Diskwipe, then XP reinstall
in [Windows XP]
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From: Daave on 30 May 2010 09:41 David wrote: > This question has probably been asked before, but I can't figure out > how to search for it. Apologies. If you can point me to a thread I > will be happy to go there. > > I have an old Dell PC,( vintage 2003), with XP Home Edition. It has > been updated regularly, so the XP version is current. But the > machine is so burdened with junk software that it can barely crawl > anymore. I need to wipe the disk and re-install XP. > > I have the original SP-1 reinstallation disk that was provided by > Dell with the purchase. > > My question: What is the best way to bring the re-install up to the > current release version? > > Thank you very much, in advance. HeyBub and Jose are probably correct. That is, unless your PC is compromised beyond belief, reinstalling XP is most likely not necessary. It is better to identify the problem and solve it. Otherwise, it will most likely return. If you are certain there is no malware, skip ahead to steps 4 and 5 and let us know your Commit Charge figures and which hard drive access mode you see (i.e., DMA or PIO). In the event that you must perform a Clean Install, there is an SP3 installation file you may download from Microsoft. You should download and save it to an external hard drive now. Or you can create a CD that contains SP3. You have two choices: http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/details.aspx?FamilyID=5b33b5a8-5e76-401f-be08-1e1555d4f3d4&displaylang=en http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2FCDE6CE-B5FB-4488-8C50-FE22559D164E&displaylang=en You should definitely look at and print these two pages: http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/msg/a066ae41add7dd2b Here are the usual causes of sluggishness: 1. Malicious software (malware). You need to rule this out first! This page has excellent information: http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Viruses_Malware 2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware programs available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, and Avira). 3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the background -- with or without your knowledge. (Then again, many programs that run in the background have trivial consequences.) To determine every program and process you are currently running, use the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Processes tab. You should be able to sort by CPU usage or Memory usage to get a good ideas which ones are the resource/memory hogs. You should write down the names of all the processes for future detective work (or take a snapshot and print it out). Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how to configure them not to always run at startup: http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php#THE_PROGRAMS http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/ http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to the startup list anyway! If you do wish to use msconfig, it may be accessed this way: Start | Run | type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) | Enter (or OK) 4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit, and Peak. The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM. In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File Monitor for Windows XP: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm 5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode didn't change from DMA to PIO: http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/is-your-hard-disk-cddvd-drives-too-slow-while-copying/ and http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/itserviceduck/udma_fix/
From: David on 30 May 2010 09:57 Thank you for your constructive response, "HeyBub" On Sun, 30 May 2010 07:42:08 -0500, "HeyBub" <heybub(a)gmail.com> wrote: >David wrote: >> This question has probably been asked before, but I can't figure out >> how to search for it. Apologies. If you can point me to a thread I >> will be happy to go there. >> >> I have an old Dell PC,( vintage 2003), with XP Home Edition. It has >> been updated regularly, so the XP version is current. But the >> machine is so burdened with junk software that it can barely crawl >> anymore. I need to wipe the disk and re-install XP. > >No you don't. > >
From: David on 30 May 2010 10:15 On Sun, 30 May 2010 06:09:35 -0700 (PDT), Jose <jose_ease(a)yahoo.com> wrote: Thank you, Jose. Your response IS constructive. And appealing. The problem is that I am just not smart enough to know what is necessary to analyze and optimize my current system performance and configuration. I wish I was. As only one example, there are some 50-75 programs in my Start Up file that most of which I have no idea what they are doing, and whether it would be safe for me to disenable them. That's only one example. For me to educate myself on all that is necessary to know, I fear, would take much more time than to just wipe the disk and start over. (But this I am expecting will be bad enough already, as you say.) > >Why don't you just fix up what you have? > >Guesstimate the time it takes you to create a new XP slipstreamed CD >(and hope it works) or use your SP1 CD (is it a Dell CD or a genuine >Microsoft CD?), backup all your personal data, reformat your drive, >reinstall XP and all your various chipset/motherboard drivers you >acquired since you first got your system, get back on the Internet to >update your Service Pack(s) and then download and install all the >Critical Updates from MS, locate, reinstall and configure all your >application software from scratch and then update all them and finally >restore any personal data you backed up before you started. Then >spend a day or two or three adjusting and tweaking to get things back >to normal. > >Guesstimate about 1 hour to analyze and optimize current your system >performance and configuration (depending on what is going on). > >Which is more appealing? > >I have never reinstalled XP on this old machine in 6+ years and it >still runs great in spite of my continual abuse and burdening.
From: Daave on 30 May 2010 10:52 Daave wrote: > Here are the usual causes of sluggishness: > > 1. Malicious software (malware). You need to rule this out first! This > page has excellent information: > > http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Viruses_Malware > > 2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton > and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply > use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other > programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive > each time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware > programs available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, > and Avira). > 3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the > background -- with or without your knowledge. (Then again, many > programs that run in the background have trivial consequences.) > > To determine every program and process you are currently running, use > the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Processes tab. You > should be able to sort by CPU usage or Memory usage to get a good > ideas which ones are the resource/memory hogs. You should write down > the names of all the processes for future detective work (or take a > snapshot and print it out). > > Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how > to configure them not to always run at startup: > > http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php#THE_PROGRAMS > http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/ > http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm > > Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs > to not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns: > > http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx > > But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the > program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to > the startup list anyway! > > If you do wish to use msconfig, it may be accessed this way: > > Start | Run | type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) | Enter > (or OK) > > 4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the > pagefile. A quick way to determine if this is happening is to open > Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note > the three values under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand > corner: Total, Limit, and Peak. > > The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that > very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory > you used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value > of Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM. > In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File > Monitor for Windows XP: > > http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm > > 5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode > didn't change from DMA to PIO: > > http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/is-your-hard-disk-cddvd-drives-too-slow-while-copying/ > > and > > http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/itserviceduck/udma_fix/ Hmmm, that second link is dead. Here's another useful link: http://winhlp.com/node/10
From: Bruce Chambers on 30 May 2010 10:51
David wrote: > This question has probably been asked before, but I can't figure out how to > search for it. Apologies. If you can point me to a thread I will be happy > to go there. > > I have an old Dell PC,( vintage 2003), with XP Home Edition. It has been > updated regularly, so the XP version is current. But the machine is so > burdened with junk software that it can barely crawl anymore. I need to > wipe the disk and re-install XP. > > I have the original SP-1 reinstallation disk that was provided by Dell with > the purchase. > > My question: What is the best way to bring the re-install up to the current > release version? > > Thank you very much, in advance. All legitimate WinXP installation CDs are bootable and have the capability of deleting, creating, and formatting partitions. Simply boot from the WinXP installation CD. You'll be offered the opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the order of boot devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.) HOW TO Install Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941 http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm -- Bruce Chambers Help us help you: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375 They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers. ~ Denis Diderot |