When do you format your PC?

RinaLasnier · #1 (**permalink**) 07-03-2009, 06:42 AM

I always encounter different kinds of virus despite having a working antivirus and ending up formatting my PC at least once a month. How about you guys?

marshalprince7 · #2 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 01:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RinaLasnier

I always encounter different kinds of virus despite having a working antivirus and ending up formatting my PC at least once a month. How about you guys?

almost same here, but varies sometime 2-3 months. It sucks to work on PCs which are slowed down by the viruses specially when you are doing something very important.

**htmlbasictutor** · #3 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 01:59 AM

When I break it.

Think I went 4 years before I formatted last July.

jimisan · #4 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 09:31 PM

Try avoid sharing pendrive/flashdrive and opening suspicious files or programs from social sites or friends. If viable use paid anti-virus and update your windows systems frequently to protect security holes. Hope this helps.

**Jay.M** · #5 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 11:51 PM

When I ran 98se I formatted about once every 6 months... 2k, maybe once a year... XP once every year or two.

On Vista I reinstalled once- I was having issues and figured a clean install would help in dealing with it. It didn't. But it was Vista either. So far, I don't really see a need to reinstall and its been almost a year. It cleans up well.

**ScriptMan** · #6 (**permalink**) 07-05-2009, 10:00 AM

Only when I have to. This load has been running for about 2.5 years. I find paying for a good AV to be eassier than all the reloads.

RinaLasnier · #7 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marshalprince7

almost same here, but varies sometime 2-3 months. It sucks to work on PCs which are slowed down by the viruses specially when you are doing something very important.

Yes, its very annoying when a virus slows down your PC and affects your work.

dWhite · #8 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 06:50 AM

Quarterly.

warrichpk · #9 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 06:58 AM

me forget my pc every month cos its working slow

**~kev~** · #10 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 07:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RinaLasnier

I always encounter different kinds of virus despite having a working antivirus and ending up formatting my PC at least once a month. How about you guys?

Format once a month???? I format every 4 - 5 years. But that is usually when I upgrade my hardware and do a fresh install of the OS to get make sure there are no conflicts with the old drivers.

If you are having that many problems, stop using internet explorer and start using Firefox. That should fix a lot of your problems. And make sure you have a hardware firewall.

Cars-blog · #11 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 07:56 AM

I hardly ever reformat, unless I want to change operating systems

blazin1 · #12 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RinaLasnier

I always encounter different kinds of virus despite having a working antivirus and ending up formatting my PC at least once a month. How about you guys?

I reformat every 6-12 months. If something happens and my computer acts up before that I will reformat sooner.

**Hades** · #13 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 12:46 PM

The first versions of Windows were more prone to break and I had to format every few months. With XP about every 6 months.

Since I installed Vista I never did it. I found it much easier to keep the computer organized and stable, even with the default Windows Defender and Firewall the computer ran fine and when I ocassionally installed a third party AV to check if something was wrong, it didn't find anything.

**~kev~** · #14 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hades

The first versions of Windows were more prone to break and I had to format every few months. With XP about every 6 months.

I dont know what "early" versions of windows you were using. But I rarely had windows 95 or 98 break. In the 4 or so years that I used windows 98, I never had to reinstall it.

**Hades** · #15 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~kev~

I dont know what "early" versions of windows you were using. But I rarely had windows 95 or 98 break. In the 4 or so years that I used windows 98, I never had to reinstall it.

I meant Win. 95, Win. 98 and Win. Me, specially that last one.

It might have to do with the fact that I was just learning the basics of programming and they were based on MS-DOS, then I had to edit batch files (ie: autoexec.bat) and also used to edit and delete more dlls and core files than I would do now.

But I still have the feeling that Vista is much more stable than all those.

DanPonjican · #16 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 02:22 PM

Once a year typically for me.

**htmlbasictutor** · #17 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 02:25 PM

Only time I've had to reinstall Win 95, 98 and XP were when I was tinkering and broke it myself.

larryatv7 · #18 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 11:46 PM

I have never done that.

teamnirvana · #19 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 12:33 AM

I formatted my PC 15 months back, to be exact.

Always update your antivirus and keep scanning ur entire PC, full scan, for any traces of virii.

RinaLasnier · #20 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 04:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~kev~

Format once a month???? I format every 4 - 5 years. But that is usually when I upgrade my hardware and do a fresh install of the OS to get make sure there are no conflicts with the old drivers.

If you are having that many problems, stop using internet explorer and start using Firefox. That should fix a lot of your problems. And make sure you have a hardware firewall.

Yeah once a month because my pc is five years old this 2009 that is why its kinda slow because my specs are pretty low.