Fresh Installs

[Fogduck]

Maybe I've just lost my faith in the integrity of this complex software/hardware combination under my desk, but:

I keep reading this forum and finding users with damn near the SAME hardware and software setup that I have, and yet these users are having mysterious problems I have never seen.

Since I picked up my G400, three other co-workers have picked up various flavours of the G400 as well. Two are on Athlon-based systems, like myself.

The only one of us who EVER had problems was the one who did not just assume a fresh-install of Windows would be a good thing and had a) less than expected performance and b) general instability.

I know its a pain in the ass, but sadly its some mix of the Registry, the Windows driver model, etc. that makes fresh installs so necessary in ensuring that not only your hardware works as WELL as expected, but works AT ALL sometimes.

Its a pain in the ass, but once you get used to re-installing your system, you get rather automatic about it, until it becomes only a few hours wasted to start your OS from scratch and get all your goodies and apps re-installed and re-configured.

(moderator: probably General Hardware, I know)

[Cowboy]

Get a copy of Norton Ghost, do your fresh install, then make an image, save to cd if you have the means. Re-installing system cut to 5 mins.I have 2 different images...a bare bones with no specific drivers (for when i add new hardware) this one takes about 2mins to re-install windows as opposed to half an hour. The other is with all drivers, and commonly used programs (except games image would be HUGE) this one takes about 5 mins.
This is just a lot faster for those who do frequent fresh installs.
Cowboy

[Kruzin]

While a fresh install in definatly one way to go (it will always give you a fresh registry and drivers), it's a huge pain.

IMO, the way to go is to learn how to hack your registry, so you can keep it in working order. It is the registry that makes so many people re-install when it gets out of order.

I have not done a full re-install of Windows for years. My last "full" install was when 95b first came out, then I upgraded to 98 without a full re-install. Through many hard drives, mobos, and countless driver updates, I have simply maintained my registry. And my system is extremely stable, and all of my benchmarks are on par with similar systems.

A Windows re-install is a last, last, final resort in my book.....