Windows XP: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS?
- 8/21/09 2:39 PM
ITS ALWAYS YOU
by johnlira - 8/23/09 1:54 AM In reply to: IT HAD TO BE YOU!!! by Cadillac84After changing internet providers, installing xp sevice pac 3 I still had problems. Until again you came with the right answers. I will hang with your threads as long as your out there.
thanks pal!
Joanne Raymond
reformatting the Hard Drive and reinstalling XP..
by davidaharon - 8/23/09 10:50 PM In reply to: IT HAD TO BE YOU!!! by Cadillac84Before one goes to this extreme one needs to try a feature called System Restore [similar to GoBack from Windows 98]
I had an unusual situation about a week ago when one of new programs I tested wiped out the icons on my desktop after I consulted a Computer expert. He suggested I do a system restore and then eliminate the guilty program ... well after the 3rd back attempt my system was working with all the icons on the screen.
So as an alternative route to go, here's is the procedure:
a] back up your data you need.
b] open the following:
1. Start
2. Programs
3. Accessories
4. System Tools
5. System Restore
When running the system restore go back in time to a point before the problem started. You may have to go back a couple of earlier dates to get the screen
'Normal' like it was.
After System restore is done. then get rid of the offending troublemaking programs. [In my case it was a Vision program to restore eye vision using Subliminal techniques].
and then run
a] Anti virus program [update that before running]
b] Anti Spyware program such as SPYBOT.
c] a defragger program such as Smart Defrag
d] a general hard drive crap cleaner
Using the Add/remove feature in Control Panel remove all unwanted programs... this might include elimination of several similar functioning programs [do not remove the setup program in case you want to use it again] ...
Go to your download manager folder and check for unfinished downloads and delete them.
Also Note when you download a movie or a program it often does NOT Go to your default download folder.
I recommend that you download the original setup or a zipped version of the setup program. Do a data check and get rid of extra copies of files that are just duplicates taking up space.
To clean up ebook PDF duplicates of the same titles:
a] Decide on a system of file and folder renaming:
A consistent naming after downloads for PDF extension files ...
For example you have several files from different sources by various sponsors:
Sponsor A has a title with hyphens for each word
Sponsor B has A title with author following
Sponsor C has first name last name title and publisher and so on
Do a further Cleanup of your audio and video files ... Some videos take up 100 megs and more.
David
Always first read what watzman says
by yasinghMD - 8/24/09 8:49 PM In reply to: reformatting the Hard Drive and reinstalling XP.. by davidaharonGenerally his reply is adequate. People would avoid many problems with the windows if they followed my simple advice, given a long time ago.
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7813_102-0.html?messageID=2565875&tag=commProfileMain;profileBot#2565875
Always
by PsychGen - 8/24/09 9:08 PM In reply to: Always first read what watzman says by yasinghMDWatz the watzman...Muwahahahahaaaa!
Sorry. Couldn't resist...
Good advice though.
All good advice but....
by Guerito - 9/19/09 4:28 PM In reply to: IT HAD TO BE YOU!!! by Cadillac84...have none of you who say you've never had to reinstall windows ever turned on your machine one day and it just won't boot? I have ten years of building systems and installing software experience, also worked as tech support for well known hardware vendor...sometimes there isn't an answer. I myself have experienced the situation where windows freezes, blue screens or just won't boot and the message 'windows failed to start this may be due to a recent software or hardware...blah, blah' cuts no ice when you haven't installed/reconfigured/changed any software or hardware. What can a person do when one day then turn on their machine and they get the message 'boot.ini is missing'. When a crucial file is missing and the system won't boot what advice can you give to the average home user who only has a restore disc to save them?
Windows simply 'breaks' sometimes for no obvious reason. We can all make backups, disc images to protect our files and the ONLY time we should reinstall is when we have hardware failures but, the bits and bytes that are held on our devices are only as reliable as the device and until we discover an indestructable, uncorruptable storage device that won't lose data due to something as simple as a 0.5v power fluctuation or getting knocked over by the family dog, then we just have to accept that us humans are doing the best we can with the tech we have and reinstalling is a fact of life and should be taught in school. More than likely if kids learnt that reinstalling was a time consuming, discouraging task then one of them will grow up to imvent a device or discover a method that will make reinstalling extinct then the only phone calls tech support will recieve is 'how do I turn it on?' which is a much more pleasing question.
can anyone recommend...
by tooele - 8/15/09 9:10 AM In reply to: See my answer to last week's question ... by Watzmana good software program to make an image backup?
thanks.
Backup Software
by High Desert Charlie - 8/15/09 10:59 PM In reply to: can anyone recommend... by tooeleAcronis True Image seems to work well
Norton Ghost - Not Bad.
Image Backup
by OldHackRik - 8/21/09 7:36 PM In reply to: Backup Software by High Desert CharlieThe best I have found and it works perfectly, is Macrium Reflect. Plus, it is free. You can make a boot CD so that when you need to recover from a disaster, just boot from the CD, plug in the external hard drive which has a saved image and restore the OS drive from the image on the external drive and you are back in business lickety-split. This will help you recover from a failed hard drive, virus or trojan malfeasance, or a massive personal f**k up. Just remember to occasionally do a fresh image backup, especially when you make major changes to your OS.
Not free.
by Grey_Wolf01 - 8/21/09 10:58 PM In reply to: Image Backup by OldHackRikJust checked and Macrium Reflect is no longer FREE, they now charge $39.95 for the program.
_"no longer FREE"_?_ Must not have tried Download.com !
by Good-PC.Guy! - 8/21/09 11:29 PM In reply to: Not free. by Grey_Wolf01ACTUALLY, THERE IS INDEED A 'Free Edition' OF SUCH, TO BE FOUND ON 'Download.com'!
(IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THERE COULD BE ANY OF US WHO WOULDN'T THINK TO SEARCH Download.com, OF ALL PLACES!)
DriveImageXML
by jerrylust1 - 8/22/09 6:38 PM In reply to: Image Backup by OldHackRikThe personal edition is free. It also has the ability to restore single files, rather than the entire image, to where they were or another location.
Image Backups indeed!
by vanCarnisse - 8/22/09 8:08 PM In reply to: Image Backup by OldHackRikPartioning and an Image Backup is the answer. Whatever tool, I use Acronis happily, imagine: On does a fresh install with the good drivers, most important software and updates. Do some cleaning CC Cleaner f.a. The machine runs still smoothly. That's one of the best moments to backup. Imagine a couple of month later: The system starts behaving annoing. Ons tries some things, dependent on situation and skills. Time goes by gazing at the windows on the screen. Then one says Enough! and starts his engine to fall back to situation smoothly running or whatever state of progress. It starts spinnin. within an hour evrething is **** and span again.
backup program
by catlady9tails - 8/23/09 9:32 AM In reply to: Image Backup by OldHackRikto OldHackRik -
I downloaded Macrium Reflect then did a back up. and put it on a cd. now how do you use it to restore?I have windows XP 3 and IE8 also fire fox for browsers. I put the cd back in and checked around but not sure what to do if I ever have to do this. I have done a complete format and reinstall . but didn't have a backup for all the other things on my pc. I do have a backup on a flash drive of the drivers I need to reinstall. I tried opening the files on the cd but kept getting a message that it couldn't open it. thanks catlady9tails
Bad backup programs
by verdyp - 9/8/09 4:07 AM In reply to: backup program by catlady9tailsAny backup program that is not capable of creating a true image of your disk as a .VHD file, that can be remounted later at least as a virtual hard disk, for example in Virtual PC or in Windows Server, should be thrown away. Remember that Virtual PC is free. It will save your life if you ever need to reinstall your OS completely from an image, or intend to reinstall it completely from scratch and still being able to recover all the settings that are still in thr VHD file.
Beware with cheap backup programs (including the default backup program of Basic and Home versions of Windows... which does not preserve everything and is completely unable to create true image files of your disk, including its partition tables, MBR, boot records... partition tables and settings for geometry parameters and fixup modes).
Tisk,Tisk Catlady9tails...
by Good-PC.Guy! - 9/8/09 12:07 PM In reply to: backup program by catlady9tailsWELL DEAR Cat9, TOO BAD THAT IT SEEMS THAT YOU DIDN'T READ & FOLLOW THE ADVICE WHICH I GAVE AROUND A COUPLE WEEKS BACK.
THEN YOU COULD'VE SAVED/CLONED YOUR PC TO A SEPARATE NEW HARD-DRIVE AND ALSO HAVE A DUAL-BOOT PC, TO BOOT! (pun not really intended.)
THUS ALSO LEAVING YOU WITH YOUR OLD HARD-DRIVE AS THE VERY BEST POSSIBLE 'BACK-UP' !!
IN CASE YOU EVER CHOOSE TO TRY AGAIN, CLICK ON MY NAME AND READ MY OTHER RELATED POSTINGS, (before asking any further questions).
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