Hi, Ive had my pc for about 4 years now and it is running really slow. after trying all different things such as piriform cleaner, defragmenting etc, a friend has told me i could do with reinstalling xp. I have a disc but no instructions. i gave him a list of all the discs i had (given to me in a box when i bought the pc)and he thinks i have all the discs i need to do the job. He told me how to do it but that was a while ago and i've forgotten im afraid. Can anyone give me real basic instructions on how to do this. I might be inexperienced at this but want to learn. I have backed up my photo's etc and think im ready to go but not sure what to do next. Please help Thank you Dan
A bit more info and no offence to your friend but you can't think you have the right disc's, I'm not able to connect to the web until I install the driver's on the Motherboard CD. Is this an OEM disc for the same computer, a retail disc, a recovery CD (it should have all you need). If you need your driver's, a program like Driver Max will scan your pc, find them and let you burn them to a CD to reinstall on the new OS. Other than that, not much to it but setting your Bios to boot from the CD (easy) and making sure you select to delete the partition in the install or you'll wind up with a new install along with the old one, have your key handy too, you'll need it during the install. Plenty of guide's around, just Google them and it's been year's since I used a Restore CD so someone else can help there, all I remember is it was easy. Edit: this look's good but they don't seem to explain how to set the Bios to boot from the CD: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/winxp/install.mspx Also, during the install, the pc will restart several time's and show the press any key to boot from CD, don't after starting the install or everything will start over. Here for the Bios, they're all different but you will see various option's, use the arrow key's to navigate and don't change anything else, this is the brain's of your computer: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bios-boot-cdrom
Did you also consider that you will have to re-install every application that is on your computer from scratch? If you are using outlook or outlook express for e-mail you will lose any e-mails that have been deleted from your mail server unless you do windows file nad transfer, which must be done using the XP install disc? IMHO, there's a lot more planning that you need to consider before undertaking this. It's also a process that may take several hours. If this just a "bare metal forklift" and you don't care about anything on the PC as it is right now, there's less to consider, but it sounds like you need competent technical backup standing by in case you have problems.
Sure agree with that, reinstalling Window's isn't a big deal but installing all the program's again sure is a pain. Still, a reinstall seemed kinda neat the first few time's.
Absolutely, just agreeing, you're right, it's the program's reinstall after that's the problem (time consuming), might be better off cleaning thing's up, can make a huge difference.
To add to that, "running really slow" is subjective and not very descrptive. Slow program loads - possibly a heavily fragmented HDD Slow program running - could be an overly full HDD with too little RAM and/or swap space Slow graphics updates (low frame rate) - could be graphics card under powered for the application (you said you had the PC for 4 years, which is FOREVER in PC years) Slow internet page loading - could be slow access speeds or underpowered CPU for the application. Unless you're willing to accept all of the negatives of a "bare iron install", (I do it several times a year and it's not that bad if you know what to look forward to) you may gain something, you may not.
Thanks for all the comments so far, i am trying everything i can first before i attempt the dreaded reinstall. I have backed up most things but didnt think of my wifes e-mails on outlook!! thanks for that one. I am going through Add / Remove programs and was wondering if i needed 3 versions of .net framework? i have 2.0 sp2, 3.0 sp2 and 3.5 sp1. are they important? do i need all of them? I have updated my graphics card drivers. and will try the other things suggested to speed up my pc and stop it freezing / crashing / restarting and generally running slow most of the time. Thanks for everyones help so far...
No idea, I'm trying Vista and it's contained in the OS already, so it must be for some reason. Here's an old thread about it: http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6138_102-0.html?threadID=282708 My advice, don't remove anything unless you're sure unless you have an imaging program. If you're not, have a look at CCleaner (free) but uncheck Cookies if saving log in's is important, SuperAntiSpyware (free) and/or MalawareBytes AntiMalware (free) and scan your pc, SpywareBlaster (free) and run's in background, A scan with Dr Web's CureIt (nothing is installed, update is what you see downloading) and TuneUpUtilities (free version): http://www.v3.co.uk/vnunet/downloads/2231665/tuneup-utilities-2007 excellent tool I bought in 2007, fine tune your start up, registry cleaner, daily cleaner you can schedule and much more. After opening 3 Window's, you're given the option to not be asked again
