OS may take no time to install, but updates, software and everything else? It takes me 10 hours to get back to where I was after an install between setting up my build environment and such. What your saying is rubbish. SSDs may be fast, but finding installers and other things take time. Hell WOW alone probably will take about 2-4 hours to get installed completely depending on your connection..
Yup. This.
It took me about 10 minutes to install Windows 7 on my SSD. But then as this guy stated, you have to install everything again. Then there is the service packs along with hundreds of smaller updates (2 service packs I believe, 70MB each if Im not mistaken) which the computer has to download, install, then upon reboot it has to configure them. Your talking about at least 2 hours gone right there just installing the OS. And thats if your on a 30mbps connection like mine.
And it doesnt matter if he has all his stuff saved on the HDDs, because he still has to reinstall all the games and software because it will no longer be in the registry. A few programs might run without being reinstalled, but games I can assure you wont. And who wants to spend another 3-4 hours or so installing 250GB or more worth of games? And then having to set them all back up the way you want to....
I dont know if you have ever clicked that format C drive button.... but its a doozy if you have put time into your system and have been setup with it for even a couple months. Iv had my windows 7 installed for about 9 months and I would never think of completely formatting and re-installing unless there was no other option. Because even after 9 months it would take me as this guy said an entire days worth to get back to where Im at.
On that, big fella, I think I have probably saved someone if not many a huge hassle. Like I said, reinstalling windows should be a LAST RESORT. Getting low frame rates in games is NO REASON to reinstall the operating system. Clean the operating system maybe. But a complete re-install is not at all the solution to this problem.