<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>I just did a recent reinstall of XP Home SP2 on the kid's pc because I was putting in a fresh hard drive<p><hr></blockquote><p>You know, I really wonder WTF people do to their comps. All I ever see on these forums is "well dammit, wipe and reinstall!!!"<br><br>Holy crap people, that's the idiot's way out, and you waste half your life doing so. Not to mention wear and tear on the HD.<br><br>This old beat up athlon I'm typing on at the moment has been around for damn near 7 years. Granted, I've updated it a dozen times to keep it as current as possible... but it has NEVER been wiped and restored. I don't take it easy on a machine either.<br><br>Now, a new HD is certainly a good time to install windows over, but even when I've replaced or upgraded the HD in this thing - twice - I've never reinstalled Windows because frankly it's a PITA. Why waste an hour when you can normally fix the problem in 10 minutes? Like the lost password.<br><br>Praise the lord I'm not a dumb ass MCSE or reinstall is all I'd ever do.<br><br><br><br>Hey I'm an F'n Jerk!®

The idiots way out is to use a PC on a regular basis in the first place. <br><br>Wear and tear on the HD? With MTBF's being at least 1 million hours or more that's a lame one.<br><br>------> JD's Trivia game<br><br>------> MCF-MM Trivia game

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p> With MTBF's being at least 1 million hours or more that's a lame one.<p><hr></blockquote><p>lol... tell that to the massive amounts who bought IBM drives a few years back to only have them become bricks.<br><br>Magnetic media has a finite life span, period. Every time you read from it, or write to it you weaking it's magnetic signal and you decrease it's life. A drive that isn't defragged weekly will outlive one that is by at least two fold.<br><br>The only thing lame is thinking defragging and wiping/reinstalling on a regular basis doesn't have a negative effect on the hardware.<br><br><br><br>Hey I'm an F'n Jerk!®

Well to be fair, the Dell pc in question had a previous owner. I would reformat even if there was nothing wrong just to be sure there's no carryovers from the previous owner. I'd do exactly the same if I received a used Mac.<br><br>But no. I too wouldn't just reformat because it's the easy way out.<br><br>

Yeah, I agree with you because it's used.<br><br>But, if they just want it working it takes 10 minutes to reset the password. Then they can reformat at leisure, if need be.<br><br><br><br>Hey I'm an F'n Jerk!®

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>Magnetic media has a finite life span, period. Every time you read from it, or write to it you weaking it's magnetic signal and you decrease it's life. A drive that isn't defragged weekly will outlive one that is by at least two fold.<p><hr></blockquote><p>LOL. We were talking erasing and installing, not weekly defragging. You'll argue anything to try and prove you're right.<br><br>See ya' in the next thread.<br><br>------> JD's Trivia game<br><br>------> MCF-MM Trivia game

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>You'll argue anything to try and prove you're right.<p><hr></blockquote><p>Yeah, okay.. what about those IBM drives again?<br><br><br><br>Hey I'm an F'n Jerk!®

Yep. Been running a W2K for I guess 5 tears now on a PII box -- got it used with Windows NT on it. Zero re-installs and the BSODs I've had can be counted with the fingers on my right hand.<br><br>I've tweaked and tuned the OS and kept it quite clean all the time. That wipe&reinstall only comes to play with a used computer, and that's it. I've had to move some installations manually on a separate drive in order to save space on the OS partition and then had to fiddle around the register as the installers gave only the C: drive and documents and settings folder as target.<br><br>Lot of people will do the wipe&reinstall thing every time windows starts acting up, because they think it is the easiest way out. Just goes to show how difficult the maintenance has been made, IMO, with hiding a lot of the stuff under various menus and submenus so it may seen easier to to just start from scratch, although then it takes a whole lot more time. Not to mention then you have to reinstall all of your software on top, which is another PITA to do.<br><br>Granted, I've used PCs since DOS days and 286 boxes. Macs more extensively since OS 8 days. The very first thing I noticed years ago with my first Mac, beige G3 with OS 8 was how much simpler the system maintenance was.<br><br>

That's why I buy only Seagate.<br><br>------> JD's Trivia game<br><br>------> MCF-MM Trivia game

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>The very first thing I noticed years ago with my first Mac, beige G3 with OS 8 was how much simpler the system maintenance was.<p><hr></blockquote><p>Exactly, like you mentioned that's why Windows users wipe and install more. Much less user friendly the way things are buried.<br><br>------> JD's Trivia game<br><br>------> MCF-MM Trivia game