Re: Best strategy for regular reinstall of XP?
- From: "Anna" <myname@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:48:38 -0500
"danielbaars" <danielbaars@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1169185346.909922.198900@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello,
To prevent my computer from slowing down to a crawl or experiencing all
sorts of weird/unpleasant crashes/freezes I would like to be able to
'start over' (formatting the main disk, reinstalling XP) on a regular
basis (once a month, every two months) without the whole process taking
a few days to complete.
The reason it takes that long for me is because for my job I have to
use a wide variety of software, ranging from big things like Adobe
Creative Suite to all sorts of small utilities. I also have to try out
new software on a regular basis which usually does not become part of
my 'essential software' set which doesn't help with keeping a clean and
reliable computer set-up.
I have been messing about with disc images of early installs but then
still have to spend a lot of time updating my applications, settings,
serial numbers etc. Ideally, I would only have to do a clean install of
XP, leaving all my (essential) installed software intact and throwing
out all the non-essential stuff. But I'm not sure this is possible.
I have already moved the My Documents folder to a different internal
drive so that is not affected but can I do the same with the Program
Files folder? Can I install one piece software on one disk and another
somewhere else? Will everything still work?
If anyone has advice on this it would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Daniel Baars
Daniel:
You didn't indicate the type of PC you're working with but I'll assume it's
a desktop machine. If it is, let me offer you another suggestion in addition
to the ones you've already received...
Assuming that your desktop computer case has a 5 1/4" bay available, why not
equip that PC with at least one removable HDD in addition to the internal
HDD that's already installed? These mobile rack devices containing a
removable HDD are two-piece affairs - the rack itself and the inner tray or
caddy (in which the hard drive resides) that slides into the rack. They come
in all-aluminum models or a combination of aluminum-plastic ranging in price
from about $15 to $50. Mobile racks come in various versions, depending
upon whether the hard drive to be housed is an IDE/ATA, SATA, or SCSI
device. A Google search for "removable hard drive mobile racks" will result
in a wealth of
information on these products and their vendors.
The installation of these devices is simplicity itself - no more difficult
than installing an optical drive. After the rack is installed you just plop
the hard drive into the removable tray (caddy), make two simple connections
(power & data cable), and slide the tray into the mobile rack. Note that the
removable hard drive mobile racks we are discussing are designed to be
installed in desktop computers and not laptop or notebook computers. The
size, weight, and design considerations of laptops/notebooks do not allow
for this hardware configuration.
These mobile racks are nearly always equipped with a ON-OFF keylock, so a
simple turn of the key, in effect, activates the HDD. For added security you
can push or pull the removable tray in or out using the tray's handle and
thus electrically/physically connect or disconnect the HDD from the system.
No more difficult than opening or closing a small desk drawer.
Do you see the enormous advantage of this type of hardware configuration as
it applies to your particular objectives? Now you will be able to maintain
your day-to-day working internal HDD "clean", while you install this or that
program on the removable HDD. You can "play around" with all sorts of
configurations on that removable HDD knowing that your "real" HDD is
completely isolated from any problems that may arise. Assuming you have
installed an OS on the removable HDD or (using a disk imaging program)
"cloned" the contents of your present internal HDD to the removable drive,
you can boot to either HDD without the need to enter the BIOS or use a
third-party boot manager. There is no need to modify the boot.ini files.
Each drive is effectively isolated from each other, but if for any reason
you want both drives connected during bootup, you can easily achieve that
configuration as well. It's an ideal system for computing with multiple
operating systems or meeting your special interests.
Another significant advantage of using a removable HDD is that now you can
have an *unlimited* number of HDs at your disposal by simply using
additional removable trays to house the drives. So that another important
advantage of using this hardware configuration is that you'll be able to use
another removable HDD as the backup drive for your day-to-day working HDD.
We've worked with these removable hard drive affairs for more than six years
now and have helped hundreds of users install & operate this kind of system.
We have found this hardware arrangement a most desirable configuration for
many users. We've encountered no negative performance issues using these
devices in comparison with internally-installed HDs and find the flexibility
and peace of mind you gain from this configuration an enormous advantage.
Do give it some thought.
Anna
.
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