If you have 2 sticks of ram you can try 1 and interchanging them, it's doubtful they'd both break at the same time.

What does 'your computer wouldn't load' mean? Do you see the bios? Do you see windows startup? If you can get to Safe mode I'm assuming windows starts booting at least?

I rarely re-install my computer, usually only when I get new hard drives or a new OS.
And when I do I typically back-up most of the important things that aren't already online, which these days is a pretty small selection.
I did lose a ton of sh.. stuff back in the day though because I was constantly trying out new distro's and things.

I mean that it will get to this screen that says "windows startup repair(recomended) or option two: start windows normally. if i start windows normally, the little logo with the colors that swirl and form the windows logo shows, then a blue screen pops up really fast, too fast to read anything, and the system restarts. this happens even if i start it in safe mode.i can mess with bios all i want thats no problem. i had 100's of gigs of free space on my hard drive!

I could "break" WinXP for fun, so it was pretty much every other month on average.
I've been on W7 now for a few years, and only had to completely wipe and reinstall a couple of times.

The trick is to only install your programs and utilities onto the C: / boot drive, and put all your important pics/vids/games/whatever on D: and other drives...if you can fit more than one drive

That way, there's only the files you save/download from online to backup if you feel like backing up installers for programmes you use a lot....

Never. I keep my baby in tip top shape.

Depends how deep you want to go into administering your system.

Just with the registry, it consider it less of a hassle to just re-install than keeping myself up to date with which entry is for what.

And then, there is corruption in the filesystem (especially likely if you reboot when an application that is writing to the hard disk "freezes").

The anal way would probably be do to a hash checksum on various system files, but who can be bothered?

I just can't be bothered with Windows. I consider it more of a play OS. If it breaks, throw & replace.

Since switching to Windows 7 I think that I've only reinstalled Windows a couple of times that wasn't as a result of changing hard drives.

I re-installed Win7/64bit from the scratch on my newest PC week after purchase, just because I wasn't happy with the default two partition setting (I wanted one big partition). Maybe I could have merged the partitions without re-installation, but I thought what the heck, got to verify the recovery process at the same time.

I might also want to reinstall my work Win7 system pretty soon, just to see if I can get rid of those "machine jamming with light-blue screen" problems that happen sometimes. I hadn't seen them for a long time, but now as I re-installed Firefox, they are back (I've had it like four times this week already, before that probably not for months). Somehow I felt also earlier they might be somehow related to Firefox, but then they may occur even if I don't use run Firefox. Go figure.

With Linux, I think I'd need to re-install sometimes simply because I become unhappy by where my distro of choice is suddenly heading, and decide to jump ship to another distro. :)

And I don't remember with which distro it was (could have been Fedora), but at one point I think they warned that in order to move to the next major release, it was advisable not to upgrade directly, but reinstall the new release from a scratch. Possibly something about there being not enough room in some mini-partition for the upgrade or something... Then again, I am unsure if that case is more like moving from e.g. WinXP to Win7, rather than just maintaining the same release.

It is a bit hard to make direct parallels with Linux and Windows world, as the release cycles seem to be so different. XP has been around for more than a decade, while new major Linux distro releases seem to come out every two years or so (and support for the older releases also seem to end faster).

I reinstalled once due to a horrible malware infestation way back before I knew anything about computers (well, actually, I got someone else to do the reinstall). At that point, basically all I knew about them was how to start up and shut down. That pissed me off so much that I decided I was going to learn my way around.

Since then I build my own machines and install my own OSes. I've never done a reinstall of any machines that I've built.

As for your problem, Ashout, I'd recommend testing your memory with Memtest86+ if you thin it's a RAM issue. If it's not that, as others mentioned, try booting with a Linux CD to see if you can mount the hard drive. If you can, then it's likely something to do with the MBR, in which case, you can try to repair it. I'd only do a reinstall of the OS as a very last resort.

Unless, of course, there's nothing on your hard drive that you care about losing. In that case, reinstalling isn't really an issue.

I do a thorough cleaning of my system with a registered copy of Advanced System Care and also use CCleaner.

I also know where all of the hidden cache and temp folders are in XP and I keep those cleared as often as possible.

It's not the one piece or marketing ware that builds on up on your PC but hundreds of them that unintentionally starting leaving opening for more malicious files to make way onto your system.

However, as rule of thumb, you should do a full format every four months anyway.

And yeah, four months is about the time that I find myself fighting a big virus and have to format anyway.

But then again I also visit abandonware sites, I'm into old console emulation and, once in a blue moon, I'll go on a porn spree for a day or two.

I'll admit, i used abandonware too. maybe that was what did it.


heres the deal:

after i reinstall or whatever it is i do, I'm going to never again do either of the following:

porn or abandonware.

it's only legitimate browsing from here on out.

yeah, I always say in the midst of being hammered out of my mind "oh, I'm never drinking again..." *throws up*

This or a serious machine upgrade.


OP, download a bootable Linux, Ubuntu is fine. Does it boot when you stick it in the CD/DVD drive (make sure the BIOS is set to boot from here first)?

If so it's not the hardware.

If it doesn't it's your hardware.

Regardless, unless your hard drive had a head crash you can get the data back off.

The Windows (XP) install I had before my current Win7 install lasted 5 years, and was still working fine at the end (I just ended up mothballing the whole machine when I built my new one- it could be hooked back up in a couple minutes if I ever have need of it). And the XP install I had before that one lasted around 4 years I think (and again, just got mothballed when I built a new PC). I also tend to go several months between reboots, and then usually just because of updates that require a reboot. Take proper care of a computer and it tends to run quite well for a long time.

My XP rig has been going for 6 1/2 years with no re-install and I see no reason to do one. It's still working great.