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Windows XP: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS?
- 8/21/09 2:39 PM
That's One BRAVE Soul !
by Good-PC.Guy! - 8/26/09 7:25 AM In reply to: POST 45 --- by CBAUMANNIT'S SOMEWHAT NICE TO SEE THAT THERE'S AT LEAST ONE OTHER OF US WHO OPENLY SEEMS NOT TOO INTERESTED IN ALLOWING THE UPSTARTS TO FREELY GET AWAY WITH PUSHING US (CAP-lovers) AROUND AND TRYING TO MAKE US SEE THINGS ONLY THEIR WAY!!
__ IT WOULD BE A REAL SHAME TO ALLOW OUR ESTABLISHED WRITTEN-LANGUAGE TO GET STILL FURTHER MUCKED-UP BY SOME TEMPORARY FAD WHICH HAD A LIFE-SPAN OF ONLY A COUPLE DECADES!
IF THEM NETIQUETTE UPSTARTS WERE TO SUCCESSFULLY GET THEIR WAY, (and get CAPs relegated to almost complete non-use), THEN A GENERATION FROM NOW, EVERYONE WOULD STILL BE HAVING TO ADHERE TO A PAST & USELESS RULE AND CONTINUE TO USE A WRITTEN-LANGUAGE WHICH WAS CRIPPLED SIMPLY BECAUSE OF A SHORT PERIOD IN TIME WHEN A RULE, (the one in question), MADE SENSE FOR SOMETHING CALLED 'chatting', (which was invented only cuz most people couldn't type as fast as they can think of replies to convey).
__ CERTAINLY ADVANCING TECHNOLOGY WILL SOON SAVE 'chatters', (and the rest of us), FROM THE TASK OF HAVING TO ACTUALLY TYPE! ...
I HAPPEN TO BE AWARE OF A NEW DEVICE WHICH SHOULD BECOME WIDELY AVAILABLE WITHIN 5-YEARS...
IT WILL BE IN THE FORM OF A NECK-COLLAR WHICH CONNECTS TO YOUR USB-PORT (wirelessly). _ WITH IT, YOU SIMPLY THINK OF THE WORDS WHICH YOU WISH TO STATE (pronounce), AND THEY'LL INSTANTLY POP-UP ON YOUR SCREEN FOR YOU, (bypassing your keyboard [of that particular purpose]).
THEN IT WILL BE EASIER TO SPEND THE EXTRA TIME IT TAKES TO WRITE MORE PROPERLY!
AND FOR THOSE WHO STILL FEEL THE NEED TO SCREAM SOME WORDS, THEY CAN USE BOLD-LETTERING INSTEAD OF CAPs, TO YELL WITH, (as should've been the case all along).
____ FOR YOU C.MANN, AS A FELLOW-PCer SEEMINGLY FOR PRESERVING OUR FREEDOM,
I WILL GLADLY GO OUT OF MY WAY TO HELP YOU ANYTIME I CAN!
don't reply to him, he must be blocked (false email addr)
by verdyp - 9/14/09 1:08 PM In reply to: Netiquette by jayatcnet375He will be blocked because he has subscribed with a false email address and opted for receiving forwarded messages to his false mailbox.
If you reply to his messages, you will instantly receive tons of email delivery failure notice in your mailbox.
Please CNET, stop forwarding any message to this user because of the following message we get from his ISP:
The following message to <diana20@dreamscape.com> was undeliverable.
The reason for the problem:
5.1.0 - Unknown address error 550-'Blocked\x00.n'
Nice Job Bill - I would just like to add
by waytron - 8/25/09 10:51 PM In reply to: See my answer to last week's question ... by WatzmanNice Job as usually Bill. I would just like to add that if you are planning to reinstall Windows, for whatever reason, and your current hard drive is 3 or more years old, I would suggest just going ahead and replacing the hard drive before you go to all the effort of reinstalling Windows. At today's low prices, you can purchase a new hard drive for less than $70 and you also get the added benefit of having the original drive data in place and you do not have to worry about making sure you have backed up all the correct data before reformating the drive. This also gives you the opportunity to upgrade to a larger hard drive if needed. You can install the old drive as a slave and use it as a backup or purchase a USB enclosure for it to give you an external backup drive.
A thought or two
by HDJDF - 10/2/09 7:27 PM In reply to: See my answer to last week's question ... by WatzmanI partition my OS drive in half and use Microsofts Tweakui power toy for XP to redirect the path to My Documents and other files as needed, Tweakui contains many helpful tools that a fairly competant user can accomplish these things easily, I have done this with tweakui going all the way back to Win 95 when OS crashes were how many on a given day? 
Reasons behind reformating your drive...
by waltjones40 - 8/14/09 6:24 PM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There are many reasons why you want to do this with a Windows PC. One reason is that Windows Registry grows crappy over time. It becomes fragmented and holds info relating to old programs that are no longer used, as well as programs that are still in use. Some viruses back themselves up in the registry as well.
Then there is the .dll problem. Some programs use old versions of a library file, while other programs use a newer version. Since the .dll files tend to get written to the same directory, your Word 2007 may over-write a .dll used by Visio 2003 or Windows itself. If a program does this, the system restore may not fix the problem...
Fear and paranoia!
by kdlanejr - 8/14/09 6:29 PM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Fear, paranoia, and not being able to solve a problem are the three things that usually drive reformatting and re-installing windows. Over time, normal use of your pc, including adding programs, uninstalling programs, adding files to your hard drive and deleting files from your hard drive all take a toll on your system. If you run a good registry cleaning program occasionally and defrag your hard drive on a regular basis, your system should not ever slow down enough to warrant spending the time it takes to format and reinstall your OS, let alone all your productivity software. But if you feel you must start fresh every now and then, I'd recommend you make a plan to load all your apps after you format and reinstall the OS, then image your hard drive, back up that image and also preload the image on a new hard drive for use when you think you absolutely have to. As long as you store all your data files on a separate drive, this will work fine for the life of the computer. Personally I would only use the imaged backup drive in case of catastrophic drive failure, and rely on regular system maintenance to keep things running smoothly.
Simple answer - it's Windows
by rbsjrx - 8/14/09 6:30 PM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Why should you defrag your hard drive a regular intervals? Why do many people find it necessary to clean their registry from time to time? Why don't users of other OSs have to go through the same rituals? The answer is the design of Windows itself. No other currently popular OS uses anything like the Windows registry. No other currently popular OS relies solely on antiquated error-prone file systems like FAT and NTFS. Other popular OSs are built to recognized industry and international standards (e.g. POSIX). Windows is built to Microsoft's proprietary "standards".
That it also is such an attractive target for malicious software writers and has a relatively unsophisticated user base only exacerbates its inherent problems.
I've been a heavy Windows user for most of my working life (I'm now retired). Although I'm hardly a typical user, I have hundreds of applications installed on my primary Windows machine, many of which present challenges to the OS. I defrag my Windows machines religiously and clean my registry at the first sign of instability. Yet I still have to reinstall Windows every 18-24 months. My Linux machines run 24/7/365 under similar conditions without ever losing performance or even requiring a reboot when I perform software upgrades. Linux may not be right for everyone, but the lesson is still there. Windows is poorly designed, insecure, and unreliable. If you use it, this is just something you have to expect and live with.
For reference, My primary Windows machine runs WinXP MCE SP2. My primary Linux machine runs Mint 6 KDE. My server runs Debian "Lenny". My laptop dual boots Vista and Mint 7. My wife's machine (which I maintain) dual boots WinXP MCE SP2 and Mint 6 KDE. My daughter's machine (which I also maintain) runs WinXP SP2. my wife's is a great compromise setup. She runs all of her Windows-only software on it, but does her routine web browsing and email under Linux. It's these routine tasks that quickly accumulates all of the garbage that causes most of the problems with Windows. My daughter and granddaughter want to migrate to a setup like my wife's as soon as I can get around to it.
To rbsjrx...
by Rob10 - 8/15/09 6:32 AM In reply to: Simple answer - it's Windows by rbsjrxJust wondered why you don't have any Macs mentioned in your list. I'm not a Mac guy, never used one, but had cosidered getting one for all the problems you just mentioned with Windows. I just can't get past the choice Apple forces on it's devoted customers between a glorified laptop (iMac) with not much user upgrade path, and the expensive MacPro which is way overkill for most people. I've never tried Linux and don't think I have the computer skills or desire to go that route either. Guess I'll keep plodding along with windows (sigh).
BTW, I'm typing on a 2000 Dell desktop with 930MHz PIII and 512Mb RAM. I've reformatted once since I upgraded to XP in '06. I didn't find reformatting that big of a deal, if you have a little time on a Saturday. I am considering doing it again soon as I cannot use System Restore and need to track down the reason.
Mac backups
by bobc47 - 8/15/09 7:04 AM In reply to: To rbsjrx... by Rob10I have an Imac and four windows computers (actually one DOS,one 2000 and two XP).
I ghost my windows computers and do weekly data backups (they are not heavily used). When I used widows exclusively I backed up the "my documents" folder daily.The Imac has OS X (10.5.8) and came with Time machine on it. This backs up the machine every hour, it does a full backup initially and does incremental backups from then on, all of this happens without my intervention. The Imac is about 20 months old and the 500gb external disk is about 90% full. It will automatically delete old files to make room for new backups.
I've never had to completely reload the system because OS X is MUCH more robust than Windows is but I have had to go back and get previous versions of documents and it works quite well. The Imac did cost a lot more than an equivalent windows machine but I'm very happy with it because I don't spend half my life fighting with the machine. It's not perfect, far from it, but it's a lot more stable than Windows and almost as good as Dos 6.2
Simple answer whcy no Macs
by rbsjrx - 8/15/09 8:37 AM In reply to: To rbsjrx... by Rob10One word - cost. Linux can run on any old PC you may happen to have which is no longer suitable for running Windows (the typical minimum system requirements are any Pentium-class CPU, 512MB of RAM, and at least 8 GB HDD). Apple wants you to buy everything from them at a premium price. Both Max OS X and Linux are descended from Unix and so are quite similar under the skin. It's just that the skin is much less expensive when using Linux. My primary Windows and Linux machines have almost identical specs, yet my Linux machine, aside from being vastly more reliable, runs identical apps (e.g. Firefox) faster. OTOH, my Linux test system is a homebrew running a 1.5GHz Via C7 CPU and only 1MB of RAM. Performance isn't as good as my primary machine, but is still acceptable.
What Apple does bring to the table is the same thing Microsoft offers - hand-holding support. Since I don't need that, I'm a satisfied Linux user who's steadily migrating away from Windows.
Another thing - as I look at the world of Apple, all I see is slick commercialism which really puts me off. With Apple, every app is a storefront (e.g. iTunes or Safari). All the real innovation currently going on in the OS world is happening in Linux, not Apple or Microsoft. Innovation appeals to me, salesmanship, no matter how slick, doesn't.
Re to Simple Answer Why No Macs
by Rob10 - 8/22/09 6:50 AM In reply to: Simple answer whcy no Macs by rbsjrxLOL! In some ways I like Apple's slick persona and all-encompassing "world" less than Microsoft's. I know they want to keep everything compatible and running smoothly, and the way to insure that is to completely control software and hardware. But jeez la-weez, the prices they charge when they allready have you is a crime. If they offered a reasonably priced mid-tower I could add to and tinker with a bit, I would give them a try, but nooooo. Old Steve Jobs seems to have this sneering smile on his face like the cult leader who's laughing all the way to the bank at the poor slobs who worship him. Not trying to start a flame war, there's just something I detest about how Apple gouges customers. I know, it's just business...
MacOPOLY
by colorguys - 8/26/09 10:16 AM In reply to: Re to Simple Answer Why No Macs by Rob10Exactly - you pointed out that the mythical 'Mac stability' is due ONLY to total system monopoly (hard/soft) - resulting in fascism or a TOTAL LACK of options and choice. I've got 3 Macs (one OS8x) and 5 WinTels (3-wXP, Vista, w7) - all of the PC's have been hardware/OS upgraded multiple times (3 are 12+ years) while the Macs just don't age well and fall out of use. The update options are expensive. limited and unreasonably difficult (by design). If money is no option - purchase a top end Mac every 3 years. I'll stick with a more powerful, upgradable and greener PC.
When you do reformat, you also ought to ...
by Good-PC.Guy! - 8/22/09 8:07 PM In reply to: To rbsjrx... by Rob10THEN CREATE AN EXTRA PARTITION AND REINSTALL YOUR OS AN EXTRA TIME, SO THAT YOU'LL THEN HAVE A 'DUAL-BOOT' PC! ...
____ I HAVE BEEN USING A DUAL-BOOT PC FOR MANY YEARS, AND I ALSO HAVE LOST THE System Restore FUNCTION BUT, ONLY ON THE OS WHICH HAS BEEN USED TO SURF THE WWW.NET, (never on the OS which has been kept off the net)...
SO I BELIEVE THAT WHILE SURFING THE WWW.NET, YA MAY PICK-UP SOMETHING THAT PURPOSELY DEFEATS THE System Restore, SO THAT YOU CAN'T USE IT TO AVOID SOME MALWARE THAT YOUR PC WAS (at least) EXPOSED TO (at the same time). _ (YOUR ANTI-MALWARE PROGRAMs MAY HAVE DEFEATED THE MALWARE BUT IT WON'T ALSO UNDO WHATEVER WAS DONE TO THE System Restore FUNCTION.)
__ SO THAT'S JUST ONE GOOD REASON (of many) TO CONVERT YOUR PC TO 'DUAL-BOOT'!
SO WHEN-EVER YA DO DECIDE TO REINSTALL YOUR OS, YA REALLY OUGHT TO GO AHEAD AND ALSO TAKE THE ADDITIONAL (few) STEPS TO INSTALL YOUR OS TWICE!
THAT WAY, YOU CAN USE ONE OS TO SURF THE WWW.NET PRETTY MUCH WORRY FREE! _ BECAUSE THE ONLY PROBLEM THAT MOST ANY MALWARE (which ya might pick-up) COULD DO THAT WOULD CAUSE YA ANY TROUBLE (at the time), IS SHUT YOUR PC DOWN (in attempt to reboot it).
AND ALSO, YOU CAN USE THE ALTERNATE OS TO DO YOUR OTHER IMPORTANT WORK, AS IT WILL ALWAYS BE LEFT LIKE NEW, (so long as you don't add much to it).
__ ON THE OS THAT YA USE FOR SURFING, YA ACTUALLY DON'T NEED ANY ANTI-MALWARE PROGRAMS, (i only use 'SpyBot S&D' with TeaTimer activated), BECAUSE MOST ALL MALWARE THAT'S PICKED-UP, IS ONLY SET-UP TO COME INTO PLAY & START WORKING THE NEXT TIME YOU BOOT-UP, (only to that same OS however!).
THEREFORE (before ya boot again to that possibly infected OS), TO KEEP ANY MALWARE FROM GETTING A CHANCE TO PERFORM IT'S UNDESIRED DEED, YOU FIRST BOOT TO YOUR ALTERNATE OS AND USE A GOOD ANTI-MALWARE PROGRAM TO STRIP ANY MALWARE FROM YOUR OTHER OS WHICH WAS USED TO SURF THE WWW.NET. _ THEN, YOU MAY REBOOT TO THAT OS (which ya use for surfing), AND START SURFING THE WWW AGAIN.
____ AS I'VE CLAIMED, I HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR A FEW YEARS, AND I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT I'VE NEVER LEARNED OF ANY TYPE OF MALWARE/VIRUS WHICH CAN PERFORM ANYTHING AT ALL, WHEN IT'S LOADED ON AN OS THAT IS NOT UP & RUNNING (being used), (unless you find the infection and try to activate it).
IN OTHER WORDS, MALWARE CAN'T WORK AT ALL WHEN IT'S WITHIN AN OS THAT IS NOT BOOTED, (unless you purposely try to help it to)!
THEREFORE WHEN YOU'RE BOOTED TO YOUR ALTERNATE OS, YOU ARE QUITE SAFE FROM ANY MALWARE THAT WAS PICKED-UP BY THAT OTHER OS (when it was used for surfing)!
____ I CONFIDENTLY ASSURE ALL WHO GO AHEAD AND SET-UP THEIR PC FOR DUAL-BOOTing, THE NEXT TIME THEY REFORMAT & REINSTALL THEIR OS,, THAT THEY'LL BE QUITE GLAD THAT THEY DID!
(READ SOME OF MY OTHER POSTINGS FOR MORE ON THIS SUBJECT.)
Many reasons to reformat
by marine07001 - 8/14/09 6:31 PM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There are many reasons to reformat a harddrive, I have done it many times over the years on all of the seven computers in my house. And, no, it is not a ritual and it is not always necessary. It is normally done as a last resort or the lesser of all evils. One good reason is picking up one of those "special" viruses that will not allow you to do a system recovery. Another good reason is a corrupt registry that slows your computer down and cannot be fixed with a registry cleaner or restorer. Reformatting your computer gives it basically a fresh from the factory feel, it cleans up all the junk cluttering your computer, basically recharges it. Reformatting also resolves software conflicts. Also, be aware there are other options you have to facilitate a reformat. I have two harddrives installed on my computers, the second one I keep my exe. files and copies of all my drivers. I also have an exterior harddrive where I keep all my important files so I can move it from computer to computer or just access it through my network, which is a bit slower. There is other software out there, I don't know if I'm allowed to mention any, that once you get your computer set just the way you want it, you can make a backup of your harddrive and store to a second harddrive, and using the disk, you can restore your computer in minutes as opposed the hour or so it will take to reformat. I hope this answers your question, Stephanie
JUNK.
by A41202813 - 8/14/09 6:31 PM In reply to: Reasons behind reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows OS? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The Control Part Of A Nowadays Operation System Is A Collection Of Code Called Registry.
With Normal Use This Registry Becomes Filled With Junk.
When You Install A Program, And Then Try To Uninstall It, Software Vendors Leave More Junk, Because They Want To Know If, And When, You Have Used Their Software In The Past - They Know Why.
I Test So Much Software, That I Really Need To Reinstall The Operation System Two Or Three Times A Year.
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