Formating hard drive questions

   / Formating hard drive questions
  • Thread Starter
#11  
Thanks again for all the info, guys.

Rozett, I've tried to run defrag and it keeps stopping and starting from the beginning again. Scandisk does the same thing (with a message that there is an application that starts during running the utility, causing it to start over). Also, I have some quarantined viruses that I want to completely eliminate and I believe reformating is the only way.
 
   / Formating hard drive questions #12  
jpr62902,
1st:If you have an older pc you may need to go into the bios to set it to boot from CD....

While I would normally agree with the defrag and scandisk.( which will not run if you have any major program running in the back ground.. Norton,MCaffe, firewall,,, must be disabled in many cases.)

To do a fresh install of Xp, I would as mentioned read the info on the MS site. But being a gamer I usually tweak my PC alot. So I do reformat every so often and start from scratch.

As to boot disk, it depends on which version of XP upgrade you have. They come as an <font color="red">UPGRADE ONLY</font> (cost less to buy) to older versions of windows in which case you simply run the XP cd and it will prompt you on what your choices are... YOU must install this ontop of a previous version of windows.

<font color="red">If you have this UPGRADE type it will look for an older version of windows.... So do not format 1st or you will be sorry...!!! ( you'd have to reinstall 98 to load it.)</font>

IF ou have a stand alone version it will boot and run from the CD even if there is no older version of Windows... READ the BOX its states it on there...

I also would suggest you unplug from the net while you do this as you will be exposed to the world untill you get the Firewall up.... In the newer version of Xp it should be turned on by default... But why risk it...
 
   / Formating hard drive questions #13  
If you can't complete defrags or other windows systems programs won't work then you need a reformatt. Comps over time load up with junk and it slows them more and more. You may think you are getting rid of the spy-adware stuff with all the scans, but you don't get rid of it all, some of it is buried very deep in the system. I can go for about a year before my comp just starts to really slow down and mess up and I can't take it anymore myself and reformatt my comp. You may think you are deleting/erasing stuff, but the comp leaves traces and just tucks it away and slows your comp down.

I must say though that Microsoft is finally getting it together with their security fixes and anti-spyware software. It's pretty good. I think it's better than the pay for software but it isn't perfect with out a reformatt to start from scratch.

My most recent reformatt was triggered when I used the microsoft spyware, but it still found stuff everyday. It was the same 2-3 programs it was finding. My comp was locking up alot also. So I reformatted.

After I reformatted I made sure I got all the available security patches and microsofts spy-ware loaded first. Don't visit any website after a reformatt with out going to microsoft loading up the security patchs first. Your system is truly clean so don't visit some website first to start your headaches all over again.

Since I reformatted a couple of months ago and loaded up the spyware from microsoft it has not found one thing out of all the daily scans. NOT ONE!!!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

If you want to save stuff, i.e. outlook, bookmarks, use the file transfer wizard under accessories then system tools and follow the steps.

Reformatting is scarey at first, but when you are done you'll think that it wasn't so bad and what a difference you'll see in your comp. The comp will prompt you in what to do once you put the boot disc in. Another good site to look at http://www.bootdisk.com/

Windows is like VHS, Beta Max (linux or Apple systems here) is/was better, but everyone and most of the software is for windows. Look at all the security issues it has over and over again and the system tools needed to try and keep it running smoothly. Bill was just smarter than Steve in letting his software be used for Pc's in general rather Steve and his Apple only.
 
   / Formating hard drive questions #14  
If it was me, I'd take the original Win98 hard drive out so you don't lose anything. Then I'd load XP onto a new drive. Once it is running with all of the applications that I wanted, I'd stick the original Win98 drive back in as a second hard drive and COPY(never MOVE), any data that I needed from the 98 drive to the XP drive. Much easier and safer, to me, at least. Good luck in your quest. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
   / Formating hard drive questions #15  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Thanks again for all the info, guys.

Rozett, I've tried to run defrag and it keeps stopping and starting from the beginning again. Scandisk does the same thing (with a message that there is an application that starts during running the utility, causing it to start over). Also, I have some quarantined viruses that I want to completely eliminate and I believe reformating is the only way.

)</font>

If you don't turn your screensaver off it will cause the defrag to keep stopping. That is probably the program that is running that it is talking about.

Dur
 
   / Formating hard drive questions #16  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( If you have this UPGRADE type it will look for an older version of windows.... So do not format 1st or you will be sorry...!!! ( you'd have to reinstall 98 to load it.))</font>

Not true. An upgrade version will look for the old version, but it does NOT have to be installed... simply showing it the old CD is sufficient.
 
   / Formating hard drive questions #17  
I would recommend a program from Webroot - my computer (Win98SE) was invaded suddenly with multiple pop-ups, toolbars, etc. I suspect somebody was on the web with the Norton Firewall turned off (some of those kid sites don't load too well with the Firewall up and running.) The worst was the IEPlugin Desktop Toolbar. Very discouraging - I think the spyware did something to my AdAware (AdAware identified problems but froze up each time the delete activity started up) and my Spybot S&D (threw out an error message with each scan and never finished the cleanup). PC Magazine had recommended Webroot Spy Sweeper, so I downloaded the trial version. I first tried running it in normal mode, but got a message that there was a program running. I tried [Ctrl/Alt/Del] and closed all the programs except Explorer. As fast as I could close them out, the spyware would re-load. I finally ran it in safe mode - Spy Sweeper cleaned everything up, including nasty register entries in less than 20 minutes. No more problems, and my computer is humming along. Very happy with this product. It will run minimized with each startup, and protect your system from "re-infection". I rescanned four days later - no other problems found. The 30 trial version was free, and I'll probably purchase the 1 year subscription for $30. Great product.
 
   / Formating hard drive questions #18  
Run the defrag in Safe Mode. I used to try it running in normal mode and could never get it to finish, but in SafeMode everything went well.
 
   / Formating hard drive questions #19  
Tecnically you never really format an IDE drive. While windows will laydown a new filesystem you really not formating the drive regardless of what the little moving bar says its doing.

If your system is running slow it may be related to adware, spybots and registry issues. There are tools that can clean that up.
 
   / Formating hard drive questions #20  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Tecnically you never really format an IDE drive. While windows will laydown a new filesystem you really not formating the drive regardless of what the little moving bar says its doing.)</font>

True, but the software "format" operation typically writes/reads all ones or all zeors or a 2525 or some other pattern into each sector. Depending on the drive's microcode, this may cause any bad sectors to be revectored into the bad block area. The physical bad sector is now unusable but the sector address is now physically somewhere else.

Depending on the layout of the drive this can be both good and bad because there may be an additional disk access to find the newly revectored sector. Your capacity remains the same but latency to access a sector goes up. Nothing is free.

If revectoring is not available on the drive the software format operation may just mark the sector unusable to the operating system.
 

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