Are there any downsides to reinstalling Windows 7?

Question

I've had a few viruses/program installs/other things that have made me decide the best option is to reinstall my operating system after backing up all of my important stuff.

Are there any downsides to reinstalling my OS? I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium on an HP Pavilion g7 and am wondering if this will at all affect my disk space/memory/performance.

I'm sorry if this looks like more of a "discussion" question, but I'm really just looking for specific answers.

Answer 1

No downsides.

Make sure you have a backup of all important data, then wipe the disk and reinstall from the DVD. You will be back with a clean slate with just as much disk space as you had before.

As to memory: That does not change either. (In fact it gets reset every time you power off your laptop).

If anything performance will seem to increase after a clean install. This is due to the amount of cruft (unneeded and unwanted stuff) that seems to accumulate over time on most laptops.

And yes, I say 'most', but if you do not try every toolbar, dancing coffee monkey gadget etc. etc. then there will be no performance loss and nothing to get back from a clean reinstallation.

Answer 2

Since you're backing up your stuff, you can format the drive before installing Windows, so disk space shouldn't be a problem. Fresh Windows 7 installation takes about 15-20 GB.

RAM gets used only by operating system and software that's running on it, so you'll have more RAM than you had before reinstalling.

Performance-wise it can suck if you haven't got drivers for, in example, a graphics card. Otherwise, there shouldn't be any problems at all.