Gonna do a clean reset of my PC

[PapaP]

When I first built my pc and started downloading drivers I didn't really know what I was doing. I still don't lmao. I just have so many unorganized files regarding mods and all my games and it's just a mess. I figured the easiest way to really CLEAN IT UP would be to do a full reset. I do realize that It's going to take a while to download everything I had, but it's been a big pet peeve of mine. Do you think you guys could guide me in the right direction for what drivers to download? & if there's a way to make a backup for specific things that I don't want to delete? Thanks!

Specs:

Ryzen 1600x

MSI B350 Gaming Pro Carbon

GTx 1050 ti

16 gb ram

2 separate storage drives, ssd and hhd, if that helps.

[Enderman]

Don't do a reset, do a clean install.

https://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/

 

Also windows installs all the drivers you need.

[PapaP]

19 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Don't do a reset, do a clean install.

https://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/

 

Also windows installs all the drivers you need.

So I wouldn't need to go to msi's website and download their motherboard drivers?  

[ninjadudealex]

20 minutes ago, PapaP said:

So I wouldn't need to go to msi's website and download their motherboard drivers?  

Basically all I do for drivers download GeForce experience to make sure I have the absolute latest graphics driver and use windows update. People usually never have a problem just doing windows update. Microsoft does it's best to automatically find all the best drivers for you. So no you shouldn't have to go to MSI unless you are actually experiencing issues.

[Enderman]

35 minutes ago, PapaP said:

So I wouldn't need to go to msi's website and download their motherboard drivers?  

No, only do that if something specifically doesn't work like maybe no audio output, then you go and download ONLY the audio driver.

But first check for windows updates and let it install everything itself.

[homeap5]

You have mess with mods and games, as you said, but Windows works good. So what is the point of clean install or even reset? Is it really that important to clean everything and start from zero? It will be just waste of time. You know - even if it's a mess, it's not your flat or desk, it's not wardrobe from which come out garbage etc. It's computer and hard drive and no matter how messy it looks in Explorer, it doesn't make any harm for you, your system or whatever. You may (if you really must) just clean up your mess with your personal files using Explorer and leave good Windows installation.

[ninjadudealex]

2 minutes ago, homeap5 said:

You have mess with mods and games, as you said, but Windows works good. So what is the point of clean install or even reset? Is it really that important to clean everything and start from zero? It will be just waste of time. You know - even if it's a mess, it's not your flat or desk, it's not wardrobe from which come out garbage etc. It's computer and hard drive and no matter how messy it looks in Explorer, it doesn't make any harm for you, your system or whatever. You may (if you really must) just clean up your mess with your personal files using Explorer and leave good Windows installation.

I mean reinstalling windows every once in a while makes sure it always runs good too. Even mine tends to slow down over time and a fresh install is just so nice. There's just something heart lifting about it and worth the effort.

[homeap5]

1 hour ago, ninjadudealex said:

I mean reinstalling windows every once in a while makes sure it always runs good too. Even mine tends to slow down over time and a fresh install is just so nice. There's just something heart lifting about it and worth the effort.

It's myth and bulls**t that makes users of other operating systems (like Linux or MacOS) laugh. My previous system (win7) works for over 6 years (until I change to win10 which works for few years now) and it works the same fast or even faster as at the beginning (updtes, improvements etc.).

 

If it's someone hobby and if someone has nothing more interesting to do with computer - then yes, reinstall/fresh install/whatever install may be fun. But nothing else than fun.

 

[ninjadudealex]

12 minutes ago, homeap5 said:

It's myth and bulls**t that makes users of other operating systems (like Linux or MacOS) laugh. My previous system (win7) works for over 6 years (until I change to win10 which works for few years now) and it works the same fast or even faster as at the beginning (updtes, improvements etc.).

 

If it's someone hobby and if someone has nothing more interesting to do with computer - then yes, reinstall/fresh install/whatever install may be fun. But nothing else than fun.

 

It's not like it improves games or program performance but write speeds can have an improvement up to 5mbps for me and windows itself is snappier. Although I agree with you I've never had to do that on windows 7

[homeap5]

1 hour ago, ninjadudealex said:

It's not like it improves games or program performance but write speeds can have an improvement up to 5mbps for me and windows itself is snappier. Although I agree with you I've never had to do that on windows 7

I hope I'll never do that in win10.

I really work on my computer, have lot of programs and large number settings, I spend much time to configure everything I like. Even the thought that I would have to do it again made me nervous (so I made image of my system ever 2 months). And after all that settings made and programs install and everything my win10 works much better than after first install.

 

Even if yours (don't know why) windows becomes slower somehow, it may be because of some settings and programs, not because bits becomes old and have beard. And you probably install the same programs and made the same settings after fresh install, so it's vicious circle - you'll install windows again and again until you realize that boot speed is not the only factor. Speed of computer is also speed of making everything - if you have installed 200 programs for various useful things and if you even have 20 of them starts with windows, it can slow down your boot time by 5 seconds, but after that your TRUE work with system will be much faster - every file will be open without problem, you have set everything like you want, you'll have no problem like "oh, my friend send me .xyz file and I must install program to read it" or "oh, I need VC redist 2040 v3 64bit and few more apps to made it work". I have over 200 folders in "Program Files" directory (without games) - lot of useful tools, programs I work with, just everything. So I bet I made on my computer lot of things faster than you, even if your system boots 3 seconds faster.

[PowerChaos]

11 hours ago, ninjadudealex said:

It's not like it improves games or program performance but write speeds can have an improvement up to 5mbps for me and windows itself is snappier. Although I agree with you I've never had to do that on windows 7

write speed up to 5mbps faster ?

are you talking about a IDE disk ? or a SATA disk ?

as on SSD and NVME those 5 mbps of my 500mbps disk does not mather

 

anyway

to fix that you just need to do a Defrag once in a while and clean temp folder

or use a program like CC cleaner ( but watch out what you select to clean , not everything is good )

same for startup programs and Virtual Ram

also files you acces regual times will be placed differend , so they boot up faster ( windows .. and there improvements  ) but makes other things slower ( reserved space .. love it ) 

 

and now to OP ( @PapaP )

 

the best way for me to clean up my messy pc is doing a clean install on a other empty drive

or just a re install and keep old folder

 

my last clean install was when i installed my new NVME drive , i now use it as my boot drive ( and some trash on it ) 

i moved all my other files to my 4TB disk ( 4 differend drives , 2TB in total ) and now i got a clean install with out losing a single file

and i can use again 4 disks if needed ( but they are old , over 4 years of online time ) 

 

i do that once in a while if my pc get really slow ( because of cluttering and not maintaining ) and i got no problems with it as long i do not lose my files

 

eather way, if you want easy mainenance , just use a boot drive for windows only .. and other drives for your files

then you can reinstall when ever you like with out losing anything ( not talking about games and there save files in %userdata% map )

 

Greets From PowerChaos

[ninjadudealex]

52 minutes ago, PowerChaos said:

write speed up to 5mbps faster ?

are you talking about a IDE disk ? or a SATA disk ?

as on SSD and NVME those 5 mbps of my 500mbps disk does not mather

 

anyway

to fix that you just need to do a Defrag once in a while and clean temp folder

or use a program like CC cleaner ( but watch out what you select to clean , not everything is good )

same for startup programs and Virtual Ram

also files you acces regual times will be placed differend , so they boot up faster ( windows .. and there improvements  ) but makes other things slower ( reserved space .. love it ) 

 

and now to OP ( @PapaP )

 

the best way for me to clean up my messy pc is doing a clean install on a other empty drive

or just a re install and keep old folder

 

my last clean install was when i installed my new NVME drive , i now use it as my boot drive ( and some trash on it ) 

i moved all my other files to my 4TB disk ( 4 differend drives , 2TB in total ) and now i got a clean install with out losing a single file

and i can use again 4 disks if needed ( but they are old , over 4 years of online time ) 

 

i do that once in a while if my pc get really slow ( because of cluttering and not maintaining ) and i got no problems with it as long i do not lose my files

 

eather way, if you want easy mainenance , just use a boot drive for windows only .. and other drives for your files

then you can reinstall when ever you like with out losing anything ( not talking about games and there save files in %userdata% map )

 

Greets From PowerChaos

I got some leftover hard drives from some windows vista desktops ?? and I defragment semi often. Maybe I just had a bad version of Windows tho because I haven't needed to do a reset since the last major update which has been about 5 months and I did have to do a reset every 2 weeks. Anywho it's working now so I've just been leaving well enough alone. Adobe programs don't seem to like old hard drives ?