Reformating the hard drive

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Guest

Looking to reformat the hard drive to clear off inherited junk. Can you
reformat the hard-drive without loosing hardware drivers and software
packages e.g. video editing packages, drivers for 2nd DVD RW etc - I have
quite a few and don't fancy spending the next week reloading and
reconfiguring them.
 
Matt said:
Looking to reformat the hard drive to clear off inherited junk. Can you
reformat the hard-drive without loosing hardware drivers and software
packages e.g. video editing packages, drivers for 2nd DVD RW etc - I have
quite a few and don't fancy spending the next week reloading and
reconfiguring them.
Click to expand...


No.
 
Hi,

By the very definition of formatting, all space on the drive is marked as
available for writing to, thus all existing data on the drive is gone (in
truth, the space it occupies is made available to be overwritten, and
entries referring to the data in the mft are removed). But basically, no. If
you format, the data that is currently on the drive is gone. Drivers and
software would need to be reinstalled to the new installation. Driver files
(.sys and .inf) can often be copied off and into the new installation, but
software needs to be reinstalled from the original installation media in
order to create needed registry entries.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
7:45 AM 6/1/2006 General

Hi Matt:

Cleaning off junk is usually a good idea and should be done as regular
mainenance. However, in this case, ?is there any way to accomplish your goal
without "spending the next week reloading and
reconfiguring" drivers?

Is the system running OK? Do you have sufficient free space on the drive?

Maybe a better idea to create a folder called "Old Junk" and put unused or
rarely used items there for the time being. Later you can delete the folder
after you are sure you have YOUR scheme in place and you do not need any of
that stuff.

Mark
 
Thanks for the advise I'll give that a go first

Callmark1 said:
7:45 AM 6/1/2006 General

Hi Matt:

Cleaning off junk is usually a good idea and should be done as regular
mainenance. However, in this case, ?is there any way to accomplish your goal
without "spending the next week reloading and
reconfiguring" drivers?

Is the system running OK? Do you have sufficient free space on the drive?

Maybe a better idea to create a folder called "Old Junk" and put unused or
rarely used items there for the time being. Later you can delete the folder
after you are sure you have YOUR scheme in place and you do not need any of
that stuff.

Mark
Click to expand...
 
Matt said:
Looking to reformat the hard drive to clear off inherited junk. Can
you reformat the hard-drive without loosing hardware drivers and
software packages e.g. video editing packages, drivers for 2nd DVD RW
etc - I have quite a few and don't fancy spending the next week
reloading and reconfiguring them.
Click to expand...


No. Reformatting removes *everything* from the drive or partition you
format.
 
Matt said:
Looking to reformat the hard drive to clear off inherited junk. Can you
reformat the hard-drive without loosing hardware drivers and software
packages e.g. video editing packages, drivers for 2nd DVD RW etc - I have
quite a few and don't fancy spending the next week reloading and
reconfiguring them.
Click to expand...


No. By definition, formatting cleans a drive/partition of *everything.*


--

Bruce Chambers

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