Posted on Sunday 22nd of October 2006 at 14:05 in Software

Formatting is a form of tourettes

That time honoured concept of the cure being worse than the illness. Obviously you can apply this to any element of computing because quite often the solution can cause more problems than the original problem... For example, having spy-ware on your machine which slows down your boot times is often fixed by the installation of an Anti-Virus application. It's reasonably well documented that Anti-Virus software is one of the worst culprits for slowing your beloved rig down - therefore the cure is worse than the illness.

But how far does this problem stretch? Modern society is based around getting solutions immediately rather than living in minor inconvenience. Therefore any minor system "niggle" is dealt with using the entire arsenal of free software that the internet has to offer (and sometimes, depending on the individual - pirated commercial software if they refuse to purchase it), often slowing the machine down, making it run slower but leaving the user safe in the knowledge that whatever problem was there before has now been smothered by a hundred-weight of applications.

I'm old school but I appreciate that formatting a computer at the first sign of trouble is a mild form of tourettes

Traditionally I'll format a machine if I deem its troubles outweigh my enthusiasm. I appreciate there are only a few problems that can't be solved without formatting but I find that a fresh install every 6 months or so helps me keep on top of driver cleaning and software versioning. Although, I won't recommend this any time soon...

XP has been out so long that a complete format is an incredibly long and tiresome affair with hours of sitting Windows Update, restart, update, restart etc. Then comes the anti-virus (if you bother with one). You're looking at obtaining all your new drivers, installing Office, an SQL server, Apache/Tomcat/Jboss, an FTP server, getting your browser and plug-ins sorted again... Not to mention getting everything exactly how you like it... I'm determined to avoid formatting until I make a firm decision on a new operating system.

It's not a good idea to format now... A new O/S is around the corner (Vista) and I'm not convinced I'll stay on a Microsoft product. It's a 2-3 day affair getting things back to normal

It needs to be said that today's internet browsing is synonymous with playing dodge-ball with malware/spyware... Every turn results in something untoward being pushed in your direction but there are ways of removing them without using 24/7 protection. The use of on-demand anti-spy-ware scanners is clearly the way forward to prevent your system being subjected to the evils of most anti-viruses.

Drivers are one of the other main causes for conflict, but these can also be dealt with using Driver Cleaners (Google it if unsure) rather than resorting to a good old format.

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