What are the considerations to take regarding whether to reformat Win?

GbeTech · 08 Dec 2017

Hi everyone,

I just graduated, which means I have some free time.
I have a feeling that my laptop will benefit from a clean reformat and a re-install of windows, as it's been acting a little sluggish compared to its first few months out of the box.

Now besides the "price" of the process, which is that it's time-consuming, what do you take into account before deciding whether to reformat or not?
What are the possible arguments against reformatting?

Laptop is ASUS ROG Strix gl702vsk.
Worth mentioning it has a 512GB SSD, which I've heard is best left without excessive read / write actions.

Thanks,
Gilad

Word Man · 08 Dec 2017

Hi, GbeTech -

Can you expand on your use of the term reformat? Usually, people speak here in terms of doing an in-place upgrade/repair of Win10 versus doing a clean install in these kinds of situations. They both have their respective benefits and costs.

Are you concerned about the integrity of your file system? ~~and, if so, is it an HDD or SSD?~~

GbeTech · 08 Dec 2017

Hi Word Man,

What I meant was a complete clean install of Windows. Wipe all the data, install Win again and so on.

wert · 08 Dec 2017

Computers are getting slow and sluggish more or less, depending on what people do with it, especially on the internet. Both ways to speed up a computer again (clean up or clean install) need some knowledge, to do it "right".
In both cases it's a good idea to do a backup of your important stuff or better, a image backup. Also, make sure you have all serial numbers of programs, you additional bought, especially when you do a clean install.

Word Man · 08 Dec 2017

GbeTech said:

Hi Word Man,

What I meant was a complete clean install of Windows. Wipe all the data, install Win again and so on.

Ah, OK.

So, what I take into account primarily is the amount of programs and system customizations I've made since my last clean install. The upgrade/repair install (running the install media's setup.exe live from within Windows) is certainly the least destructive and normally leaves all of your data and installed programs intact.

OTOH, if I don't have a lot of programs that would need reinstalled and depending on the nature of the problem, I am always much more confident in the result of a clean install.

Although I can't speculate on why you have experienced slowdowns (and that could also be the subject of a thread), I don't think many would see a big problem with trying the in-place upgrade/repair first to see if you get any improvement from that.

As wert pointed out, a reliable image taken of the entire disk (with a good 3rd party program, for example: Macrium Reflect (Free or Paid)) is highly recommended before either a repair or clean install.

BTW, there are very good tutorials here in TenForums for either route - just in case you weren't aware.

AddRAM · 08 Dec 2017

A clean install is always best, but if you have a recovery partition, that could save you a lot of time.

As already mentioned, backup all your data. But you should be doing that already :)

GbeTech · 08 Dec 2017

Alright, thanks a lot everyone!

I'll post here if I encounter any problems.

AddRAM · 08 Dec 2017

If you do a clean install, make sure you get your network driver from Asus before you start, that way you can just install it to get online. If you have another computer and a flash drive, then there's no worry.

ASUS USA

Laptops are a bit tougher when it comes to drivers, not difficult, just a bit trickier. It would be nice if a driver cd came with a laptop like they do with a motherboard, but you can always create your own :)