Thread: cleaning out pc.

What you want to do is often known as a 'nuke from orbit' reinstall....

1) save all your irreplaceable personal files that you want to keep. These - of course - will already be on a separate backup drive, DVD or CD, so all you need to do is check that your backup copy is synched, and you're ready. (Remember - if it's not backed up, its not irreplaceable as it's obviously not a file you want to keep.)

2) Check that you have:

• Windows install disc + serial number for installation
• Install disc for motherboard
• Install disc for graphics card
• Install disc for network card and any other hardware add-ins (download from manufacturer's website if required).

3) Write down/print out login and connection details for your ISP.

4) Say goodbye to everything on your hard disk. Change your BIOS settings so you boot from the CD-ROM drive, insert the Windows install disc...and follow the 'clean install' details here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316941

5) Once Windows has installed (about 20 minutes later), install the drivers for your motherboard, graphics card etc etc... depending on how many times you are forced to restart, this can take anywere from 10 minutes to an hour.

6) Get re-connected to the web (using the details you printed out earler) and download all those other software packages you can't live without - firewall, anti-virus, firefox, adblock, noscript and so on.

7) Put your personal files back on.

As per above, but include install disks and keys for all software in the must have list and reinstall above before the data files in the method.

Originally Posted by toby.1944@hotma

hi to all, every now and then my computor gets a little slow i take it to my pc technition and when it comes back its up to speed again,last time this happened i asked what he does to it. he said he empties everything out of it and cleans it out then reloads it again, can anyone tell me how to go about doing this. or is it a job for the experts. thanks
jim.

If you're running Windows XP or later, it should not happen. Reported (I've not seen it), when it does you are likely to have some malware installed.

see this

Additionally, download and run Microsoft's "malicious software removal tool." Free of charge from microsoft.com.

If all the stuff you want to do is email, wordprocessing, surfing and the like, take a look at ubuntu. It's free (they even send out free CDs). It's not Windows, and I don't know that it runs Windows programs particularly well (though I did fire up Internet Explorer once), but for most people there is software to do what you want.

A program like ashampoo will clean it up, also defrag the computer every week or so or it will take an era to do. To do a dump and reinstall is huge, You also have issues as to (assuming windows) having to prove your copy of windows is real. After that you have all the upgrades for virus scanners and windows, Doubt the guy does all that, would suspect he cleans the rubbish and defrags. Every clean Install Ive done takes about 3 days to get all my stuff back.. Another way would be to have a backup. If your drive is large enough to split into 2 drives say, Norton has a program "Ghost" which copies all files on one drive to another drive. So when you get the thing bogged up all you do is go to the ghost image and reinstall that over your bogged drive. That way you could do that every 3 months or so, so it would be less upgrades to install

Originally Posted by rrobor

A program like ashampoo will clean it up, also defrag the computer every week or so or it will take an era to do. To do a dump and reinstall is huge, You also have issues as to (assuming windows) having to prove your copy of windows is real. After that you have all the upgrades for virus scanners and windows, Doubt the guy does all that, would suspect he cleans the rubbish and defrags. Every clean Install Ive done takes about 3 days to get all my stuff back.. Another way would be to have a backup. If your drive is large enough to split into 2 drives say, Norton has a program "Ghost" which copies all files on one drive to another drive. So when you get the thing bogged up all you do is go to the ghost image and reinstall that over your bogged drive. That way you could do that every 3 months or so, so it would be less upgrades to install

I don't recall whether the article I mentioned says this, but you should be using NTFS. If you're using FAT partitions, there is no security, performance is not as good as it should be, disk space is absolutely shocking. FAT was originally designed for floppy disks, and changes since then have been bandaids, covering over its deficiencies.

NTFS is Microsoft's second attempt to rectify those problems (the first was HPFS, a joint development with IBM, and I think the reasons for NTFS were mostly to do with breaking away from IBM), and it's nowhere as bad as popular wisdom has it.

rrobor's advice says "assuming windows" at one point. Some of his advice might apply to Windows 98 - which doesn't need to be registered - but it doesn't really apply to well-installed Windows XP, and it certainly does not apply to OS X or Linux or OS/2.

Linux and OS X and OS/2 filesystems do not need to be defragmented, ever, and I don't believe NTFS does either, though it has a built-in tool to do so. Remember, all (including OS.2) have been used to run always-up servers. Imagine ASX defragging its servers every week!

As for partitioning the drive, it's been done (and I've done it), but it's rather like living in Perth and working in Melbourne and commuting each day.

I'd rather have the local PC guy fix up the computer than a naive user; compare having me (a woodworking novice) doing your kitchen reno "because I'm cheaper than the professionals."

That said, the local PC guy might not be that good, last time I had one do some work that threatened my data (my employer's data actually, required for our status as an RTO), when we got it back it was all saved in a separate directory (folder).

Fortunately, I had my own backup.