Reinstall XP

[Tom]

I want to clear my hard drive and reinstall windows xp.
The computer runs at a crawl with all the junk my
daughter has down loaded. I have run Spyware and the anit-
virus is updated with no help.

Any sugestions???

Thanks
Tom

 

[dude]

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools
necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this
procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your
peripheral hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and
keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed,
physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before
proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the
customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then
reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first
bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===>
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and
reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow
the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to
delete all the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition,
then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install
Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn
on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows
Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and
visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download
and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as
video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation
difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During
Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?
scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

Note: If you are unable to activate Windows XP via the
internet,
then select the option to "activate by
telephone".

Also these other sites as well below

http://www.fixyourwindows.com/windowsxpsolutions.htm

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.as
p

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Tom,

Boot the installation CD, start the installer and agree to the license (hit
F8). At this point, you should be at a screen where you can repair the
existing installation. You may want to try this before you do the drastic
step of creating a clean installation, it may help. Otherwise....

Now use the option to delete the existing system partition. *Warning* All
data currently on the selected volume will be lost at this point. If you
haven't created backups of critical data and encryption certs (if you use
EFS), stop and go back to the system and do so before proceeding.

From the newly created free space, create a new system partition. Format it
and proceed with the installation. Ensure you have your Product Key handy
*before* you start any of these processes.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Don Burnette]

I want to clear my hard drive and reinstall windows xp.
The computer runs at a crawl with all the junk my
daughter has down loaded. I have run Spyware and the anit-
virus is updated with no help.

Any sugestions???

Thanks
Tom

You may not need to have to resort to this extreme measure. It may be no big
deal for you if you do not have a lot of important data files on your had
drive, that you are going to have to be sure and back up to retain them.
Plus, all your settings as well.

You have mentioned spyware and anti-virus.

I would try the following, and if that does not work, then consider the
clean or repair install.

1: Open IE, go to tools , internet options, settings. Choose delete files,
and put a tick in the offline content also. If you have not done this, or
not done it in a while, this may take a few minutes. Then, from the same
window, click on cookies and delete them as well.

2: If you have not done so yet, download Ad Aware 6.0 from Lavasoft. Install
it, check for any udpates for new reference files, then run a full system
scan. Then, when it finds files it recommends to remove, go ahead and remove
all entries it finds. It will create a backup of these files for " just in
case", however I have been using it for over a year and have never lost a
file I really needed.

3: Disk Cleanup - Go to start/programs/accessories/systemtools/ and select
disk cleanup. I would also select the " delete all restore points except the
latest" option as well.

4 Open IE again, go to internet options, and settings. Reduce the size
allocated to temp internet files to 50 mb. By default, if you have a large
hd, it probably has considerably more allocated for this - you don't need
that much.

5: Go to the start/programs/ start up , and see if there are any programs
listed in it. If so, remove them, more than likely you do not need any
starting up from the startup folder.

6: Check your notification area on the task bar after computer loads up XP,
if you have more than your clock, and anti-virus program running, you may
not need them starting upon bootup either. Check each program for an option
to have it not load upon startup. I prefer to have only my AV software load
upon startup.

7: Run chkdsk on your system drive. Go to my computer, double click your c
drive, and choose check this drive for errors. You will be prompted that it
cannot due so , and asks if you want to schedule it for the next time you
boot the computer. Choose yes, reboot, and let it run.

8: Defrag your system drive.

9: Make sure you have at least all critical updates installed from the XP
update site.

10: If this does not improve things, you might consider downloaded the trial
version of System Mechanic 4 from Iolo, then run the registry checker ( fix
problems), go ahead and remove all registry entries it finds. Then run the
junk files checker, and remove them as well. Reboot, and see if that helps
also.
If , after trying these things, you see no improvement, then I would
consider just going ahead and backing up anything you don't want to lose,
boot from the XP cd, and do a clean install.

Hope this helps,