil

Simple..how many times ?
Since Windows 7, its Once in last 6 months that too because of my mistake.
When i was using XP which lacks robust security as Windows 7 has, i used to format atleast once a month.

What do you mean by formatting ?
Does it mean that installing a new copy of OS ?
Because that happens once in a month or may be twice.
If you mean ,formatting a normal drive, there is no specific pattern, depends upon the requirement.

I started a similar kind of thread on IBB some months ago about the frequency of OS installation.

thanks aktmnr & dilip..

@rajan- can you please elaborate...

Originally Posted by rahul19ie

Hi guys


hey....here is the amazing way to keep away Total formatting of pc,
except nasty hardware problems



and this is The Greatest Solution for all "most of the emergency problems"......

simply install the operating system ..... as an addition... on your other drive
......called as multi-booting system
which is very easy,very usual & incredibly useful.
It means installing operating system again but on ur other drive
so that in emergency ,you can simply shift to the other operating system on ur Hard Disk
and can solve the issues OR can so easily & so quickly format the infected Operating System-Drive

Well, but how do you solve problems arising from viruses that don't go even after formatting your native windows OS drive ?

Shifting your work to a back up HDD is just like running away from problem. But how do you deal with problem ??????????

If you really want to keep your work safe at the same time keeping all the settings and softwares in your native OS, then use some tool like clonezilla to make an image of your naive OS (C drive.) from time to time which you can restore in case of any crash.

Except the boot sector viruses , you can simply just delete almost any MS windows virus from your HDD with little bit of experience and use of any latest live OS. Takes some time but works well, like search and destroy. Because you can format your windows partition but sometimes it becomes impossible to remove any virus which sits quietly in your non OS drive and comes back every time you install a fresh copy of windows OS. It is impractical to just format all the drives at a time .

I am searching for ways to backup and restore LINUX(with MBR) ,but yet to find out anything working 100%. Any help will be much appreciated.

I don't format .I have GNU/Linux.It works!

Originally Posted by puchu

Well, but how do you solve problems arising from viruses that don't go even after formatting your native windows OS drive ?

Shifting your work to a back up HDD is just like running away from problem. But how do you deal with problem ??????????

If you really want to keep your work safe at the same time keeping all the settings and softwares in your native OS, then use some tool like clonezilla to make an image of your naive OS (C drive.) from time to time which you can restore in case of any crash.

Except the boot sector viruses , you can simply just delete almost any MS windows virus from your HDD with little bit of experience and use of any latest live OS. Takes some time but works well, like search and destroy. Because you can format your windows partition but sometimes it becomes impossible to remove any virus which sits quietly in your non OS drive and comes back every time you install a fresh copy of windows OS. It is impractical to just format all the drives at a time .

I am searching for ways to backup and restore LINUX(with MBR) ,but yet to find out anything working 100%. Any help will be much appreciated.

can you post the link to download the software.

and guide how to use this software.

Originally Posted by money_ms

can you post the link to download the software.

and guide how to use this software.

google it
easy to find
burn the ISO-bootable (about 110MB)
then explore
The tool is meant only for drive and HDD cloning, very simple, so no need of any guidance. Try it.
Still if you find problem then ask.

BTW, the tool has a few drawbacks, such as, it cannot create partitions and it won't detect free disk space. It only shows the prepartitioned(both formatted and non-fomatted) spaces on HDD. This is applicable only during drive cloning.
There is also an MBR problem, but the problem is only for LINUX users, not for MS based OS users.

I am a bit busy for my interviews now. If I find time, I will post a review on clonezilla in the LIVE OS review thread.