Reformatting your PC a lot of times.

[DanishDevil]

I reformat both my machines at least once every 2 months. I've had a total of 2 GPUs, and one mobo die on me. Never a HDD. Then again, I don't hold onto parts very long either, but rest assured, you're good.

And yes, I call Microsoft quite often. I've got it down to a science now and I can make the activation call in under 4 and a half minutes flat.

 

[cadaveca]

so call them. you paid for it, you are entitled to your reinstalls, its their job to make it work for you

I format about once a month. I have to call for XP, VIsta, and 7, each to a different number, and have NEVER, NEVER had any isssues with re-activation.

Even my Windows7, which was a free copy(stupid "Balmer Edition"), has been reactivated over the phone 5 times now.

Even when changing to different motherboards..never an issue(although this should cause an issue, it doesn't).

 

[CJCerny]

There is nothing untrue about my statement. The magnetic tracks are being rearranged, just like any writing operations.

Users can no longer LLF a drive. That has been a factory only option for years. Has been since IDE/SATA drives replaced MFM/RLL drives. You are mistakenly referring to zeroing a drive as a LLF.

 

[Thrackan]

Users can no longer LLF a drive. That has been a factory only option for years. Has been since IDE/SATA drives replaced MFM/RLL drives. You are mistakenly referring to zeroing a drive as a LLF.

Then maybe people and programs should have stopped calling it a low-level format since the IDE days. There's been plenty of time for a correction, ATA drives are probably older than I am. I call adaptation on this one.

 

[CJCerny]

Then maybe people and programs should have stopped calling it a low-level format since the IDE days. There's been plenty of time for a correction, ATA drives are probably older than I am. I call adaptation on this one.

It's just a misnomer. Happens all the in the English language. No sweat.

The main point is that the OP should know is that formatting a drive every few months isn't going to shorten its lifespan at all. Running something like a hard disk benchmark constantly would definitely do that, though. Drives are rated for a certain number of hours of "normal use". Running a hard disk benchmark or something that really stresses the drive more than "normal use" would definitely cause it to die well before the hours that it is rated for.