Drop, charge, and lose the cords
Desktops: Poll: Why did you last reformat your hard drive?
- 8/21/09 11:04 AM
Poll: Why did you last reformat your hard drive?
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 8/21/09 11:04 AM
Why did you last reformat your hard drive?
To upgrade or switch to a new OS
Viruses and spyware made a mess
Had system problems I couldn't resolve (Please explain.)
To sell or get rid of hard drive
I've never found it necessary (Please explain.)
I accidentally did it (Please explain.)
Simply to start over (Please explain.)
It's something I do regularly (Please explain.)
Never have, because I don't know how
Other reason (What is it?)
Give'me system
by Willy - 8/21/09 6:31 PM In reply to: Poll: Why did you last reformat your hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
A handed me down system that came from "curb side". They couldn't get it to work, so they gave it to me. I fixed the original problems and then acquired the system CDs from the maker. I then was able to reload the OS, etc., for the final rebuild. That requires a reformat, etc. to do a clean OS install and now the system is ready for re-use.
tada -----Willy 
Migrating and Re-Installing Software
by GrahamZS6AZD - 8/22/09 3:58 AM In reply to: Give'me system by WillyHi Guys,
I have recently upgraded from a 40Gb to a 160Gb drive. I had a strange problem on the old drive where, when I clicked on any desktop icon or shortcut, every single icon on the desktop disappeared and left only the wallpaper before re-appearing about 30 seconds later. I was unable to run any program, or open any of my desktop directories by clicking on them. This was one of the main reasons why I decided to pull out the old 40Gb drive and install the new 160Gb drive.
Many of my programs, like ones I downloaded and installed on the old drive now will not run on the new drive. How can I get ALL the necessary information, like install keys, serial numbers and any passwords that might have been necessary during the initial installation - and most important - registry settings - from the old drive to the new one?
I am running Windows XP Professional, 2.4Mb processor, 1Gb RAM.
Any help would be appreciated.
Kind regards,
Graham
~~~~~~~
Maker's s/w
by Willy - 8/22/09 9:54 AM In reply to: Migrating and Re-Installing Software by GrahamZS6AZDDepending on the new HD maker's support website, visit it. Many HD maker's provide s/w if not with the new HD, then at the support website. You basically use the s/w to migrate the HDs from old to new, a mirror image. Remove the old HD and provided you HD type, figured the new HD as master/slave or CS usage OR SATA will now act as if the old HD in pgm. use. I can provide this info in basic form but again the HD support website offers more detailed info and of course pertains to their products. It seems you maqy have to redo your work, to get right.
tada -----Willy
Re: 40 GB to 160 GB
by royc - 8/23/09 11:25 PM In reply to: Migrating and Re-Installing Software by GrahamZS6AZDYou can't just copy programs from 1 HDD to another. You need to reinstall them from the source (CD or downloaded). For download files this is not a problem. You did save them to the HDD, didn't you? If not you can download them again. Even if you did save them it may not be a bad idea to get a new copy, they may have been updated.
How did you clone the drive?
by Crash2100 - 8/25/09 11:13 AM In reply to: Migrating and Re-Installing Software by GrahamZS6AZDFrom my experience, you need to uninstall the hard drive and the hard drive controller card in the device manager before you ghost the drive to the new one. Just make sure when you ghost the drive, don't resize the partitions, you'll have to resize them later using Partition Magic or something.
Also, when you first clone the drive, UNPLUG the old drive BEFORE your first boot with the new one, let windows detect the new hardware and install the drivers, then you can plug the old drive back in.
If you don't want to try that, take a look at using Sysprep, which prepares a windows installation for different hardware:
How to move a Windows installation to different hardware
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249694
How to use Sysprep with Ghost
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid/2000081610075225
Introduction to cloning a Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP computer
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid/1999070716282425
How to Prepare Images for Disk Duplication with Sysprep
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/itpro/deploying/duplication.asp
How to Use Sysprep: An Introduction
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/introductoin.mspx
Sysprep Download
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a83123d-507b-4095-9d9d-0a195f7b5f69&DisplayLang=en
A more simple way to do this is to use Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. That doesn't transfer programs, but it gets some of your basic program settings:
Moving files and settings to a new computer running Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/winxp/migrate.mspx
Mighty Usage
by peacemarauder - 8/21/09 6:32 PM In reply to: Poll: Why did you last reformat your hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I use my computers on the fly and my organizational tactics get messy, so whenever I feel like it, I just bomb the whole mess and start over since backups are always made.
Reformat My Hard Drive
by Joannec95 - 8/21/09 6:40 PM In reply to: Poll: Why did you last reformat your hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hello there;
Should I reformat my hard drive? I didn't know about this.
Joanne.
reformat
by jean harrington - 8/21/09 7:07 PM In reply to: Reformat My Hard Drive by Joannec95I have never had to reformat.I use computers 12-14 hours a day.
Necessary after a certain number of years using the computer
by sbill - 8/21/09 6:56 PM In reply to: Poll: Why did you last reformat your hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
After a certain number of years of use, a computer will become slow and unreliable. In some cases, this is due to software problems, in some cases, the hard disk itself may be going bad. In either case, it is necessary to backup any important data, reformat, and re-install the operating system and application software.
I am in fact planning to reformat this computer soon, as it takes too long to start up, and frequently "freezes up" for a long time with the hard disk light on continuously, such as when loading certain websites or application programs. The computer has plenty of memory, and a powerful processor, so that isn't the problem.
Did something stupid
by Crash2100 - 8/21/09 6:57 PM In reply to: Poll: Why did you last reformat your hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I did this just a couple days ago. I did something stupid and got spyware or a virus on my system, and after I couldn't get the thing working after a couple hours of work, I just restored a month old hard drive image. I cannot say enough, how valuable an automated drive imaging setup is for saving your butt in situations like this.
Restore is not reformat
by celtmaiden - 8/24/09 1:23 PM In reply to: Did something stupid by Crash2100Crash2100
While doing a restore can be useful in clearing up minor issues, there is a world of difference between it and a reformat. The two can be confused, but shouldn't be. I can "restore" my computer to factory defaults, but I need to take off the SP2 and SP3 updates prior to doing so. Or I can pick any number of restore points going back as far as I need, provided I have only done 3 restore operations since my last reformat. Reformatting, essentially re-installs the OS, starting from scratch. None of the user added programs or settings are left on the HD. It wipes out everything, including any virus/trojan/spyware that was accidentally downloaded. Reformatting is like plugging in the computer on day 1, but with old parts.
This wasn't system restore
by Crash2100 - 8/25/09 6:55 AM In reply to: Restore is not reformat by celtmaidenRestoring a drive or partition image may not be doing the same exact thing as the format command, but you're still wiping the drive contents clean, overwriting it with the contents of the image, and I thought that's what this discussion was all about. And if that hard drive image hadn't been there, I would have likely had to start from the absolute beginning with windows and everything else.
Other reason
by santuccie - 8/21/09 7:09 PM In reply to: Poll: Why did you last reformat your hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The last time I reformatted one of my own hard drives was in preparation to give the machine to a friend. When I first bought the unit, I created a 40 GB WINDOWS (C:) partition, allocating all remaining space to DATA (D:), where the regular account's My Documents folder and up to three images of the C: partition reside. My friend asked me to split drive space equally between the two partitions.
Your appcomp.txt File Crashing Explorer
by Bobkroeger - 11/11/09 1:20 PM In reply to: Other reason by santuccieI am having the same issue you posted on re: Explorer crashing in a particular folder. Did you ever find a fix? Thanks, Bob K.
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
