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Prepare, or at Least Delay, a Clean Install on Your PC

Your computer systems will age and begin to show it. Sometimes, due to error, malfunction, malware, or viruses, the useful life of your system is dramatically shortened.

If anything can possibly go wrong it will! You need to prepared for this sad day when the old system must give way to new.

One example that you may not be thinking of is that disk drives age much like an automobile or a light bulb, they will eventually become useless. As they age, the likelihood of a serious malfunction becomes increasingly probable.

Will you be ready to minimize your loss before your old system crashes for the last time?

With your help, feedback, suggestions, and criticism, I intend to write a procedure to help you avoid a clean install, and to get through one should it become necessary.

Thanks in advance for your input in this discussion group.

Just to get things going here is a tip that help delay the inevitable clean install: Use COMODO's Time Machine as a safety net.

Description from PCWORLD:

Description of Comodo Time Machine

Comodo Time Machine is not exactly a backup utility. Instead, it is a powerful system rollback utility, allowing you to take a snapshot of your system at any time, and roll back to that time if necessary. When do you want the ability to step into the Comodo Time Machine? Just after a large installation that didn't go just right, or system testing, or even after the kids have used the computer for the day. Set the Comodo Time Machine for routine time intervals and be prepared for virus attacks or crashes. With Comodo Time Machine you can instantly undo damage and recover all your files, not just system and registry files.

Tags: clean install, pc

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Permalink Reply by David Huett on August 28, 2010 at 12:34pm

Auslogics BoostSpeed(CNET review and download link)

This is the easiest, most comprehensive, and intuitive application I have discovered to date for optimizing and monitoring your PC's performance. I am particularly fond of the "Resource Usage" section to monitor your PC's CPU, RAM, Disk, and Network usage. This makes it easy to identify resource hogs and any suspicious activities.

This application is not free. It is licensed for one year on three machines for $49.95. There is, however, a free 15 day trial period. Even if you aren't willing to purchase the software, you might take advantage of this opportunity to optimize your PC for free.

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Permalink Reply by David Huett on August 31, 2010 at 5:16am

Avast Free Anti-Virus

I am still evaluating a lot of free software for keeping your computer optimized and secure. I even went so far as to perform a clean install. This process takes time. I feel a little guilty for not reporting everything I have discovered. However, you probably don't want to hear about it anyway. ;)

I love free, but I am discovering that two of the paid programs are much easier to use and of sufficient quality to tempt me to put up the cash. These are BoostSpeed and Avast.

So far, I am quite impressed with the Avast free anti-virus application. I was using Comodo Security Suite for this function before I did a clean install.