Can Re installing Windows 7 on A Compaq Laptop Every Month Hurt The HD?

I have a Compaq Presario CQ62-219WM laptop, and I am kind of Paranoid when it comes to my computer... So I am know to re install "windows 7 home premium" to the "Factory Condition" from the "Recovery Manager". My question is "Can Re installing Windows 7 on A Compaq Laptop Every Other Month Hurt The HD?" Thanks!

compaq windows laptop hard factory drive cq62-219wm reinstall

asked Oct 04 '11 at 19:00

Master 18
546●28●31●44

8 Answers:

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it's just a rumor nothing more. other than being a 2.5 inch drive instead of a 3.5 inch drive that you find in desktops you can reinstall your os as many times as you like. now when you go to activate it after a certain number of times you may get pushed to call microsoft, or worst case scenario with too many activations microsoft my black list your key forcing you to call to explain that it's only being used on one machine. now personally i recommend doing a clean install every six months. gets rid of junk, and in general speeds the system back up. just make sure you have good security software and you shouldn't need to do a clean install every month.

answered Oct 05 '11 at 09:54

Dr Giggles
331●5●7

I have good security and clean up softwares so I don't really re-install much. and when I get a back up HDD, I will and I'll take it from your advice. my system seem to take 80% RAM nowadays, compared with 50~70% compared with the past 5 months. anyway I asked only because an IT student is arguing with me (a non IT professional, but a computer enthusiast) that I may suffer a consequence if I format a hard drive too often.

anyway if you don't mind, why does SSD have limited number of reads and writes? compared with HDDs (i'm gonna use this as my rationale) thanks!

(Oct 05 '11 at 10:26) xedric14

If you mean physically damage the hard drive not really. a refresh or re-installation once in a while is a good thing. Since you can get a good poop load of stuff that is not need off of the hard drive. I don't do that many re-installations unless I have too on my machines over here. Whether they are windows based or if I am mucking around and did not like a version of Linux on another machine.

answered Oct 04 '11 at 19:05

Compucore
2.4k●11●19●25

0	na not an HDD.. watch out with an SSD though answered Oct 04 '11 at 19:07 Yarvaxea 4.0k●56●72●113 why? how long does a typical SSD for a geek last? (Oct 05 '11 at 07:56) xedric14

Yeah with SSD or with the usb thumb drives after a while of re-installing or formatting you'll get stuck where you cannot do either one. With those ones I suggest not to always do it with those. WithHard drives worste case scenario for a hard drive. You'll bee to do a fdisk /mbr which will clear the master boot record. The good old dos days. Or at least with a rescue cd that can access the hard drive and null it out like it was brand new from the manufacturer.

answered Oct 04 '11 at 19:22

Compucore
2.4k●11●19●25

0	Why would you want to re-install the OS every month? answered Oct 05 '11 at 07:57 JoshTemps 46●30●30●35

I;ve heard about rumors that laptops has a limit on how many times it can only be formatted. would you enlighten me guys, all I know is that SSD has a limited # of read and writes.

HDDs? I thought there isn't a limit? what am I missing?

what'd happen if I reformat it for let's say a hundred of times?

(I know of a computer cafe that doesn't have a stable antivirus, everytime they get super infected, they just reformat it. dunno what's their drive but it's what they do.)

any cons to that?

answered Oct 05 '11 at 07:59

xedric14
941●71●77●90

0	Why the hell would you want to do that? Do you have no life, no offence. answered Oct 05 '11 at 14:19 Louis Jenvey 591●6●9●20

0	Unless you're using a Solid State Drive (SSD) there should be no worries. With SSDs they have limited rewrite cycles and reinstalling Windows (or anything) too many times can cause certain parts of the drive to be unusable. answered Oct 07 '11 at 05:10 nickjuly4 951●9●16●21

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