I think much of the reformatting performance effect is a bit of a Placebo.
The main reason it doesn't seem so slow is it hasn't had 200 odd Windows updates installed, even if it's installed with the latest SP.
On the other hand it's definitley possible to get to a point where you spend more time googling for soloutions to Windows issues than the time spent restoring either an image or complete clean restart.
I've done plenty of benchmarks. It isn't just placebo. Boot up times (not just to the desktop, but to a usable desktop with all accessory applications loaded and ready) can often be improved by a measurable amount.
I think it is less Windows Updates and more incremental driver updates and software installers that cause issues. That's because you need to immediately re-apply all those Windows Updates patches anyway (and a SP is just a collection of mostly previously released patches). Sometimes it is the issue of "patches of patches of patches" that the re-image can help with, but that only applies if you actually do the clean reinstall with a slipstreamed XP disc.
Perhaps if you never update your drivers, and if you never install new software then you can avoid the issues. That never works for me. An occasional re-image combined with regular CCleaner sweeps keeps me running pretty well most of the time.
The other reason to do it is if you ever get a virus or a serious spyware infection. With modern malware techniques using rootkits and other kernel-level patches, once you get infected it is completely pointless to even try to remove them manually because you can't really ever fully trust the system again.
If you use a disk image system, nuke and pave is the way to go.
Agree. That's what I do. Still have the issue of all the customizations in the various software packages that creep over time. I mean, I'm constantly twiddling with settings in my main software packages. I just can't keep notes on what I do when so that I can re-create them when I re-initialize with a 6-month old image. That's the big issue for me.
That is difficult. I try to keep my images updated every 3 months or so, which helps. That's part of why I do the re-image, it also forces me to update the image itself. You can also mitigate this somewhat by using regedit and careful migration of parts of your user account's Documents and Settings folder.
I actually have a script that I run that collects my Firefox profile and zips it up and stores it on my User Documents drive on a monthly basis, so that is always easy to restore (I just run the script before I nuke the C drive). I've been meaning to expand that script to collect a few other folders out of the Application Data subfolder for a long time (including the JRiver folder), but I never seem to get to it (perhaps when I fully move to Windows 7, I'll get there). For now, I collect those manually before I do the nuke. It doesn't take long if you know what you're looking for well (which comes with practice). I don't want to just restore the full Documents and Settings folder structure though, as that would somewhat defeat the purpose of the nuke!
I also go through with Regedit and back up a few different registry keys in HKey_Current_User, like the J River one again.
However, I find that the vast majority of my customizations are included in my "full" image backup. The few new things I've changed that I actually use, I make sure to include in the "refresh" of the image that I create when I'm all done. It is frustrating when you forget a few things. I usually end up doing this:
1. Back up a few "Documents and Settings", Desktop, and registry things. Again, since my "My Documents" folder has been moved to a separate hard drive, I don't need to worry about most of my documents.
2. Nuke and Reimage.
3. Restore backups from Step 1.
4. Windows Updates
5. Update Drivers to the latest version (usually just video card drivers, but occasionally other things get updated too).
6. Reinstall/Update the handful of essential applications that are old and outdated in my image file (MC, SyncBack, etc). If I don't use an application that often, I don't worry about it until next time I need it though (since there will often be a new version by then anyway).
7. Re-image the system to create a new, fresh, "full" image.
8. Wait about a week and use the system, but try to avoid testing new software. Fixing settings where needed.
9. Re-image the system again to include the inevitable few things I forgot to include the first time.
After a few times of doing this process, you reach a fairly stable equilibrium where you can mostly eliminate or reduce steps 6 and 9. Again, I find the whole process of 1-7 only usually takes about 30-45 minutes of "work" (with walk-away waiting for imaging and Windows Updates to run not included). Most of that time is actually reinstalling the stupid video card drivers.
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Topic: Nuke and pave -- starting over with Windows (Read 11924 times)