There are still plenty of programs that write vast amounts of information about themselves into the registry and that also install components in the sub folders of the Windows folder, all the registry information and and specialised components are lost when you wipe the OS partition, so generally you will still need to reinstall anything other than the simplest standalone executables.Originally Posted by philphil61
Always best when reinstalling after formatting to have
OS on partition C:
Programs on partition D:
Docs/Pics on partition E:
it's so easy to partition your hard drive and if your OS fails all you need to do is reinstall OS - your programs on D: and Docs/Pics on E: will not be affected or need reinstalling (generally) - it's only a concern if your HD fails....
Enjoy ur refreshed and probably speedy computer
However it is good general advice to adopt a strategy like this, it is also worth recommending a large OS partition; on a 500 GB disk I would allocate 80-100GB for the OS on a Windows 7 installation but then again I have particularly heavy space requirements on my systems.
