Format hard drive win7 64 bit

Would formating my hardrive and reinstalling win7 speed up my laptop?
Which way will be the best to do it? Do i create a partition not to lose all graphix and sounds software? Thanks

Thanks, i have tried most of those steps but still running slow. The laptop is about two years old. Maybe formating the hard drive is the best option for me.

What exactly is your goal, and can you describe in more detail what you feel is running too slow on your system - is it a particular application, a hardware component (i.e. copying/moving files on the HD, slow 3D graphics)...

There are many ways to speed up a computer. Some ways will affect the whole system, some will give a boost to certain components. Reinstalling the entire OS is a good way for a fresh start but it shouldn't be done just for the sake of speeding up things. That's not likely to happen unless there's an actual problem with the current system.

Can you not take your laptop to the factory condition using the recovery option? That should put your lappie in mint condition and thereafter you can reinstall only the programs you require.( This if you haven't made your own install)

Reinstalls would definitely clean all the muck that you could have accumulated in the past few years. Some users do reinstall the OS periodically for the same.

Keeping the data in a seperate partition is always best. Your system backups will then be less bulky and your reinstalls/restoring system a lot easier. Otherwise before a reinstall you will have to search and back up all data.

At least telling us who manufactured your laptop would help us in giving you the correct recovery procedure.

Do you have a set of recovery discs or a Windows DVD?

A factory restore would help, but you'll then need to reinstall all your applications as well as backing up your personal data before hand.

Have you run Disk Cleanup?

Have you run a virus scan?

Have you uninstalled any programs you no longer use?

We do need your system specs as well as details of anything you might have installed or were doing when you noticed the performance being throttled.