Reformatted my HDD last night ...

[Walt]

and boy it's a right royal pain in the a$$. Downloading all the latest drivers again , reinstalling all my application, reconfiguring my network, firewall, virus settings, email, IE etc etc, the list goes on, and on.

The reason I needed to do it was that Windows was just getting so gummed up with old drivers, conflicting drivers, expired shareware, old apps, etc that I was in need of wiping the slate clean and starting afresh.

And despite the work, now and again it is nice to start off with a pristine OS and move forward with all the garbage gone.

I have a 60 Gb HDD, and what I should have done when I first got it, and have subsequently done, is partition it so that the OS sits on its own partition separate from applications and data. So now I have a 12 Gb partition for Windows XP, a 20 Gb partition for applications, and a 24 Gb partition for data.

In the future when I feel the need to reformat and reinstall Windows again I will only need to do the 12 Gb partition, and all my applications and data will be preserved. Life will be so much simpler.

So what am I trying to say? Well if you have the diskspace, partition your HDD like I have mine to simplify matters. And secondly, plan on reinstalling your OS every 6 months or so to get rid of the clutter which inevitably builds up and slowly makes your system unstable.

Despite the work, its worth it ...

Maybe someone else has some general tips for computer management (as there seems to have been a number of OS/stability related questions here recently).

 

[THOR]

Hey Walt how about some step by step instructions on how to do that with windows ME

 

[Wardsweb]

Well a good place to start is to remove all the spyware running in the background that you don't know about. Download Ad-Aware and run it. http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

Run regedit
go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
then Software
then Microsoft
then Windows
then Current version
then Run
Remove the stuff you don't want starting on boot like Realplayer, CDplayer, MidiMixer... just right click on it and delete.

Defrag your hardrive

Delete the 20 gigs of porn your never going to look at.

it's a start

 

[THOR]

I've already done that stuff ward and I do too look at my porn!

But I should reformat I think like walt did since its been over a year and a half since my buddie did it for me

 

[Walt]

I've never used ME ... I went straight from Win 98SE to Win XP.

However I can tell you in general terms what you need to do to partition, reformat and reinstall ... apologies if this is not what you were looking for ...

First off you need to repartition your HDD. There are a number of very good pieces off software out there, my personal favorite is System Commander 7, which also enables me to make my machine dual-bootable into both OS's (in my case Win 98SE and Win XP).

So pick your choice of software (Partition Magic is another I am familiar with) and resize your HDD. Make the PRIMARY OS partition at least 4-8 Gb in size depending on how much space you have available on your entire HDD.

Then make another 2 partitions, one for apps, the other for data, in about a 1:2:3 ratio (OS:Appsata).

Then reboot into Windows and move all your data (WP docs, spreadsheets, backups, export your bookmarks and inbox, MP3's, image files, porn , drivers) to the Data partition.

Next move all your major applications in the Program Files folder to the Apps partition. Some won't mind the move, others will get a bit stroppy and resist and will probably need to be reinstalled again to operate correctly.

Then reboot and hit F8 or DEL (whichever gets you into your BIOS setup) and change the setting which determines the ORDER of boot so that your system will boot from CDROM first. Then exit, put your Windows CD in the tray, reboot and enter Windows setup. At the start of setup it should give you the option to install AND format the PRIMARY partition. Select the correct partition to install and reformat (most likely the "c:" partition) and sit back for half and hour while it does its stuff.

Then reboot into Windows and then start reinstalling all the correct device drivers (video adaptors, soundcards, NIC's, modems, mouse, printers/scanners etc). Next test all the apps from your App partition to make sure they are working OK. As I said, some might be a little testy so its probably as well just to delete the folders they are installed into and reinstall them again. Some will survive the reinstall reasonably well, although you will need to add a program shortcut to your "Start" menu in order to be able to quick launch the apps.

Get your NIC/modem drivers set up first so you can download all the Windows updates, and the latest versions of your device drivers.

I've probably blown a few people up with this so if you have any questions please ask and I will try to explain a little better.

But I do recommend you reinstall/reformat your OS every 6-12 mths at a minimum as you'd be surprised how laden your OS gets over time. Grump - your machine comes to mind in particular - it sounds like its well overdue for a lube and oil change! Nothing like starting afresh ...

 

[angela]

yeah, but what sucks is all the contacts that you had in your email setup that you forgot to back up and speaking of email, all of the emails...

I uninstalled XP the other night out of frustration and have been recovering ever since.

the biggest thing for me was losing all of my email and phone numbers.

 

[Walt]

Yes I have done that before!

Before you do anything, export your bookmarks/favorites from IE, and export your inbox/sent/other mail from OE etc.

After Windows is reinstalled you will be able to import these and get back up and running again.

 

[angela]

Where were you 3 nights ago, my friend?

 

[Walt]

Probably doing battle with BSOD's on Win XP, beating the keyboard/cat in exasparation, and then finally giving in to the need to reformat/reinstall ...

I feel your pain - I stayed up 'til 1am last night (I get up for work at 6am) getting it all done. Boy, am I tired today!

 

[Walt]

Well I spoke too soon ...

Last night I was busy reinstalling some drivers and software and bang, I started getting more BSOD's (actaully just after I loaded up the firewall Zonealram of all things). These ones were pretty fierce as I couldn't restore to last good point, bootup to last known good configuration, of boot in safe mode ... all failed, so ...

Back to square 1 again

Reformatted and reinstalled windows again, but at least it was faster this time with the new partition arrangement.

One upside of all this is I am being very discerning about what I load up on the system ... only what I need, no "bloatware", and nothing likely to cause the damn thing to fall over again.

Another 1am evening ... lucky I got a week off next week to get away and catch up on some sleep.

 

[Walt]

Just got worse last night ... I stripped my system down and built it back up again (Thor, as an overclocker will know what I mean), and on reboot I got all manner of error codes trying to POST.

Turns out that my BIOS got corrupted somehow so after resetting CMOS, got it booted back up again, and OK it's working now. Thank the Lord.

Hopefully it should be solid from here.

**crosses fingers, toes, legs, arms, anything I forgot?**

 

[angela]

It used to be so much easier before "plug and pray" :withstpd:

 

[Walt]

Crappy MS BS software ... when Lindows or Linux become more widely supported, I'm there!