Clean install every year or two?

[nate42nd]

My system wouldn't start today and I tried a "startup repair" to no avail. A system restore to no avail, and an image recovery. The recovery program wouldn't even detect the image on my external eSATA drive. I didn't know what to do. I tried everything I have learned on this site.

I have had an SSD for more than a year and had turned off superfetch, prefetch and a whole bunch of services, modified the pagefile and had programs spread all over 3 drives. I think my Windows install just "gave up"

I ended up doing a clean install and all is well. Luckily I had all data on different drives so I didn't loose much. I just use my SSD for Windows. There may have been a solution, but sometimes.....does one simply have to do a clean install every year or two? I have heard people say this is the case and with all my system mods....I think it was the case with me....especially with my very complicated system mods.

If anyone has experience with this let me know. Thanks.

P.S. I have been away from the forums for far too long. I need to get back to work helping people. Sorry for not being here to help for a few months. I have been busy with photography and video with my new Canon 500D and 7D. It takes all of my time

 

[Night Hawk]

I'm in good shape simply going six months like one 64bit RC install saw!

The startup problems were not Windows related on the last build however. I just received the replacement bios chip that will need to be soldered in. But the case lasted 3yrs. despite various dual and multiboots anyways!

The new build? The spare supply first used wiped the first board out! fuming for sure! GGrrrr.... But before the memory was swapped for a different brand requiring a fresh clean install within the first two weeks.

Some people simply prefer a clean install every year or so often simply to keep Windows as fresh as possible. If you are constantly adding and removing a variety of programs the system registry will tend to get loaded up with leftovers there. Drives see other clutter of temp folders left by installers, etc..

 

[nate42nd]

I was VERY concerned that I might have a hardware problem. I still may.

I assume that having Superfetch off and programs, pagefile, and everything else scattered around 3 hard drives for a year took it's toll. I used this machine non-stop and it's been on for a year strait, only rebooting for updates.

I wonder how many others do a clean install every year or so. It feels good to start clean.

Good to hear from you again Night Hawk

 

[Lemur]

For users in a work setting, they are restricted as to what they can d/l, install, and browse. Those machines tend to have less trouble and fewer needs for OS installs. I try using virtual PCs to test out new software and, as a result, my registry is less screwed up. Still, with my own drives imaged, I usually blow out the operating systems once a year. I don't recall having to install new operating systems for Ubuntu. I just keep upgrading. But I use it a whole lot less.
Nate, I wonder why you weren't able to install from your image?

 

[Night Hawk]

The SuperFetch should actually be left on since that runs in very low key to maintain things like the fragmentation level on drives. That's one of the more useful background services for memory management seen there.

With the 64bit Windows you can practically do away with the paging file since more data is already loaded into the active ram to begin with. No great loss not having one!

You could easily be now seeing a few bad sectors or a few corrupted system files where an upgrade repair install or simply moving onto a clean one would solve everything. Run a good drive tool however to see the drive is now seeing some wear. (nothing beats a clean fresh install of 7 for sure! )

Hope you grabbed some fabulous photos while you were gone to make it worthwhile!

 

[zigzag3143]

My system wouldn't start today and I tried a "startup repair" to no avail. A system restore to no avail, and an image recovery. The recovery program wouldn't even detect the image on my external eSATA drive. I didn't know what to do. I tried everything I have learned on this site.

I have had an SSD for more than a year and had turned off superfetch, prefetch and a whole bunch of services, modified the pagefile and had programs spread all over 3 drives. I think my Windows install just "gave up"

I ended up doing a clean install and all is well. Luckily I had all data on different drives so I didn't loose much. I just use my SSD for Windows. There may have been a solution, but sometimes.....does one simply have to do a clean install every year or two? I have heard people say this is the case and with all my system mods....I think it was the case with me....especially with my very complicated system mods.

If anyone has experience with this let me know. Thanks.

P.S. I have been away from the forums for far too long. I need to get back to work helping people. Sorry for not being here to help for a few months. I have been busy with photography and video with my new Canon 500D and 7D. It takes all of my time

I too do extensive system mods. I also find a clean install is needed but in my case it is much more frequent. I do a clean install about every three months

 

[Night Hawk]

Once I get everything set here I make a few master images and tuck those away on other drives in case one has a need. I even revise those at times due to the present software configurations in the event a beta for something causes problems.

Some simply can't be reinstalled without buying a new license all over again for each while files are always backed up elsewhere in case a fresh install is in need. I won't be down long for that.

 

[gregrocker]

Hi Nate -

Did you place the Win7 backup image in the root of the drive and make sure it was named WindowsImageBackup and only that - otherwise it won't be detected in my experience.

I am a clean reinstall guy but find that with built-in drive imaging it isn't really necessary if you keep a baseline image - except for fun.

I also strongly believe that tweaks and mods work against you and agree with your theory that they mounted up to bork your System in this case. Win7 is nearly perfectly balanced and only needs regular system settings.

In particular, SuperPrefetch is perhaps the great genius feature of Win7 OS.

 

[Night Hawk]

The main folder can be renamed even when booted from the 7 dvd for seeing a select image restored. I added the month at the end of "WindowsImageBackup_August" and simply left the user name sub folder unchanged.

Both booted live and while in the CP see the option to browse when not electing to use the first autodetected as the latest. The images are at the root of the two storage drives one intended strictly for images and VHD storage while the latest is also seen on the primary storage drive for ready access.

As far as modding Windows constantly that can lead to more frequent problems without a doubt. Changing themes is not what is meant by this but trying out a ton of speed 'em tweakers and performance optimizer downloads and other ??? will tend to gum up the works at times.

(some even have hidden bugs depending on where they come from!)

 

[marsmimar]

This might be a no-brainer type question. Hope you don't mind. My laptop has a manufacturer's recovery partition that let's me restore my machine to a like new condition. Is this type of install as good as a traditional clean install using an installation disk? (Aside from having to remove the manufacturer's crapware that also gets installed.) Thanks for any advice pro or con. And my apologies if this should be a separate question. If so, I'll delete and repost.

 

[gregrocker]

Not really. The bloatware is corrupting even with its uninstallation, often damaging System Files beyond repair. Most tech enthusiasts find a clean-copy installer to clean reinstall using the Product Key on COA sticker on machine.

If you make your Recovery disk set, you can even wipe the entire HD of factory code to get the cleanest possible reinstall. Any factory utilities will not be useable with the reinstall anyway -Windows 7 has better ones built in - so those partitions can go also.

I am not saying to rush into this. Do the research and ask plenty of questions. Try first to uninstall the bloatware over time using Revo Uninstaller in Advanced mode - it will run the Windows uninstaller for you but don't restart when prompted, instead click Next to delete hidden registry keys and files it cues up.

Uncheck everything in msconfig>Startup except AV and gadgets as other programs are freeloading on your RAM or spying on you and can wait til you click on them. Use a lightweight free AV like MS Security Essentials or Avast 5. Monitor your Event Viewer to google repeat errors to resolution, and run sfc /scannow to check sysfiles condition.

Here is the experience of someone who just clean reinstalled to overcome bloatware. He had other issues, but the thread documents pretty much everything you need to know: http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...ndows-7-preinstalled-computer.html#post906143

 

[marsmimar]

Not really. The bloatware is corrupting even with its uninstallation, often damaging System Files beyond repair. Most tech enthusiasts find a clean-copy installer to clean reinstall using the Product Key on COA sticker on machine.

If you make your Recovery disk set, you can even wipe the entire HD of factory code to get the cleanest possible reinstall. Any factory utilities will not be useable with the reinstall anyway -Windows 7 has better ones built in - so those partitions can go also.

I am not saying to rush into this. Do the research and ask plenty of questions. Try first to uninstall the bloatware over time using Revo Uninstaller in Advanced mode - it will run the Windows uninstaller for you but don't restart when prompted, instead click Next to delete hidden registry keys and files it cues up.

Uncheck everything in msconfig>Startup except AV and gadgets as other programs are freeloading on your RAM or spying on you and can wait til you click on them. Use a lightweight free AV like MS Security Essentials or Avast 5. Monitor your Event Viewer to google repeat errors to resolution, and run sfc /scannow to check sysfiles condition.

Here is the experience of someone who just clean reinstalled to overcome bloatware. He had other issues, but the thread documents pretty much everything you need to know: http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...ndows-7-preinstalled-computer.html#post906143

I really appreciate the advice. Thank you.

 

[nate42nd]

Nate, I wonder why you weren't able to install from your image?

This is my main concern. It makes me wonder if i have a hardware problem, but it's been good since the clean install.

My system wouldn't start today and I tried a "startup repair" to no avail. A system restore to no avail, and an image recovery. The recovery program wouldn't even detect the image on my external eSATA drive. I didn't know what to do. I tried everything I have learned on this site.

I have had an SSD for more than a year and had turned off superfetch, prefetch and a whole bunch of services, modified the pagefile and had programs spread all over 3 drives. I think my Windows install just "gave up"

I ended up doing a clean install and all is well. Luckily I had all data on different drives so I didn't loose much. I just use my SSD for Windows. There may have been a solution, but sometimes.....does one simply have to do a clean install every year or two? I have heard people say this is the case and with all my system mods....I think it was the case with me....especially with my very complicated system mods.

If anyone has experience with this let me know. Thanks.

P.S. I have been away from the forums for far too long. I need to get back to work helping people. Sorry for not being here to help for a few months. I have been busy with photography and video with my new Canon 500D and 7D. It takes all of my time

I too do extensive system mods. I also find a clean install is needed but in my case it is much more frequent. I do a clean install about every three months

Thanks for the reply. I thought the many mods would catch up with me sooner than a year. I hope that's all it was. I don't understand why it wouldnt detect my image however. I tried it on another system and the external was fine and the image was there....

 

[nate42nd]

This might be a no-brainer type question. Hope you don't mind. My laptop has a manufacturer's recovery partition that let's me restore my machine to a like new condition. Is this type of install as good as a traditional clean install using an installation disk? (Aside from having to remove the manufacturer's crapware that also gets installed.) Thanks for any advice pro or con. And my apologies if this should be a separate question. If so, I'll delete and repost.

I agree with the great advice gregrocker gave you. Find an installer disk or make a USB flash drive installer. I have a video on YouTube under the same user name on how to do it. It's not too hard if you have a windows 7 disk.....don't know about having an OEM one though. It might take some more steps.

 

[cluberti]

Actually, for folks with an OEM load, I generally back up the activation license files and data, and do a clean installation including replacing the OEM licensing data back down (thus re-activating the install). I make a system image backup of that once all of their basic software is installed and configured (not the stuff that updates regularly like flash, pdf reader software, etc), and they use that to restore when necessary.

To answer the original question on this thread, I try to avoid reinstalls whenever possible - I have had multiple Win7 RTM installations on many of my machines since July and August of last year, and I've not had to reinstall even one.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Nate, glad to see you back around.

 

[Night Hawk]

If you can cut the OEM garbage the recovery will be a fresh install that first wipes whatever you have on now to see that done. You would first want to backup anything you want from the C volume before using it for that reason. But it's a preactivated fresh install seen.

 

[nate42nd]

Hello Nate, glad to see you back around.

Thanks BFK, I have missed all of you. I have been sooooo busy. I will stop in more often. It appears I may have to diagnose a hardware problem if these issues continue. That wil keep me even busier. haha

I'm not sure how to diagnose a CPU or motherboard problem. I can test RAM and the PSU, but if it's a board or CPU.....I don't know how to diagnose that stuff...but that's for another thread.

Good to be back.

 

[Night Hawk]

I shopped around a bit and located a few motherboard testers. You can find some with the 4 digit displays good for both laptops and desktops alike.

To see how one of those looks, PCI Test Card, PC Analyzer, Motherboard Test Card

I didn't pay anywhere that price for a few on EBay however while the one shown there offers a bit more! Once you power up with it in a pci slot you simply look up the code in reference booklet that comes along with it. The code will point to the part of the board like bios to indicate where any fault is found if one is present.

 

[nate42nd]

I shopped around a bit and located a few motherboard testers. You can find some with the 4 digit displays good for both laptops and desktops alike.

To see how one of those looks, PCI Test Card, PC Analyzer, Motherboard Test Card

I didn't pay anywhere that price for a few on EBay however while the one shown there offers a bit more! Once you power up with it in a pci slot you simply look up the code in reference booklet that comes along with it. The code will point to the part of the board like bios to indicate where any fault is found if one is present.

Thanks Night Hawk I didn't know these things existed. Maybe I could use one.