Are You Addicted to Reformatting?

Does this bring joy to your heart? Or tears to your eyes?

I am currently in the process of recovering from a recent reformat. While most people find reformatting a dull, painful, and slow process, I actually take enjoyment from wiping everything and starting over. When using a computer, debris tends to accumulate as time passes, especially for power users like myself. Reformatting gives me a chance to totally eliminate said debris, fine-tune settings even more, and finish off with a slim and trim operating system. For anyone who is thinking of taking the plunge in the near future, I’ve come up with some tips and tricks to help you get the most out of the experience.

1. Backup, backup, and backup. While it may seem obvious to some, nothing is worse than sitting  with a fresh install of an operating system saying, “Wait, where’s my data?” Before you even THINK about booting from the DVD, double-check that all of your documents, music, movies, apps, and anything else you might need is securely copied onto another hard drive. Nobody likes doing data recovery.
2. Have a game plan. Once you’re backed up, don’t go reformatting just yet. Take the time to sit down and plan out the flow of the process. Use a program like Visio to make a diagram of your hard drives - including partitions, disk sizes, file systems, etc. Then make sure all the programs you want to install are readily available, be it online, on another hard drive, or on the original installation media. Drivers are important to have on hand as well.
3. Reformat, but don’t install. Instead of installing the OS and reformatting at the same time, I prefer to do each task individually. Run a bootable CD with a partition manager (GParted Live, etc.), wipe all disks, and partition the drives according to the diagram made earlier. Allocate sizes, format them appropriately, then apply the changes. This way it’s not nessecary to deal with sub-par partition editors built into installers.
4. Install the operating system. Restart into the installation CD/DVD and follow the steps to install the operating system. Pretty straightforward stuff.
5. Install drivers and programs. Once everything’s back up and running again, a geek should know what do do. Install drivers first, reboot, then get to work on your programs. I prefer to take reinstallation of programs in two phases: installation and configuration. I’ll do a prelimenary base install of all nessecary programs, then go back over everything with a fine-tooth comb, read over every setting, and customize them exactly to my specifications.

I’ve been told more than once that I may be a little obsessive-complusive about reformatting. But if one ends up with a better OS then before, that’s a win in my book. Besides, what else is there for a geek to do on a Friday night?