Defrag -vs- Speed disk

[thcri]

I did my desktop with 40 gig hard drive but lots of free space as I did it the day I got my desk top. It first said it was going to check to see if all programs were compatible, then it made it's conversion and then rebooted the computer. All in all in took about twenty minutes.

Again follow the directions that came with your help files on your computer. Dont' use my command from above.

Murph

 

[Richard]

Murph...

Since this machien was a ME machine initially, and I have the upgrade to XP, is it possible for me to do a total reformat and clean install of XP, or must I first install ME and "re-upgrade"??

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Bird]

Richard, I'm afraid I'm not much more than a novice when it comes to these computers, but I used to do the "ctrl/alt/del" business like DocHeb when I had Windows 98, but now that I'm running XP, I simply use Norton SystemWorks' Speed Disk about once a month. And this Dell came with ME, then I got the XP upgrade from Dell, installed it very carefully according to their erroneous instructions, then got on the phone with them, and eventually had to do a clean install. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Richard]

as a followup to my last question....

Is there any merit in partitioning a portion of my hard drive for old programs (I have a single old one I MUST have) that may not work on NTFS? and keep it formatted Fat32?

Is that possible and would it work?

Richard

 

[utahmule]

What do you use for backup? I'm a chronic sinner on this.

Could you offer an overview of what you do, process and program, to help me break to the cycle of ignorance?

Thanks

 

[Richard]

I used to use Xcopy32 to copy all my datafiles I needed into another folder on my pc called simply 'backups". This was in my startup, so it happened without choice every time I started my machine. Then I had 5 more batch files, that copied on a M/T/W/TH/F basis (hitting each batch command) onto a networked Jaz drive that had monday/tues folders to correspond with the copied files. So I always had a last boot set, and 5 prior days. Furthermore, it was VERY fast and in event of fire drill (which happened from time to time), I could just pop Jazz drive out and be on my way (or also have second one off site...but /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif let's not go there)

Today with new pc, I just Xcopy to directory (what happend to Xcopy32 in XP??) and burn that to a cd.

I learned the harsh lesson of backing up when (PRIOR to doing any) my pc crashed and out of all the data lost (which wasn't much as far as different programs went)... the only thing LOST was Quickbooks. Hmm... the ENTIRE financial HISTORY of my company from day ONE... and NO backups.

/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Can we say deep doo doo? /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

As luck would have it /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif a month earlier, the bosses wife had some questions on can she access quickbooks (non networked version), and in my attempts of trying that... had copied the datafile onto HER pc. so, when all was wrung out in the wash, all I had to do, was reconstruct 1 month of data. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I must say.. never in my life, had I just so quietly sat back in my chair, reflected on the depth of what just happened and considered just walking into bosses office and tendering my resignation on the spot.

Thank my stars, the bosses wife was a nosy type that just had to always keep her nose into the companys buisness /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

I created my above 'pattern' of backing up within 48 hours of this happenstance.

Richard

 

[Richard]

ok.. another one...

My pc crashed today and "downloaded memory files to hard drive" or something like that.

I now have a bunch of "*.dmp" files in a folder... may I presume I can DELETE those with no ill effects?

Thanks

 

[thcri]

Rich,

That is a question I may have to take the 5th and remain silent. I would think it would be ok as Windows ME could be converted also. Plus the fact windows ME should no longer be there. Did you click on to help and type in"NTFS" I did this on my puter at home and it gives me the same command as Windows 2000 Pro.

I am not a big fan of upgrading an Operating System. I typically will reformat my hard drive once a year to get rid of all the junk that Microsoft puts on it and other programs that a person downloads off the internet then decides to uninstall. Windows can not remove all files from all installations. Remove a program once and then look at your registry files. Lot of the files for the program you deleted will still be there.

Murph

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> I now have a bunch of "*.dmp" files in a folder... may I presume I can DELETE those with no ill effects? </font>

From another forum on the Internet (see below). If it were my PC, I'd delete them.

.DMP
On NT 4.0 and Win2000, a memory dump file gets created if the OS or an application crashes. In the case of OS crash ("blue screen of death"), the file is named MEMORY.DMP and is created in the %SystemRoot% (most cases, C:\WINNT) directory. For applications, the file is called USER.DMP, placed also in %SystemRoot% directory. The USER.DMP file gets created by a program called Dr. Watson.
These files are in hex and not very useful to the average user or sysadmin. One possible use of these files is to send them to Microsoft Tech Support or developers for analysis. Since these files are not very useful in most cases, it is not critical that they get deleted.

 

[DocHeb]

When you reformat your disk, how do you keep track of all the necessary drivers and software that you have already installed? I've had my kids install and improperly un-install so much stuff on my computer I'm sure there is a lot of trash on my system. When I use Norton CleanSweep to look for duplicate files, some duplicate *.dll files are stored in five different directories on my computer! Could you give a short explaination of how you reformat and re-install your software?