Hi. Im beginning to get really frustrated with my PC. Its so much slower than what it used to be. Things dont work, and there are all these little problems everywhere. Ive tried running spyware scans, virus scans, disk cleanup, disk defrag etc., but nothing seems to be doing much. I think i want to reformat my hard drive. However, im scared that ill screw something up, and ill never be able to fix it. How should i go about it? Will i be safe following an online guide? Or should i seek professional assistance? Well atleast i have 3 PC's in my house. So if 1 screws up, ill use the other to fix it
It's simple. This is assuming you're running Windows XP: Backup all your stuff to CD/DVD/whatever. Make sure you have drivers for all your hardware on a CD. Set your BIOS to boot from CD first, and put in your Windows disc. Reboot your PC and when asked, choose 'new installation' - this will format your drive and give you that nice minty fresh computer feeling again.
Instalation. Make sure you have the following: 1. Windows XP (or any Operating system you want) CD (bootable). 2. CD with Drivers for all devices you have. 3. CD with antivirus software - it's better to install it and update it before updateing even the OS. (even better if it have built in Firewall) 4. If you don't have Firewall in the antivirus software - better Install one (from CD) before connecting to The Internet. 5. Update your antivirus, firewall, OS. 6. Install all other software and update it. P.S. Actually it's better if you choose to delete the whole partition, and then to split the hard dist on two partitions (one for windows, and one for all other stuff (like projects and websites) - this will happen when windows ask you how much of the space you have you want to have in the new partition. I suggest NTFS file system if you are useing Windows NT/2000/XP/2003. If you choose that way - make sure you install all of your programs to the drive where your windows is. If you install any games - install them on the secound partition. Make the same with your documents, projects, websites, pictures, and everithing wich you want to save.
I guess he means to format his whole drive It's not difficult at all Danago, just insert Windows Disk and install fresh copy of windows and then using "Partition Magic" you can create rest of drives without any trouble.
Well - it's better if you don't mess with partition magic - it's all possible to do all that stuff useing just windows/linux install CD (and there wont be any problems with the license of the partition magic, and he wont have a program wich he will not probably use later. And there you can mess up very much and very easy.
I thought the easiest way to wipe a comp was to tap F10 when it loads up, then your taken to a screen where you can either quick format and full format and one completely wipes your computer and the other one does something else :s
Thanks for the replies everyone. I think tonight im gonna get some sleep, and then wake up fresh tomorrow and go for it
Agree with you but partition magic is not difficult at all to use. He can also do this using "FDISK" tool (The Method I love, though a bit time taking but it's really great)
Keep one IMPORTANT thing in mind before you format. Once you format, you will need a full blown version of your OS or an upgrade version with a qualifying product. If you have OEM stuff, you can run WINNT.EXE from the I386 directory on your OEM CD.
If you screw it up it doesn't matter as its being reformatted Don't worry...just make sure you backup anything important before you wipe it clean.