> jo <kisei@lineone.net> wrote: 
>>Mark Carter wrote: 
>>>jo wrote: 
>>>> Mark Carter wrote: 
>>>>Maybe I shouldn't be reformatting my hard drive all the time, innit. 
>>> Yeah 
>>> So much easier to delete Windows in DOS, then reinstall from a folder on
>>> your HD. 
>>> Does one gain much by formatting? 
>>What I generally do is save my personal data to a separate medium, and 
>>then zap the hard drive. It means reinstalling all the apps, and setting 
>>up other stuff manually. It flushes out all the old crud that tends to 
>>accumulate on hard disks; but it also fairly easy to throw the baby out 
>>with the bathwater. Reinstallation usually results in a leaner, more 
>>stable, and faster system. Potentially it can transform a computer 
>>bogged down in sludge into a system that's actually quite usable. I tend 
>>to notice this more on other people's systems; mine, after all, don't 
>>make it through the year without being zapped at least once. 
>But does one gain much over my method? My method has the advantage of
>speed, and many of your innstalled apps still  work afterwards. The crud
>that does the bogging down of a system builds up in Win/System so if the
>whole Windows folder is deleted then, as your way, one gets a much
>faster system back. 
>I just don't any real benefit to formatting... this is partly down to
>laziness, partly ignorance.

I think the better approach is either creation of the boot disk image
immediately after setting up a new install, or using a program like
xxcopy to create a bootable copy. Either of these saves tons of time
and have the same effect of formatting and reinstalling everything by
hand.

The method I'm using is for XP. After doing a clean install (format,
install, get all critical updates, set _everything_ up... ISP dialer,
email program, etc.)  simply create an image on another partition.
This image contains everything done in the time intensive flat-footed
initial install. Anytime it looks at me funny I can simply restore the
image and I'm back to square one, a fresh install with no exploits,
with everything setup and ready to go. AV programs, new critical
updates and such must be fetched, but it's quite a bit better than the
flat-footed approach all over again, especially for those on dialup.

On another partition I keep all documents and downloaded programs so
they are still there.

Pretty much the same thing can be done with Win 9x. I don't recall if
this works on ME or not. A boot manager like XOSL is necessary here in
order to keep three bootable partitions using xxcopy with the /clone
switch.

Do complete install on C:
xxcopy /clone C: to D:
xxcopy /clone C: to E:

Here, simply use XOSL to boot off the D: (a bootable copy). 
format C: (main boot partition) 
and copy the "base image" off E: to C:
(E: is the real backup, C: is the main boot partition, D: is just used
to boot from to free C: and E:) 

This solves the files locked problems and works like a charm. I used
it for quite awhile with Win 98SE. And by golly, you'll have one
partition _somewhere_ that you can boot off of out of the three! <G>

Well, as long as you don't get a really bad worm that scrambles files
on other partitions. To guard, use PGP Disk to place D: and E: copies
in for protection.