Windows 10: What are the considerations to take regarding whether to reformat Win?

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

:)

 

Didn't really like Windows 10, downgraded back to 7, Computer blue screens. Tried Clean Installing 10, won't Clean Install

I had the same problem and had to take my computer to be repaired. The drive was reformatted, and programes reinstalled at considerable cost. Needless to say, Microsoft, I was not impressed!!

 

What are the steps I will have to take to re-install windows 10 after having my laptop restored to factory settings?

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

I would like to inform you that free upgrade is not valid for hardware changes, if the manufacture installing the previous Operating System which is either of Windows 7(SP1) or Windows 8.1 then you are eligible for Windows 10 free
upgrade.

I suggest you to check the qualifications to upgrade to Windows 10 for free:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-faq?ppud=4



Hope these information helps, please get back to us for future support, we’ll be glad to assist you further.



Thank You.

 

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?

 

Hi Word Man,

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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 *Smile

 

Alright, thanks a lot everyone!

I'll post here if I encounter any problems.

 

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 *Smile