Format your PC, it could make all the difference.

[skinnadoor]

I'm wondering how everyone's PC's are holding up now that the Persian Gulf Map and the F18 are rolling out?

 

One thing I just wanted to share with people, although this does take time and effort but completely erasing your hard drive, doing a fresh install of windows 10 pro (which is free), then installing all the windows updates, vid card driver, sound driver, DCS....

 

Not only do you wipe all viruses and garbage but your PC is up and running with a fresh copy of windows 10, no bloatware from old versions of windows, etc but your games run noticeably faster, including DCS.

 

I realize that it's a pain in the ass to back everything up, and do it... but hey... you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.

[norbot]

If you've got nothing else to do with your time, it might be a good idea. :doh:

[skinnadoor]

If you've got nothing else to do with your time, it might be a good idea. :doh:

 

 

 

The format itself, and installing windows doesn't take too long at all, it's the windows updates that take forever, and depending on your internet connection it could be a wait. Again though, a little bit of pain and suffering leaves you with a much faster PC.

[norbot]

I'm using M2-SSDs in my PC. Running TRIM regularly and wiping the garbage from your system, makes a new install a waste of time - unless it's ages since your last install. But then your bigger problem should be your ancient hardware. :)

[skinnadoor]

I'm using M2-SSDs in my PC. Running TRIM regularly and wiping the garbage from your system, makes a new install a waste of time - unless it's ages since your last install. But then your bigger problem should be your ancient hardware. :)

 

Yeah agreed if it's ages or big issues, a format is the way to go. What's TRIM?

[iKyrThraad993i]

Yeah agreed if it's ages or big issues, a format is the way to go. What's TRIM?

 

Since now most people use a SSD or M.2 drive for the OS and Windows 10 users have there operating system on a USB Flash drive formatting is way quicker. But remember eventually you will end up at the same point down the road. Better to just Defrag (Only if you have a HDD), Trim and clean up your windows before you decide to format and reinstall. If you are having problems fresh installs don't always work and fix the problem and if they do it can be temporary.

 

Also if a fresh install fixed a issue then you could have avoided the issue by searching possible fixes or asking around.

Edited May 26, 2018 by iKyrThraad993i

[ouPhrontis]

If one feels it's really absolutely necessary to wipe the drive and reinstall Win to its initial state, on a regular basis†; then I could save you some time.

 

• Format the drive and reinstall Win.
  
• Install the service packages and updates, restart however many times.
  
• Recheck for any required updates - restart if prompted. Win is great like that.
  
• Clone the drive, I recommend Clonezilla.‡
  

 

So now, when you feel the need to bring Win back to a raw state, you can do a 'bare-metal' restore, which will run through like a Mig-21 on reheat, compared to a regular reinstall of Win the conventional way§.

 

†Arguments aside for how well this works.

‡Clone the drive when there's nothing but the up to date Windows and nothing more installed.

§You will still need to recheck for updates after restoring a cloned drive, as it will be minus any updates that were pushed out my MS, post the date you cloned the drive.

 

-- edit --

I should also add; that you can clone a drive at any point, so you could install DCS World, all the modules and then clone it, mitigating the need to redownload it all.

Edited May 26, 2018 by ouPhrontis

[iKyrThraad993i]

Windows 10 should have a feature like all windows to take a snapshot/recovery image that you can use to bring back to a certain state.

 

Say you install all your drivers and everything you create a recovery image. Then when you want to format just use that recovery image and you wont have to install all those drivers again and so on.

[frodrigues2016]

A Fast PC...

 

Well a fresh install is the first step to a fast PC but you need all those other programs like Office and others so the solution is fresh install with only DCS and VirtualBox from Oracle or VMware Workstation or VirtualPC from Microsoft to use Linux for browsing the net and windows XP Virtual Machine for Office and other great software...if you dont know what is Virtual Machines software just search on it.

 

 

My PC has only Windows 8.1 Pro DCS Windows store apps and VMware Workstation 12 Pro...remember Virtual Machines require virtualization cpus has core i7 and others to fast speed Virtual Machines.

 

With this configuration windows 8.1 runing almost has a fresh install... DCS is fast because you can shutdown virtual machines and run only windows 8.1 as i do.

[Johnny_Rico]

My PC is hold up great , thanks for asking

[norbot]

Yeah agreed if it's ages or big issues, a format is the way to go. What's TRIM?

 

 

Read here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_(computing) :)

[BitMaster]

Once you have a hammer, all problems appear to be nails.

 

I am not too confident that this is a wise idea, for a few reasons.

 

And it wont take long to install Win10 updates at all, there are like 3 or 4 of them, that's it.

 

As a timeline frame.

I did that last week, sub 2h for all incl. DCS 2.5 + OB.

 

check ninite.com if you install a lot of OS's. Saves HOURS.

[BitMaster]

Since now most people use a SSD or M.2 drive for the OS and Windows 10 users have there operating system on a USB Flash drive formatting is way quicker. But remember eventually you will end up at the same point down the road. Better to just Defrag (Only if you have a HDD), Trim and clean up your windows before you decide to format and reinstall. If you are having problems fresh installs don't always work and fix the problem and if they do it can be temporary.

 

Also if a fresh install fixed a issue then you could have avoided the issue by searching possible fixes or asking around.

 

One likely falls into the same pitfall with the new install.

 

Not knowing what caused the instability doesnt classify for a reinstall per se. You should then only install core parts..and then bit by bit and test thoroughly when the bad part comes back etc..

[gabgio]

[...] a fresh install of windows 10 pro (which is free)

 

 

Just out of curiosity: what do you mean with "it's free"?

[Johnny_Rico]

Yarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Jimlad maybe ?

[hansangb]

Just out of curiosity: what do you mean with "it's free"?

 

 

When you upgraded from Win7 to 10, it was offered as a free upgrade. And if you logged in with you MS account, you can blow away the PC and reinstall w/o having to pay for the license again.

[gabgio]

oh, I see. I wonder whether this will apply for the next iteration as well