[FletcherJ]

Morning 

I'm not sure where to post this question so hopefully this was in the right place, if not, sorry!

 

I could do with formatting my PC back to factory settings but would like some advice if possible before doing it.

 

I have formatted before and I have always struggled with working out what I should be updating after a format.

 

I do all the windows updates and my gfx card as standard.

 

I'm a bit confused as to what else I should be updating as a go to, and where to look. BIOS updates etc really confuse me and someone told me it can be dangerous updating when you dont know what you are doing.

 

Also once the format is done which free programmes to use to keep my machine safe and running smoothly, I have always used CCleaner, Auslogics Disk Defrag and Kaspersky Security Cloud but is there anything better? Or something I should be using alongside them?

 

I have attached system specs from speccy if this helps 

 

Any help much appreciated, thank you.

Edited by FletcherJ, 22 April 2020 - 02:05 PM.

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Hello FletcherJ,

 

Your computer looks to be in the best of health so mind if I ask why you want to start from scratch, lot of messing about for no gain tbh.

 

Looking at your Speccy info gives me a different take, the SSD that Windows is presently installed on is too small so if me I would back up the data from the 240GB SSD to the 1TB Toshiba HDD, clean install Windows to the 240GB SSD and then use the 120GB SSD for the most often used programs/games.

 

 

 

 I have always used CCleaner, Auslogics Disk Defrag

 

 

You don`t need any any of these and in particular any use of the registry tools in CCleaner.

 

Above all, never update the BIOS unless it is absolutely necessary.

[phillpower2]

Hello FletcherJ,

 

Your computer looks to be in the best of health so mind if I ask why you want to start from scratch, lot of messing about for no gain tbh.

 

Looking at your Speccy info gives me a different take, the SSD that Windows is presently installed on is too small so if me I would back up the data from the 240GB SSD to the 1TB Toshiba HDD, clean install Windows to the 240GB SSD and then use the 120GB SSD for the most often used programs/games.

 

 

 

 I have always used CCleaner, Auslogics Disk Defrag

 

 

You don`t need any any of these and in particular any use of the registry tools in CCleaner.

 

Above all, never update the BIOS unless it is absolutely necessary.

[FletcherJ]

Hello FletcherJ,

 

Your computer looks to be in the best of health so mind if I ask why you want to start from scratch, lot of messing about for no gain tbh.

 

Looking at your Speccy info gives me a different take, the SSD that Windows is presently installed on is too small so if me I would back up the data from the 240GB SSD to the 1TB Toshiba HDD, clean install Windows to the 240GB SSD and then use the 120GB SSD for the most often used programs/games.

 

 

 

 I have always used CCleaner, Auslogics Disk Defrag

 

 

You don`t need any any of these and in particular any use of the registry tools in CCleaner.

 

Above all, never update the BIOS unless it is absolutely necessary.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I basically messed up a load of colour management settings trying to optimise my monitor, I just wanted to do a reset.

Plus on my last format I feel like I installed a load of updates that are non-beneficial, stuff I don't actually know what it does and now sits in my taskbar.

My windows SSD still has 85.6GB free, is it essential I move it to the bigger SSD? Will I benefit from that?

Cheers

[phillpower2]

Best Answer

You are welcome 

 

The present install is less than three weeks old so I take whatever has gone amiss has happened since then, regardless you can still do a refresh from within Windows which keeps your files, a reset that wipes you files and clean installs Windows or finally a system restore should you have them enabled, the latter could be used to go back to a point before you changed the colour settings, MS guide for these options here

 

Always install important Windows updates and if not sure install the optional ones as well, the latter do not take up enough space to worry about tbh.

 

Regarding the space on the SSD, any new build that I do nowadays will either have a minimum of a 256GB SSD or Windows installed on its own 200GB partition on a drive, this helps to keep Windows safe from corruption and malware infection + it is far easier to back up regular which is something that everyone should do.

 

Can I ask that you do not quote every reply, it really does not help any and just makes for unnecessary reading, thanks.

[FletcherJ]

Thanks for the help and advise

[phillpower2]

You are welcome