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#187939 11th Dec 2007 3:11pm
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StuyMac Offline OP
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How the fook are you supposed to do it?!?!?

Recon my PC is in need of a rebuild / OS reinstalling as its got slower and slower, and keeps flashing up errors which I just cancel... whistle

Thing is though, I bought the PC "Ready Built" and as such it came with no Windows CD's or any other software...

How the fook are you supposed to start with a clean slate and rebuild it... think

(Windows XP Btw)

Last edited by StuyMac; 11th Dec 2007 3:11pm.

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these days they say u shouldnt need to "rebuild" it and the recovery software that usdually comes with the pc or a system restore should be all u need... personally i got myself a copy of xp pro as i didnt feel a system restore etc got rid of problems

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If you need someone to go through it with you step by step all i do is stand there and instruct you how to do it ? One of my enjoyments teaching people things i know.. Up to you if you want step by instruction thingy.. Only happy to help happy ive got qulification and i dont use it so its good to use it to help people.. Although the course i did was back in 2001 ive kept on top of current technolgy and would love to go back to college to redo the course and get up to date properly but if you want help i dont mind if you have got a clue if you have then happy no problems..


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think its time to upgrade stu! either that or just clean the porn out.....


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as mentioned above, i believe alot of computers bought from shops has a system recovery application on it somewhere (don't ask me where)

You can buy XP Pro OEM licence for around £60 if you want a clean licence


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chiccy of the chiccyness
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think we need to do this too to the pc. its full of music an photos which we have now bought memory sticks for it to all go on...sound lad is a system restore thingy easy to do?!


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Depends chiccy the best way to do a system restore is fully back up al your stuff and do a full Format and then reinstall using your factory restore disks or go the full monty and wipe the system clean and do a fresh install of Windows XP but 9 X out of 10 he restore disk is the best option as it has the full drivers for your system installed otherwise if you do not have a seperate disk for sound card drivers and so on you will have to then either download them (thats if the ethernet card has been found by windows xp) or ask somebody to download them for you but with regards to the best option id go for this.:
1. back up everything you can think of to DVD or CD
2. Complelty Format the system making the drive clean.
3. Fresh installation of Windows XP or use the System Restore disk provided..
4. If you get stuck ask somebody smile

Hope that helps.... happy


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cheers dude xxx


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A System restore normally resores a hidden part on your hard drive
which has all the "out of the Box" Stuff.

They have made it pretty easy.
But be aware that you will LOOOOOOSE Every thing as lee says
back up everything.

With out the disks (Recovery Disks)
And you format the Hard Drive you may loose the Hidden Drive
and loose your restore option altogether.

Either
Follow the instructions you have for a system restore.

or

Custom with formating and re-installing windows, know what your doing or you could be in for a whole lot of trouble.

Hope that helps.

Mark #187976 11th Dec 2007 11:06pm
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Originally Posted by Mark
A System restore normally resores a hidden part on your hard drive
which has all the "out of the Box" Stuff.

They have made it pretty easy.
But be aware that you will LOOOOOOSE Every thing as lee says
back up everything.

With out the disks (Recovery Disks)
And you format the Hard Drive you may loose the Hidden Drive
and loose your restore option altogether.

Either
Follow the instructions you have for a system restore.

or

Custom with formating and re-installing windows, know what your doing or you could be in for a whole lot of trouble.

Hope that helps.


Forgot to mention that Hidden Partition if you do have a Hidden Partition this is where Norton Ghosts backup files are (popular one to use in regards restore disks) and if thats the case dont bother reformating unless you want to cause the Restore disk will be obselete without those hidden files.. I think this is a Stupid way cause you are not really getting the advertised amount of space for your pc i.e. My acer laptop had 2 700mb norton ghost backup files on a partition of 10GB's which was hidden i accessed this tinkering with a program called Partition Magic and was shocked that i was loosing 10GBs ? So i dont have a restore disk anymore as i created a Windows XP CD and Windows 2000 for my laptop with an extra directory with all the drivers for my latop which i installed manually so if you do have one of these partitions then its best to not wipe the whole drive just the partition with windows then reinstall using your restore disks cause it can be a pain in the arse if you do a fresh install of xp.. So be careful. i.e. You got a partition then just revert to your restore disks.. If your brave and want to download all your drivers again then do a fresh reinstall and gain that little extra GB but i think its best when it comes to restoring your pc to use the restore disk cause it does save alot of time and effort cause you have to install your drivers manually... Hope i aint bored anyone happy


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my computer came with media centre on it... i got fed up of waiting for virus scanner to scan over 300000 of files so installed xp pro and backed up all my music (most of which was already) on my external hard drive

never have any probs getting the internet back and i have a seperate drivers cd for my comp so i dont really have to download any new drivers

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StuyMac Offline OP
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think

It does come up with a "Recovery" option on boot up...

Might try and back everything (porn raftl ) up at some point and give it a whirl! smile

Last edited by StuyMac; 12th Dec 2007 7:48am.

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Modern as in the last 3/4 years the Boot Disc Recovery thing
is easy. They are pretty helpfull and lots of warnings about
loss of data. Any you should get one or two opt outs
before you click go for it.

Dont panic if you see lots and lots of lines of code
passing by its extracting your files to start again.

It can be a shut eyes and see excersie but once you have
done it you will feel okay about it.

Just back up on to Disc or Memorey stick what you dont want to loose.

That includes any special interntet settings you may have
to connect to the internet, or make sure you have your install
disc for your Internet provider. BT? SKY? Virgin Media?

If not you may need them.

Hope that helps.

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Hi all, this is my first post!
I just had to put stick my nose in. Hmmm, so its a computer which needs a new OS installed on it aye? Has anyone suggested going with something other than Windows? It sounds like a good opportunity to change if you're not too invested in windows.
I started using Ubuntu linux about a year ago on my ancient PC and laptop and it realy is good. Granted it doesn't do games on the likes on my PC but its a hell of a lot more reliable than any windows I've used. Gone are the days of wondering just what the heck my computer is doing when it slows down suddenly! There are loads of other benefits too that more knowledgeable people than me can point out, but check it out if you can. It won't hurt I promise.

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I am a self confessed NT5 fan, but I did give Ubuntu a go earlier on this year.

Im a Linux admin by trade, but I have to admit that Ubuntu, whilst looking very nice and having made great strides over the Linux of old, is still very user-unfriendly and involves a very steep learning curve for anyone used to Windows.

The fact that they have still not managed to implement a basic point and click install system and instead continue to rely on repositories etc, and the OS itself is still hevily dependent on the command line, says to me that it will never become mass-market in its current guise.

Needless to say, after two weeks, I got bored with its limitations (it didnt run half my software) and fed up with it being so much alike the work I do and having to do everything the long way round and just went back to XP.

As for reliability, Linux is very reliable and stable, but I can't really say that I have any problems with any NT5 OS. 2000 Pro still remains the most reliable and solid Microsoft consumer OS to date, and I have only ever seen blue screens that are related to duff memory on my own systems in the past, XP since SP1 was released has caught up to 2000 Pro and is within touching distance of it, one awaits SP3 to see what improvements they can make, I think its major downfall is its somewhat bloated compared to 2000, but I have to admit I havent seen an XP system crash (on my laptop, media centre or mums PC) in well over a year, probably more like 2 years except for when I had a faulty hard drive in my laptop which was causing it to randomly die and reset.

I keep an eye on all my systems, and perform maintenance maybe once a month on my laptop (which is used every day, probably for around 12 hours a day on average) and once every 6 months on me less-used media centre. Both have not shown any significant signs of slowdown, and still run like the day the OS was installed.

My mums PC was a different story, because it was crucified by my sister with virus's, "free-search" software, numerous other pieces of software running in the background and was bog slow. After spending maybe 25 minutes cleaning up the mess she had left, it runs like a dream once again.

The OS on my laptop is only around 4 months old due to a hard drive change, but the OS on my media centre is from 2003 iirc, and the OS on my mums PC is from 2004. So the fact that these are still running fine with no slowdown, goes to prove that its how a user looks after a system rather then the system itself. The media centre is only a Pentium III 850Mhz with 384MB RAM etc, and it handles everything bar gaming, even CS3, just fine, with Windows having been tweaked so much by myself that it uses less then 80MB of RAM at idle on startup.

If the user just installs anything and everything, and expects it to keep running without any realy sort of maintenance, then its like doing that to a car, it will eventually lose performance, lose efficiency and get bogged down, and probably actually fail. If its looked after and maintained to a basic standard however, then it should run pretty fine.

I think its wrong to say Windows is slower then Linux, the only place where Linux excels over Windows is memory handling and allocation, but Linux is a server OS come desktop OS, and is very unusable as a main desktop OS imho, wheres Windows has always been designed as a user OS.

Microsoft never moved too far away from the original concept of Windows being ultra user-friendly and throughout the NT line it very much mirrored the consumer line in terms of interface and usability. When 2000 Pro was released, it was clear the direction Microsoft was taking was ultimatly going to lead to an NT based consumer OS, and Windows XP was that OS.

NT6/Windows Vista however, is a different story altogether, but the less said about the better. The point is, NT5 is near-perfect in every way, not just certain ways, which Linux can boast. OSX with itself having its roots embedded in Unix, is probably the only consumer OS that can take the title of the perfect OS, but its limitations as to what hardware it will run on unfortunatly both price it out of the market for many consumers and will continue to ensure it only has a niche market.

May I also add that my mums PC has not actually got SP1 running on it yet!!


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