Rbreb13 Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 Man I love the clean OS feeling. Just installed from an image and everything is so much snappier. I actually went about 3 weeks past my normal every 2 months schedule but............ WOOT!! :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruceleeon Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 There isn't anything like a clean OS.... well, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rbreb13 Posted August 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 There isn't anything like a clean OS.... well,Almost nothing anyways.............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[COD]1HellUVAShot Posted August 23, 2003 Report Share Posted August 23, 2003 I know how you feel, I formatted and reloaded my machine this week, so much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimBowy Posted August 23, 2003 Report Share Posted August 23, 2003 The only problem with a nice clean OS is all of your games require being reinstalled! You lose all your saved games/settings (unless they are backed up). Oh yea... and whenever I format I don't know about you guys, but I always find there is something I accidently removed without backing up! Sometimes its IE Favorites, 3 years ago it was commonly my ICQ contact list (before they started saving all data to their servers). That's the worst feeling, when you cook your own data! ARGHH!!! I'm planning on another reformat to WinXp Pro within the next 2 weeks also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rbreb13 Posted August 23, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2003 Nope, reinstalled from a PQ Drive Image. Takes 20-30 minutes, all my data and programs are restored as they were when the image was made. All I have to do is save my Program Files folders from my C: and D: drive and just drop the appropriate program back in. All data and saves and such restored to now. All my games are on E: so they work fine. As soon as everything is up and running correctly and all drivers and updates done. Make a new image for the next time. All told about 2 hours time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimBowy Posted August 23, 2003 Report Share Posted August 23, 2003 Don't some games store data in your My Docs folder though or in the registry? You sure they will work? I have my games installed on Drive G:/ but I always format all partitions and restart the entire installation process over again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rbreb13 Posted August 23, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2003 Never heard of any that do it in the registry. But I have copies of all my important stuff on different drives and different computers. I'm really anal when it comes to backing stuff up. Never know when a hard drive failure is gonna happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruceleeon Posted August 24, 2003 Report Share Posted August 24, 2003 Prior to formatting, I copy game directorys to another drive. Then when its time to get games back on, I install them with the installation image, and copy my game dirs over the new installs. All settings and saves usually follow. The only game I have that I play on a regular basis that saves in My Documents is SimCity 4. did you guys catch that??? I know gman and rb will. (a little group humor in there) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimBowy Posted August 26, 2003 Report Share Posted August 26, 2003 Prior to formatting, I copy game directorys to another drive. Then when its time to get games back on, I install them with the installation image, and copy my game dirs over the new installs. All settings and saves usually follow. The only game I have that I play on a regular basis that saves in My Documents is SimCity 4. did you guys catch that??? I know gman and rb will. (a little group humor in there) Well I didn't catch anything, but then again I'm new to this forum. Anyhow, that sounds like a pretty good idea but your still stuck with reinstallting your games which can take a very long time if you have as many as I do. SimCity 4 is a pretty good game but it's something I never really got into. I found it to be much more difficult to build and maintain a city then SimCity 3000. (the D-word) disasters... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[COD]1HellUVAShot Posted August 26, 2003 Report Share Posted August 26, 2003 I use Ghost to copy partition to another drive prior to reinstalling, and then do the exact same thing Bruce said to do, when restoring game settings/saves. It really isn't that hard or time consuming when you do it as much as I do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimBowy Posted August 26, 2003 Report Share Posted August 26, 2003 Alright cool, I'll have to try that. I just got a copy of Norton Ghost included with the Biostar Motherboard I purchased. Can't wait to try the software out. It will make getting back into the action much quicker than my standarded weekend downtime as I re-tweak the OS and reinstall all of my apps and games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rbreb13 Posted August 26, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2003 Imaging your clean install is the only way to go. Do a clean install, get all the updates, available drivers, Windows etc. Tweak the settings the way you like etc. Do an image and then when you reinstall from an image all your tweaks, wallpaper etc. are already done. It's great. Takes me about 2 hours to have a complete setup. The only things you have to reinstall are the stuff you installed after the image was made and usually thats the stuff that is clogging my system anyways. That and Save every single folder thats going to be imaged so any settings that are there that I need can be dropped back on the imaged folder. Right before you image I always run AdAware, Spybot Search and Destroy, whatever cleanup utility is your fav and then do a Defrag. Then Image immediately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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