Re: Reinstall. what with all those programs etc.

On Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:00:16 +0200, Majki Majk <comitter@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
On Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:49 +0200, Majki Majk <comitter@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

My compputer became slow and i would need to reinstall it. What with all
those programs and utilities which are adjusted very fine for usage, i
made a disk image, but that wouldn't change a bit i think, because i'm
sure the harddisk must be formated after two years of usage.


I completely disagree. With a modicum of care, it should never be
necessary to reinstall Windows (XP or any other version). I've run
Windows 3.0, 3.1, WFWG 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000,
Windows XP, and now Windows Vista, each for the period of time before
the next version came out, and each on two machines here. I never
reinstalled any of them, and I have never had anything more than an
occasional minor problem.

It's my belief that this mistaken notion stems from the technical
support people at many of the larger OEMs. Their solution to almost
any problem they don't quickly know the answer to is "reformat and
reinstall." That's the perfect solution for them. It gets you off the
phone quickly, it almost always works, and it doesn't require them to
do any real troubleshooting (a skill that most of them obviously don't
possess in any great degree).

But it leaves you with all the work and all the problems. You have to
restore all your data backups, you have to reinstall all your
programs, you have to reinstall all the Windows and application
updates,you have to locate and install all the needed drivers for your
system, you have to recustomize Windows and all your apps to work the
way you're comfortable with.

Besides all those things being time-consuming and troublesome, you may
have trouble with some of them: can you find all your application CDs?
Can you find all the needed installation codes? Do you have data
backups to restore? Do you even remember all the customizations and
tweaks you may have installed to make everything work the way you
like? Occasionally there are problems that are so difficult to solve
that Windows should be reinstalled cleanly. But they are few and far
between; reinstallation should not be a substitute for
troubleshooting; it should be a last resort, to be done only after all
other attempts at troubleshooting by a qualified person have failed.

And perhaps most important: if you reformat and reinstall without
finding out what caused your problem, you will very likely repeat the
behavior that caused it, and quickly find your back in exactly the
same situation.

If you have problems, post the details of them here; it's likely that
someone can help you and a reinstallation won't be required.


Ok. It seems that i have some corupted files which over the time gave me
problems, and checking the disk it tells that the disk have errors, but
not bed sectors, the service guy checked the disk and told me there's no
problem cause their utilities don't see anything nor do windows check-
but it does in a hand. It tells after trying to check the partition 2/3
on example this:Drive 2: The disk check could not be performed because
the disk check utility needs the exclusive acess to some windows files
on the disk. It prompts me for restarting and doing an automatic check.
This same message was odd to service guy too. Thats maybe the probl.no1.
If something is corrupted than it's maybe corolated with this.

I had had virus files


Files? Plural? How many? Which ones?


but i managed to resolve that situation using
several anti virus programs.


Which programs?


But they're so sophisiticated these days
that there are big chances i have it somewhere on my pc.



If you had multiple infections, I back off from what I said earlier.
That's the one situation in which your only reasonable choice my be to
clean install Windows. Removing multiple infections is very difficult.

Still, that's very different from saying "i'm sure the harddisk must
be formated after two years of usage."


I used registry
check and customization



Be specific. Exactly what did you do?


which did some things according to them, i
suppose it brought back registry files which i had to delete because of
their infection with the virus(gens...). That's what i understood.


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Re Format xp2
    ... Disk. ... Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if ... reinstall Windows. ... do any real troubleshooting (a skill that most of them obviously don't ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Reformat and install XP
    ... > You can't format the Windows drive from within Windows, ... > people at many of the larger OEMs. ... > troubleshooting (a skill that most of them obviously don't possess in any ... > restore all your data backups, you have to reinstall all your programs, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: formatting?
    ... I have tried doing a clean install, deleting all partitions, but it won't ... >> me to format cuz windows is open ... > necessary to reinstall Windows. ... > troubleshooting; it should be a last resort, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Help Reinstalling Windows XP
    ... Didn’t have a reinstall as already cost a lot for Power Unit and Motherboard ... never be necessary to reinstall Windows. ... do any real troubleshooting (a skill that most of them obviously don't ... about 15-20 minutes if you install it ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: changing hard drive
    ... Windows Product Activation... ... dropping files from one disk to the other will NOT transfer all the ... If you reinstall, the copy you have reinstalled won't know that its ... from the old installation to the new one. ...
    (alt.os.windows-xp)
Loading