Could you reformat your whole computer right now?

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pinback
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Could you reformat your whole computer right now?

Post by pinback »

I replaced my Linux distro this morning, and kept thinking, gosh, what do I need to backup so I don't lose anything important, and the answer I arrived at was "nothing".

Then I considered just blowing away Windows on this machine and reinstalling Linux again on top of everything, and stopped to think, well, what do I need to save from my Windows installation?

I... I can't think of anything.

Of course, there's the tedium of reinstalling tools/apps/games you like/need, but I'm wondering if it's just me, and you could just blow everything on your computer away right now and not lose anything important or that you wanted to keep.

Between backup drives and cloud storage and github and the like, does anyone keep anything important on their local drives anymore?
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Re: Could you reformat your whole computer right now?

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

No. All the stuff I care about is there. I probably need some more backups.
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AArdvark
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Re: Could you reformat your whole computer right now?

Post by AArdvark »

Nope, had too many times where the hard drive gave me grief and had to lose stuff I wanted. Now any pix or docs get on an external HD and cloud storage and even a thumb drive or three. I have no problem just erasing the drive and startung fresh

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AArdvark
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Re: Could you reformat your whole computer right now?

Post by AArdvark »

Sorry for any confusion, I read the question to be: Would you have a problem erasing your hard drive right now?

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Re: Could you reformat your whole computer right now?

Post by pinback »

I asked the same question in two ways which would have had opposite answers. I am the problem here.

But yeah, I could throw this computer into the street and be back to 100% tomorrow morning.
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Re: Could you reformat your whole computer right now?

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

I couldn't!!!!!!!!!!!
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Flack
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Re: Could you reformat your whole computer right now?

Post by Flack »

Could you reformat your whole computer right now?
While all of my important data is stored on my server and backed up from there, it would take me a week for me to go through my computer and make sure I "had everything." It's a valid point as my machine is half broken and I desperately need to wipe/refresh. I'm planning to do it in January.
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Re: Could you reformat your whole computer right now?

Post by Jizaboz »

Flack wrote: Sun Oct 16, 2022 7:10 pm
Could you reformat your whole computer right now?
While all of my important data is stored on my server and backed up from there, it would take me a week for me to go through my computer and make sure I "had everything." It's a valid point as my machine is half broken and I desperately need to wipe/refresh. I'm planning to do it in January.
Hell yeah, there's always that part of you that wonders if there is something you missed; usually because you got burnt in the past (Pre dropbox, etc days) thinking you had shit backed up somewhere but it wasn't.

C Drive? Everything on the C drive should be "stateless" and disposable.

Important work belongs in "the cloud" and on external or secondary drives. Nudes of your wife or girlfriend only belong on the latter.
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