Complete XP restore

R

riley454

New Member
Over several years I have accumulated all sorts of minor patches, fixes, codecs etc etc and some of them are finally fighting with each other and debilitating my pc past the point of "uninstall this" "scan for that" blah blah. So now I've decided on a complete XP rebuild from scratch.

If I decide to do a system restore from a long time ago, where do I start on files/folders/programs/drivers etc etc to back-up on my external HDD?

The simple documents, photos, vids and obvious programs i have collected are simple, but how do I decide what else to back-up that I may or may not realise I need?

I'm assuming some things I want to keep make registry changes, so if I just keep a copy of the program/file, and I do a restore back to before its birth, will it still work afterwards?

I'm very confused about how this works, but I've tried all sorts of registry cleaners, uninstalls, anti-blah blah this and that, system scans etc and nothing ever returns to normal. I'm certain half of these products are major contributors to my problems with delays and standard windows programs not functioning properly. No doubt two young kids coming to terms with computers and the net has also not helped.

I'm ready and willing to take the big step and return everything to the very beginning, but I want to keep some of what I have collected along the journey.

What next???:o
 
You only need to back up personal data like music, office documents, pictures, emails if you use an email client like Outlook express. However, It's possible that you have just loaded down your system with malware. Have you tried scanning your system with Malwarebytes Antimalware?
 
Thanks John. I did a Malewarebytes and McAfee AV scan directly before posting my question. I have found both products extremely helpful for several years.

However, my PC is so full of allsorts of junk, from programs and games that were once of interest, through to a plethora of downloaded codecs/patches/fixits etc etc from unknown sources and they are all contributing to my computer running like a Pentium 2 on prozac from time to time, including disabling some basic windows programs like media-player and mspaint.

I would really like to start allover and only import or re-download only the things I genuinely want, rather than "remove a bit of this" then "add a bit of that". After all, thats where my problems started and have ended with this massive snowball I now have.
 
I just repaired/restored my XP Operating System on one of my laptops. It was clogged with so much data similar to your sitiation. I decided to do a repair rather than the full restore using my recovery disk. It worked like a charm. It loads lightining fast and the internet is so much more enjoyable. Good luck.
 
ecorona6 said:
I just repaired/restored my XP Operating System on one of my laptops. It was clogged with so much data similar to your sitiation. I decided to do a repair rather than the full restore using my recovery disk. It worked like a charm. It loads lightining fast and the internet is so much more enjoyable. Good luck.
Click to expand...
My brand name computer was pre-loaded with XP and only came with license number but no disks!

Where can I obtain a legitimate recovery disk?

What is the difference between a full restore and repair using a recovery disk?

bean2thousand said:
Here's a pretty good article on backing up your data.
http://www.product-key.com/blog/?cat=10
Click to expand...
That is a really helpful article thanks bean.
 
To get recovery disks you need to contact the maker of the computer you have.

A repair only reinstalls the operating system leaving your personal data intact, a full recovery will format the hard drive and will reset it back to the day you bought it, which means you will lose all your personal data.
 
OK i think restore might be my choice. If I back up all files and folders I want to keep I can just reload them after the restore I suppose.

Is there anything I should be concerned about, or special to do?

Any files that I should backup that I might not readily be aware of?

Anything else I should know before I make a HUGE mistake?

There are quite a lot of files and folders that I don't even know what they are. How do I know whether to keep them?
 
I just tried a restore. The furthest back I could go was about 3 months ago, so a full restore doesn't seem like an option. It was sometime more recent that media player and mspaint stopped working properly or at all. Restoring back to March this year didn't solve any problems and 'restore' said no programs were installed within this period so restore was not completed.

There is definitely a problem here. About a month ago when media player started giving a codec popup that redirected me to a site selling a codec pack, I installed a media player(VLC) that bypasses the codec problem but still allows me to view media files. However, WMP is still out of action and I need to rip/burn but can't because of the codec popup from this unknown vendor. Malware/AV scans show nothing and restoring before the problem started resolves nothing.

I think I really need to start from scratch possibly with another HDD I have acquired and just transfer or re-download the files and programs I want to keep. That opens a bigger can of worms as my system was a pre-built name brand from a department store with no system disks and only an XP license.

What a mess I've got into! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
Hey Riley it sounds like a full formatt of the hdd is the way to go, unless you want to use the newly acquired drive which may have more GB. My suggestion is find a friend with your version of xp (home or professional i'm guessing) and ask them if you can lend their xp disk remembering the disk isn't what costs the money but the CD Key is. Once you get to the stage in the windows xp installation where it says "put in your personal CD Key" put in the one that is taped to the side of your case and then you will be good to go with a fresh version of windows xp installed. Hope this helps :)

[Edit] Just be very careful when transferring your files back over to your new drive that you don't transfer any viruses with it hidden in your program files. A good way to ensure this doesn't happen is when you have XP fully installed you should first thing install a trusty antivirus be it: AVG, Avast, Norton, Mcaffee or any other ones recommended here on computer forum.
 
Last edited:
Hsv_Man said:
Hey Riley it sounds like a full formatt of the hdd is the way to go, unless you want to use the newly acquired drive which may have more GB.
Click to expand...
Thats pretty much what my next thoughts were.

Regarding the 2nd half of your post, I have done full scans with up to date McAfee AV, Ad-Aware and MalwareBytes and none of these indicate where my problems are coming from. How can I know what programs or files contain debilitating contents affecting my current system, before I transport them to the new drive?
 
Chances are they are in your Windows installation folder programs like games, office, any word processing stuff like that wouldn't have any viruses in it i wouldn't think. I am mainly just referring to programs that have been downloaded off the internet (dodgy fake AV's and other things) this is what you have to look out for and anything thats out of the temporary internet files folder on your system. Even though you have run those well respected and trusted programs it only takes 1 batch file, command file and you could have this problem all over again. Just be careful is all i'm saying and Good Luck :)
 
Once you do the restore, you should download a virus program, as suggested. But, before you put all of the files back onto your restored computer, I would run a Virus Scan on them, and make sure that you won't be putting the virus right back on. Good Luck!

PS- I really like Microsoft Security Essentials tag-teaming with Malware Bytes Antimalware. Download links here if you want them.
MSSE:http://www.microsoft.com/security/products/mse.aspx
MBAM: http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html
 
I think you're on the right track HSV. There are so many folders that I have no idea what they are and heaps of files everywhere that may or may not be part of GOOD products or be downright EVIL. I don't even know where to start deleting files.

Is it possible to just copy my HDD to another blank formatted HDD so I can just go nuts deleting stuff and see what happens before if I make major changes to my main PC and HDD?
 
I appreciate everyone's advice within this thread. After much reading and contemplation I decided to clean up as much as I could through "add/remove programs" and manually removing files that I was fairly certain I no longer needed rather than starting from scratch. All sorts of worrying pop-ups and files developed from uninstalling some of the known unwanted programs.

Following this, I did a full McAfee, Adaware and MalwareBytes scan, and came across a few potentially unwanted programs that I could not quarantine for some reason. Fortunately my McAfee subscription provides a live online service that helped me remove thousands of "temp" folders and their contents that I never knew existed and now I have everything back to as good as new as can be expected for an eight year old system. And they also showed me how to deal with these problems on my own in future.
 
Dump McAffee and you will probably solve a lot of your issues, download microsoft security essentials like mentioned above or AVG. They are A LOT less intrusive as McAfee and will find and take care of far more issues.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top