Replacement Post
I had a cool political piece I was working on, but in the middle of it I decided to do this instead...
When was the last time you reformatted?
January is a good month to do so. In some ways, it fits the gestalt of "out with the old...."
1) Reformatting gets rid of crap that piles up on your harddrive. It releases space that can be used for new and interesting things, like music, downloads, and new documents, rather than six-month old documents, boring spam emails, and dead bookmarks.
2) Reformatting speeds up your system noticeably. You have more space for swap, the fifteen programs in your registry that used to demand processor cycles at startup (traditionally the most processor-intensive part of your computer's "day") are gone, and your registry/libraries are all squeaky, straight-from-the-coder's-desk clean.
3) It makes you feel good to shake off that pack-rat vibe. Even if you just cheat and move everything to a DVD, it still feels good!
Be careful when doing backups before your reformat, though. In general, if a virus is driving your desire for a new installation, don't backup your hard drive! Instead, rely on an old, un-virused backup. (Because you have been backing up regularly, now, haven't you?) Restoring virused backups just makes You grumpy. Then I get phone calls with You on the other end, and You are just no fun when You are grumpy.
Also, be somewhat flexible with your backup. Don't put critical data in just one place or on just one type of media. Be a data spendthrift, too. Backup superfluous items -- who knows what you may need later? Data storage is really cheap these days -- an external hard drive makes a great gift for a birthday, and a 200GB model is pretty affordable. Trust me, when you delete your Annual Report from 2002 because it saves 600 kB and $75, you will be screaming mad when Your Boss's computer crashes and he needs the hard copy ASAP! (Because Your Boss never makes backups. Why? Bosses never make backups!)
When was the last time you reformatted?
January is a good month to do so. In some ways, it fits the gestalt of "out with the old...."
1) Reformatting gets rid of crap that piles up on your harddrive. It releases space that can be used for new and interesting things, like music, downloads, and new documents, rather than six-month old documents, boring spam emails, and dead bookmarks.
2) Reformatting speeds up your system noticeably. You have more space for swap, the fifteen programs in your registry that used to demand processor cycles at startup (traditionally the most processor-intensive part of your computer's "day") are gone, and your registry/libraries are all squeaky, straight-from-the-coder's-desk clean.
3) It makes you feel good to shake off that pack-rat vibe. Even if you just cheat and move everything to a DVD, it still feels good!
Be careful when doing backups before your reformat, though. In general, if a virus is driving your desire for a new installation, don't backup your hard drive! Instead, rely on an old, un-virused backup. (Because you have been backing up regularly, now, haven't you?) Restoring virused backups just makes You grumpy. Then I get phone calls with You on the other end, and You are just no fun when You are grumpy.
Also, be somewhat flexible with your backup. Don't put critical data in just one place or on just one type of media. Be a data spendthrift, too. Backup superfluous items -- who knows what you may need later? Data storage is really cheap these days -- an external hard drive makes a great gift for a birthday, and a 200GB model is pretty affordable. Trust me, when you delete your Annual Report from 2002 because it saves 600 kB and $75, you will be screaming mad when Your Boss's computer crashes and he needs the hard copy ASAP! (Because Your Boss never makes backups. Why? Bosses never make backups!)
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