Formatting Drive?

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I am a technical support rep for a small software company. I work with 20 or so other technicians. There is one technician that just happens to sit within spitting distance. I hear him every single day telling our customers that Microsoft recommends completely reformatting the hard drive and starting from scratch at least once a year. I personally think he is full of S@#*. I asked him where Microsoft's Support site actually says this, and he said that it is really buried there. He saw it a long time ago, but probably wont be able to find it again because MS buried it in their ite so they can still get $$$ for support calls. If anyone knows whether this guy is telling the truth or whether you think he is blowing it out his azz, let me know. I just find it hard to believe that a multimillion dollar corporation would find it financially logically to spend a lot of man hours to reformat all their hard drives once a year. Microsoft would be out of business if their OSs were that unstable. Whatchya think?
 
He's talking out of his a**, that is absolutely ridiculous. Microsoft has
never recommended any such thing, any more than they recommend clean
installing an operating system rather than upgrading (another common
misconception).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone



ALong said:
I am a technical support rep for a small software company. I work with 20
Click to expand...
or so other technicians. There is one technician that just happens to sit
within spitting distance. I hear him every single day telling our customers
that Microsoft recommends completely reformatting the hard drive and
starting from scratch at least once a year. I personally think he is full
of S@#*. I asked him where Microsoft's Support site actually says this, and
he said that it is really buried there. He saw it a long time ago, but
probably wont be able to find it again because MS buried it in their ite so
they can still get $$$ for support calls. If anyone knows whether this guy
is telling the truth or whether you think he is blowing it out his azz, let
me know. I just find it hard to believe that a multimillion dollar
corporation would find it financially logically to spend a lot of man hours
to reformat all their hard drives once a year. Microsoft would be out of
business if their OSs were that unstable. Whatchya think?
 
At one time, in the Windows 9x days, you'd find this recommendation in
various magazines and support sites. Not sure I've ever seen it at the
Microsoft site or any of their support sites. Be that as it may, it's not
necessary to do so with XP, it is not recommended by Microsoft to do so, at
least as far as I know.

XP manages the system and resources much better than 9x, isn't prone to
picking up garbage and won't allow system files to be changed. In the 9x
days, application installations would often make changes in system files,
most notably, DLLs and invariably, in time, systems would start crashing,
hanging, locking up, etc. It would reach a point where the only way to
resolve it was to format and start over.

XP doesn't have that problem because it protects system files and prevents
applications, drivers, etc. from making such changes.
 
Microsoft does not recommend reformatting a hard drive every year.
Tell your friend to please stop suggesting this practice as it is false.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


|I am a technical support rep for a small software company. I work with 20 or so other technicians. There is
one technician that just happens to sit within spitting distance. I hear him every single day telling our
customers that Microsoft recommends completely reformatting the hard drive and starting from scratch at least
once a year. I personally think he is full of S@#*. I asked him where Microsoft's Support site actually says
this, and he said that it is really buried there. He saw it a long time ago, but probably wont be able to
find it again because MS buried it in their ite so they can still get $$$ for support calls. If anyone knows
whether this guy is telling the truth or whether you think he is blowing it out his azz, let me know. I just
find it hard to believe that a multimillion dollar corporation would find it financially logically to spend a
lot of man hours to reformat all their hard drives once a year. Microsoft would be out of business if their
OSs were that unstable. Whatchya think?
 
In
ALong said:
I am a technical support rep for a small software company. I work
with 20 or so other technicians. There is one technician that just
happens to sit within spitting distance. I hear him every single day
telling our customers that Microsoft recommends completely
reformatting the hard drive and starting from scratch at least once a
year. I personally think he is full of S@#*. I asked him where
Microsoft's Support site actually says this, and he said that it is
really buried there. He saw it a long time ago, but probably wont be
able to find it again because MS buried it in their ite so they can
still get $$$ for support calls. If anyone knows whether this guy is
telling the truth or whether you think he is blowing it out his azz,
let me know.
Click to expand...


He's completely wrong.

It's my belief that this mistaken notion stems from the technical
support people at many of the larger OEMs. Their solution to
almost any problem they don't quickly know the answer to is
"reformat and reinstall." That's the perfect solution for them.
It gets you off the phone quickly, it almost always works, and it
doesn't require them to do any real troubleshooting (a skill that
most of them obviously don't possess in any great degree).

But it leaves you with all the work and all the problems. You
have to restore all your data backups, you have to reinstall all
your programs, you have to reinstall all the Windows and
application updates,you have to locate and install all the needed
drivers for your system, you have to recustomize Windows and all
your apps to work the way you're comfortable with. Besides all
those things being time-consuming and troublesome, you may have
trouble with some of them: can you find all your application CDs?
Can you find all the needed installation codes? Do you have data
backups to restore? Do you even remember all the customizations
and tweaks you may have installed to make everything work the way
you like?

Occasionally there are problems that are so difficult to solve
that Windows should be reinstalled cleanly. But they are few and
far between; reinstallation should not a substitute for
troubleshooting; it should be a last resort, to be done only
after all other attempts at troubleshooting by a qualified person
have failed.

And reinstalling Windows prophylactically--without the intent to
solve a specific problem? That's simply nonsense. Almost every
time I see someone do this foolish thing, he ends up with
problems he didn't have before--for example, because he didn't
realize that he needs a new driver for some piece of hardware.
 
Lol that is a good reason i do not call tech support for anything 90% of the time they give u junk... To any newbies sometimes news groups are the best source for answers...
 
Hasn't any caller ever taken that bunghole to task for that? That's exactly
what's wrong with the support depts: Half baked blatherers like that
supposedly helping those in need. You never know until too late unless
youj're half way educated already, in which case you don't need them, you
need the next line of support. What a crock!




ALong said:
I am a technical support rep for a small software company. I work with 20
Click to expand...
or so other technicians. There is one technician that just happens to sit
within spitting distance. I hear him every single day telling our customers
that Microsoft recommends completely reformatting the hard drive and
starting from scratch at least once a year. I personally think he is full
of S@#*. I asked him where Microsoft's Support site actually says this, and
he said that it is really buried there. He saw it a long time ago, but
probably wont be able to find it again because MS buried it in their ite so
they can still get $$$ for support calls. If anyone knows whether this guy
is telling the truth or whether you think he is blowing it out his azz, let
me know. I just find it hard to believe that a multimillion dollar
corporation would find it financially logically to spend a lot of man hours
to reformat all their hard drives once a year. Microsoft would be out of
business if their OSs were that unstable. Whatchya think?
 
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