I’m not too computer savvy, (knowing enough to be dangerous) I’m thinking after a year it mite be a good time to reformat. I have 1.28 Gigs of great stuff for FB I’ve DL, All on 56K. I have WinRAR and Winzip. Is there any better way to compress this data so I can burn it to disc? Would not want to DL it all again if I can help it.

Disks are cheap, skip the zip and just burn the files onto multiple disks.

Ok…I’m far more dangerous than I gave myself credit for. Was thinking they had to be compress :rolleyes: Makes perfect séance DOH! Thx.

Always happy to be of assistance. Hope your reformat and fresh install go swimmingly!

Why are you reformatting?? Unless you are having a lot of trouble I'd leave it alone. It's a myth that you have to reinstall Windows every now and then just for the sake of "refreshing" things. I have Windows98, which is not as good as XP in the reliability department and I have gone 3 years with no problems. Might be better to go through the registry ( back up first ) and delete a lot of the older, no longer used keys and values. Ang go through and uninstall delete stuff in explorer that you don't need/use any more. And always keep your temp folder cleaned out. If you know what you are doing, Windows can last a long time.

Or just by an old used 4GB hard disk (or several) for ~very~ cheap, Format them [one at a time], plug them into your computer (one at a time) and you have lots of data backup stored around the house.

i've kept my first win98 install 2 years, it never became slower....

depends on one's experience methinks, but no need to format if the OS is still working as advertised.

Been with puters since the early 80s & I too just know enough to be dangerous. Built 6 now with no problems & tweaked maybe a 100. Always after a reformat, didn't matter what operating system, things ran smoother & faster, thus better. I do a lot of 'cleaning' & defragging but the reformating was & is the way to go for me, about 3 to 4 times a yr.
FWIW,
Good Hunting!

I agree with MM1765 about the myth of reformatting and reinstalling windows. I had a 98SE system for years and never once had to reinstall it. However, you do have to do maintenance because as was mentioned, there are often bits and pieces left behind when uninstalling programs.

To maintain my system, I use Norton's System Works. The WinDoctor component of Nortons cleans out old registry entries and keeps things tuned. It's defragging utility is light years faster than the stock windows defragger also. If you don't like Nortons, McAfee makes a program that cleans old registry entries and tunes your system also. My systems have always regularly benchmarked faster than similarly outfitted systems, so it does seem to help.

At any rate, if you choose to reinstall things, I hope it all goes well.

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I've reformatted and reinstalled the windows O/S plenty of times on various systems. If a user doesn't have the proper tools to keep a system clean and doesn't want to get them, reformatting is a viable solution for increasing performance. Which is why I can now say, with the proper utilities, you don't have to do it now. I most certainly know my way around a computer having built several systems and configured mine ad nauseum for one reason or another.

Having said all that, it is very much preferable to install these utilites such as Nortons or McAfee on a fresh hard drive.

But, I'm from the school of thought, "work smarter, not harder", and to each his own.

If you like reformatting hard drives, knock yourself out. But if it were me, I'd add something so that I didn't have to do it so much in the future.

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