Format c: the only and the best solution to PC problems

I know about this, but it seems like too much hassle to backup everything, and then reinstall all the programs and not to mention losing the bookmarks as well and to start recustomizing everything etc. I don't really use graphics programs or play pc games so I don't really need the extra speed that much.

The issue is your RAM you have to little of ram the slow down is coming from your CPU is having to move things in and out of ram as the Autocad program needs 2 GB to be used efficiently so your CPU is running out of RAM and is having to place things on to the Hard Drive to have in a form called virtual memory this will cause your disk to defrag and also your processor to have to wait on the hard drive to spin and cache the information and send it to the processor to be processed and sent back what you need to do is upgrade your ram to at least 2 GBs. The formating C:/ doesn't fix anything it is the lack of physical memory on the motherboard that is causing the computer to slow down as I am assuming you are working on projects and as those projects get more and more complexed more physical memory space is required to have everything displayed in your projects so your PC just needs a small RAM upgrade to at least 2 gb and that should fix it. I am a gamer and am running a Pentium 4 HT 3.19ghz 2 GB of ram it will speed the computer up also getting rid of as many startup programs as possible will help free up some much needed ram on your PC have a great day!

Instead of that I would probably do a single fresh reinstall of Windows, install Autocad and whatever other programs you need, and create a system restore point right after. Then just keep your files on an external hard drive or flash drive and whenever your comp wigs out or slows down, just run the system restore to that date and time. Note also that hard drives do tend to spin slower over time, so if your programs are data-intensive and reading from the hard drive a lot, you will notice a significant slowness as compared to before. The easiest way to notice this issue is if you do a reinstall and it is still almost just as slow. Lastly, you should toss some more RAM in there. 512MB is just too low nowadays, even for XP. 1-1.5 GB at least!

yes i'm using this technique on my computer shop. i got a lot of computer so scanning them one by one is very time consuming and its not 100% sure that it will take out all the virus. so what i did is transfer all my important files to drive D:\ even my documents is on drive D:\ so that there is no files to be backup when formating my Drive C:\. home my idea works with you all.

Yes, i agree with your point. Even i had a habit to format my system's C Drive(also another drive with other OS). But i format my OS drive once in every 3-4 months to remove the old registries, applications and other junk residing in my system and made a new room for new applications. As,i'm an Engineering student majoring in IT,so in each semester, we are introduced to new application and technology. So, formatting the C Drive is very helpful for me and it saves me from the hassles of uninstalling the older software and installing the newer ones. Also, it made my pc run faster which is my utmost requirement.

I format my hard drive only as a last measure: when repairing the OS doesn't resolve the issue or the system has been overrun by viruses. I also use an offline desktop (P4, 2.4MHz, 512RAM, 80Gb HDD, all IO's onboard) and it is still running good for quite some time now. I observed a little bit of slowdown though but it still loads my graphics(Correl X3) and mapping softwares (Arcview 3.1 and GlobalMapper 11) at reasonable speeds (15 seconds at most). The only disadvantage of formatting c partition is the hassle of reinstalling the chipsets and applications over again, which may take about four hours more or less. That can only be done overnight or on weekends where the volume of work is lesser. Nevertheless, as you said, there's no other way to clean up the system and put it up to running speed once again. Which reminds me to re schedule that task on my desktop which has been long overdue for another formatting session. The last was done two years ago, if memory serves me right.

No way, formating is an extreme measure, that only comes when everything else fails. There are many factors that affect the performance, such as hardware, installed software, and the usage you give to it. I also note, your PC is a little short of RAM for XP, 512 plus Autocad and such can collapse quickly. It's a fact, every Windows instalation degrades itself over time, and becomes slower and slower, this is a consequence of the very buggy internal programming Windows has. But there are many ways to give some speed: disabling services, shut down resident programs, checking everything that's running, put a good antivirus in place and take caution in which webpages you visit and software you install. Run frequently maintenance programs, like defragmentator, ccleaner and such. If all that fails, or a virus sneaks past your antivirus and is not possible to delete it, maybe you can think on reinstall Windows (NOT format your hard disk), keep all programs in place and most important all data there, safe from deletion. Formating to speed up is an overkill, just like prevent your system from being destroyed by a virus by destroying it yourself. Nonsense.