PC Slow - format & Re-install

My PC is a 2.6ghz andhas 512mb ram. yet it's still quite slow. SO basically, i'm thinking of formatting my hard-disk on the PC and re-installing windows xp professional. would this speed it up? I have saved all my important documents onto an external hard-disk so they're safe. If i re-formatted the hard drive would i need a bootable XP professional disk? My XP disk isn't bootable. Thanks for any info and help on the subject

Hi, If you reformat then you get rid of practically everything on the hard drive partition concerned. Having re-installed Win Xp, with your processor and 512mb of Ram, your system should fly! The Windows XP installation is bootable, but you will need to get into your BIOS and alter the Boot Priority to CD first. When you have done this you should be able to insert your Windows XP disc and it will then boot from the CD and you can start to reinstall Windows. Don't forget to make sure your back up has everything you need (including all your drivers) and your Product key is handy as you will need this to activate Windows when it is all installed. If you need any extra info post back and we will be pleased to help Regards paws

Thanks for the info Paws. My friend told me to get the trial of 'Driver Magician' to back up all my drivers. i've backed them up so that should be fine. My windows XP came pre-installed, is there a way of finding out my licence key on my machine? Thanks again - it's a great help.

There are a few programs that can do this, I tend to use a program called SIW by Gabriel Topala, its a great all round proggie for system information and does not need installing - it will run straight from the location where the icon is sat. From this you will be able to get the the current key in use on the machine you are running it on

SIW -> http://www.gtopala.com/siw_download.html

EDIT: Word of note…
If you do decide to try SIW remember its the Product Key you are after and not the Serial Number!
To access this simply click and highlight the top tab which says operating system

thanks Hammer, works a treat. I will format my hard-disk and reinstall XP tomorrow as it's 1:19am here in the UK and i've not tried to get to sleep yet. I'll update you all on how it all goes - thanks for helping

Hi Bizarrebob, I hope your reformat goes well, and after you have finished the format, all the old stuff which accumulates and slows down your system is gone and then your re-install of Win Xp should give you a sleek and fast machine…lean and mean and ready to fly, as we used to say. When you have Windows Xp up and running, install your anti virus and firewall and when you are happy that you are protected go on the internet and update them and also use Windows Update to make sure your system is "fully patched and "Activated". Now take a deep breath as you have some decisions to make. I always recommend that folks take a disc "image" of the clean and patched system using something like Ghost, Drive Image, Paragon, Acronis or similar. This will provide you with a complete, accurate in every respect, copy of your system so that if you ever need to re-format in the future then the whole thing can be done, simply, easily and in less than an hour or so. I have been using Acronis now for some years and its excellent, but all the imaging applications mentioned are good, take your pick! Acronis True Image V7 is currently available from their Website free of charge the download on their site is not easy to find but it is there! The decision I mentioned earlier is about whether you take the image immediately after you have re-installed your Win XP, installed your AV and firewall and patched up to date, or whether you also load your favourite programmes, email client details and the rest. The problem of waiting until all this is done is you may hit a snag when you install the extra stuff and you don't want to take an image of something with a snag in it! What I tend to do with my customers is to take the image as soon as possible, (after the reinstall and when the system is fully firewalled, patched and AV running) then install all the fancy bits, the rest of your applications and then take another image…Talk about belt and braces…! If you can run to acquiring an external USB hard drive then this makes life very easy. I use an old IDE hard drive that was taken from an old machine so it cost nothing and an external case, bought on Ebay (from Hong Kong for about a quid or so plus postage! )I can give you a link if you want. If you are flush then you can get the whole thing ready made for about £35 -£45 from Aria or Ebuyer. In an ideal world you would have 3 partitions on your hard drive: c: partion for Windows XP and all your programmes/Aplications d: partition for your data..My Documents etc e: partition for your backup and disc images If you then hit a bad problem with Windows in the future you can just re format your c: partition then resore your image and be back in business with the whole bag of tricks up and running in about half an hour or so. ( you just need to update everything to cater for the updates that have been issued since the date of your last image. Please forgive me if this is all familiar territory to you and you learnt all this stuff years ago. By the way the programme that Hammer51 recommended is excellent (I use it myself) but please consider carefully who has access to it…. it is a powerful application that has some interesting features that some folks might try to to abuse. I will not say more here but PM me if you need an explanation. Regards paws

Thanks alot for the Info paws, as usual it's really interesting and helpful. I work with computers and i'm starting to learn about imagining but i really do not know much about it so i am grateful for any help you can share. I Don't have a DVD burner on my PC (im buying one for Xmas for myself) so will i be able to burn my image on a cd-rw? I have Norton Ghost on a CD so ill probably use that to image.

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Here is the error message i get when i go on my computer . i right click and click: ''format'', then i press ok and i get that error. My mate was supposed to come round n show me how to do it but he didn't so i'm a bit stuck! sorry, can someone help me again - cheers

Hey bizarrebob, It is not possible to format C:\ while logged in from C:\. I'd suggest you use your XP CD to enter Recovery Console to do the reformat from that "pre-windows environment". When you begin the process of reinstalling you may have less difficulty if you follow the below order of events: – install Operating System –(if XP) install DirectX 9.0c –Install Motherboard Chipset Drivers –Install SP2 at this point if it was not embedded in the OS install –Install other PCI drivers (NIC,Modem, Sound, video) –Install Peripheral Drivers (scanner, printer, enhanced keyboard) –Install Security Baseline utilities (antivirus, antispyware, firewall) –Install Application software (MS Office, games, image viewers/editors, etc.) Best Regards

^^^ Thanks for the reply Dough. I don't know what it is but im not having much luck with it all. I am normally pretty good with PC's but this is a big mind-boggling. How do i get to the XP Recovery Console? Is that where you set the BIOS to read the CD drive and not the hard drive? because i tried that before and it didn't seem to detect my XP CD. Does it only detect the XP CD if the drive has been formatted or is empty? OR should it have recognised my CD anyway? Thanks again EDIT: I used 'c:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons' to Install the Recovery Console from my XP CD. I got error messages saying it cannot do it because the file was in use. Maybe it's because i'm not in safe mode?

Yes. Go into BIOS and set the Boot Order, such that your CD ROM is in the first position. Put your XP CD into the CD ROM tray. EXIT BIOS "Saving Changes" Allow the machine to restart. It should recognize the XP CD. You'll have various options at that time to Format C:\ and install XP Does that XP CD have SP2 included on it? If not Download and Save SP2 to another CD prior to beginning this process. (or use another machine to download and burn to CD.) Later on, you may want to learn how to "slip-stream SP2" into the XP installation. But that is for anothe day. Follow the Order of Installation sequence as above for best results. Paws will be away for a while and asked me reply if needed. I too am going to be back and forth - away from my desk, but should be able to look in periodically. Best Regards

I got an error last time i did that, maybe something is wrong with the CD…. anyway, what i'll do is this: 1) Go to the BIOS, follow your instructions. I'll see what i can do from there and if there are any more error messages i'll post back here alot later today. It's 12:40am in the UK and i'm tired as hell. Thanks for the help Dough i'll reply with an update later.

If you still cannot boot from the XP CDRom, then you can try downloading a tool from M$ to create a set of 6 floppy disk which will boot your machine to a status where you can access the recovery console/repair instalation/format.

Once you have downloaded the tool you will need 6 blank formatted floppy disk ready, clicking on the tool will extract the data to these disk.

For more information and to download the setup tool visit here -> How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks

thanks for the reply again guys - sorry to be a pain about this! When i tried to change the boot sequence, the PC restarted after i'd saved the changes and it said: STRIKE F1 to RETRY OR F2 TO ENTER SETUP. So basically, i'm thinking the CD isn't being recognised which is a pain. I've bought 6 floppy disks off Ebay and i will get an external USB Floppy Drive (my pc doesnt have a floppy drive) and im hoping this will do the trick. Will the external floppy drive work just as well as an internal floppy drive would have done?

External USB Floppy may or may not work for you depending on your machine. I think newer machines may have the ability to recognize USB connections without Windows, but older may not. Does your machine have an option in Boot Menu for Recovery Console? (F8 - like you were trying to get to SAFE Mode)