Restore/reinstall

[Kate]

I have an HP Pavilion laptop. It has a restore partition and I have the
disks made from that. The reinstall puts EVERYTHING back like the day it
arrived. I like to reformat from time to time but geesh I hate having to
put all the junk programs back on. It takes me nearly as long getting
rid of the junk as it does to reinstall my own programs. Is there any
way to pull just the Windows XP Pro out of it. I don't want to buy
another XP just to have a clean one
Sunni

 

[Daave]

I have an HP Pavilion laptop. It has a restore partition and I have the
disks made from that. The reinstall puts EVERYTHING back like the day
it arrived. I like to reformat from time to time but geesh I hate
having to put all the junk programs back on. It takes me nearly as long
getting rid of the junk as it does to reinstall my own programs. Is
there any way to pull just the Windows XP Pro out of it. I don't want
to buy another XP just to have a clean one

If you have access to the I386 directory, you should be able to create
your own installation disk, using this guide:

http://www.howtohaven.com/system/createwindowssetupdisk.shtml

Then you would have the ability to perform a repair install, using this
guide:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

A repair install should preserve all your data, settings, and programs.
Of course, you should always back everything up before attempting a
repair install to be on the safe side.

But this all begs the question: Why do you feel reinstalling your OS is
necessary? It rarely is! All you should need to do is regularly maintain
your PC (deleting temp files, defragging the hard drive, scanning for
malware, keeping memory-hogging programs from automatically running at
bootup, and avoiding bloated programs such as Norton and McAfee). Here
is a good guide:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Maintenance

 

[Big Al]

I have an HP Pavilion laptop. It has a restore partition and I have the
disks made from that. The reinstall puts EVERYTHING back like the day it
arrived. I like to reformat from time to time but geesh I hate having to
put all the junk programs back on. It takes me nearly as long getting
rid of the junk as it does to reinstall my own programs. Is there any
way to pull just the Windows XP Pro out of it. I don't want to buy
another XP just to have a clean one
Sunni

Can't help you much with the junk. Its the life of buying a preloaded
machine. Odd that my PC came with tons of bloatware, and when I
reloaded from the CD's, they did not include the bloatware. Its on a
separate applications CD, so I just left that alone.

Here's a suggestion for the future if you want to try:

Go ahead and do the format and restore to factory once.
Immediately setup your AntiVirus and Firewall.

Now clean up your system. Remove and install what you want.

If you have SP2 only, you can load SP3 too (optional). Else you can
download all the updates to SP2. If you do, you might want to delete
all the $NTUninstallKB?????$ folders in C:\windows to reduce space.
All of this to get your entire C: drive down below about 7 gigs maybe.

Then get something like Acronis True Image and make an image of this
clean install. Its kinda what your vendor did on that restore
partition. The first time you do an image, you can write it to your C:
drive and then hopefully you can burn it to a DVD and save it. Also
make your recovery disc from Acronis. I say hopefully, cause you have
to get that image down to less than the 4.5 gig it takes to fit on a dvd.

Now later to restore you boot from the recovery disc and use the DVD you
burned and it resets you back to a clean system with junk gone and
programs loaded.

If you get an external USB drive, you can do the image periodically and
have a constant backup. On sale these USB HD's are going for well
under $100. I like the DVD issue since you know its clean of virus. A
new image now and then on a USB has the risk of including a trojan /
malware / virus if you don't know its there till after the image was
made. But it is a backup of your data.

I just did it for my SP3 reload and got the image to just under 4.3 Gig
and fit it on a DVD. I've got my wireless, tools, Firefox, newsreader,
Photoshop, everything loaded I want. Took 4-5 hours but now a restore
is 20 minutes.

My mind works in funny ways.

 

[Big Al]

If you have access to the I386 directory, you should be able to create
your own installation disk, using this guide:

http://www.howtohaven.com/system/createwindowssetupdisk.shtml

Then you would have the ability to perform a repair install, using this
guide:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

A repair install should preserve all your data, settings, and programs.
Of course, you should always back everything up before attempting a
repair install to be on the safe side.

But this all begs the question: Why do you feel reinstalling your OS is
necessary? It rarely is! All you should need to do is regularly maintain
your PC (deleting temp files, defragging the hard drive, scanning for
malware, keeping memory-hogging programs from automatically running at
bootup, and avoiding bloated programs such as Norton and McAfee). Here
is a good guide:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Maintenance

I kinda agree with Kate. So do several local friends. We play with
the pc for a year or so and it seems to get sluggish. I feel a reload
cleans house and makes things better. The only thing I can do is just
make it easier.

 

[Daave]

Daave wrote:
I kinda agree with Kate. So do several local friends. We play with
the pc for a year or so and it seems to get sluggish. I feel a
reload cleans house and makes things better. The only thing I can do
is just make it easier.

It's usually easier to prevent the PC from getting sluggish in the first
place. If a person runs lots of programs, then it can take a lot of time
and effort to reinstall them all. Then you have all the customized
system settings.

BTW, did you ever see my response to your post from May 4?:

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support/msg/c10d5e2bb41c969a

 

[Kate]

If you have access to the I386 directory, you should be able to create
your own installation disk, using this guide:

http://www.howtohaven.com/system/createwindowssetupdisk.shtml

Then you would have the ability to perform a repair install, using this
guide:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

A repair install should preserve all your data, settings, and programs.
Of course, you should always back everything up before attempting a
repair install to be on the safe side.

But this all begs the question: Why do you feel reinstalling your OS is
necessary? It rarely is! All you should need to do is regularly maintain
your PC (deleting temp files, defragging the hard drive, scanning for
malware, keeping memory-hogging programs from automatically running at
bootup, and avoiding bloated programs such as Norton and McAfee). Here
is a good guide:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Maintenance

Thanks. I will give this a try. I reformat because I do a lot of testing
and stragglers get left behind or sometimes just mess things up. I find
it is often easier to redo. I always keep backups so I'm good to go with
that part.
Kate

 

[Kate]

It's usually easier to prevent the PC from getting sluggish in the first
place. If a person runs lots of programs, then it can take a lot of time
and effort to reinstall them all. Then you have all the customized
system settings.

BTW, did you ever see my response to your post from May 4?:

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support/msg/c10d5e2bb41c969a

Nope. Don't think that was me. I export registry entires for the
programs that keep my settings and that make a clean install go easier
too. I get most of my settings and tweaks back. Saves me a lot
Kate

 

[Kate]

Can't help you much with the junk. Its the life of buying a preloaded
machine. Odd that my PC came with tons of bloatware, and when I
reloaded from the CD's, they did not include the bloatware. Its on a
separate applications CD, so I just left that alone.

Here's a suggestion for the future if you want to try:

Go ahead and do the format and restore to factory once.
Immediately setup your AntiVirus and Firewall.

Now clean up your system. Remove and install what you want.

If you have SP2 only, you can load SP3 too (optional). Else you can
download all the updates to SP2. If you do, you might want to delete
all the $NTUninstallKB?????$ folders in C:\windows to reduce space.
All of this to get your entire C: drive down below about 7 gigs maybe.

Then get something like Acronis True Image and make an image of this
clean install. Its kinda what your vendor did on that restore
partition. The first time you do an image, you can write it to your C:
drive and then hopefully you can burn it to a DVD and save it. Also
make your recovery disc from Acronis. I say hopefully, cause you have
to get that image down to less than the 4.5 gig it takes to fit on a dvd.

Now later to restore you boot from the recovery disc and use the DVD you
burned and it resets you back to a clean system with junk gone and
programs loaded.

If you get an external USB drive, you can do the image periodically and
have a constant backup. On sale these USB HD's are going for well
under $100. I like the DVD issue since you know its clean of virus. A
new image now and then on a USB has the risk of including a trojan /
malware / virus if you don't know its there till after the image was
made. But it is a backup of your data.

I just did it for my SP3 reload and got the image to just under 4.3 Gig
and fit it on a DVD. I've got my wireless, tools, Firefox, newsreader,
Photoshop, everything loaded I want. Took 4-5 hours but now a restore
is 20 minutes.

My mind works in funny ways.

This sounds like a good idea too. I have Acronis. I'll put this in my
reference file too. Thanks
Kate

 

[Big Al]

It's usually easier to prevent the PC from getting sluggish in the first
place. If a person runs lots of programs, then it can take a lot of time
and effort to reinstall them all. Then you have all the customized
system settings.

BTW, did you ever see my response to your post from May 4?:

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support/msg/c10d5e2bb41c969a

I missed some how. I've got it marked, I'll read it. Thanks. I
remember asking.

 

[Big Al]

Nope. Don't think that was me. I export registry entires for the
programs that keep my settings and that make a clean install go easier
too. I get most of my settings and tweaks back. Saves me a lot
Kate

Daave was replying to my question days ago about definitions of restore
/ repair / reload /etc.
You can add to your list of things to do at night when your bored
the groups.goole link he did above.

 

[Daave]

I reformat because I do a lot of testing and stragglers get left
behind
or sometimes just mess things up.

If that is the case, then you should instead image your hard drive
regularly as Big Al suggested. Acronis True Image is a popular imaging
program that should come in handy.