Windows reinstall help please.
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Is that a full install version disk you would use on a custom build or a recover/system restore disk for a prebuilt system there? If a full install version you can decide on which way to go as far as reinstalling Windows. What the XP installer lacks and is now seen with the Vista installer and optional tools is the ability to reformat a drive when booting with the installation disk.
For cleaning of a drive totally one fast method would be to delete the current primary partition and choose between the XP installer or drive partitioning tool when going to create a fresh new primary to see a clean install of Windows. For seeing the ideal results a drive partitioning like Partition Magic(retail) or the free Linux Gnome Partition Editor(GPsrted live for cd) will easily create the new primary as well as seeing the actual total of physical drive space available more so then the XP installer.
Often a smal space of 1-8mb is left unallocated by the XP installer at either end of the drive. But for a simple fast installation of a new copy of Windows with no fuss you simply boot from the XP disk by either choosing the F8 boot device menu seen along with the option to enter the bios setup during the first post tests or have to go into the bios to see the cd rom option as the first boot device.
Once you boot from the install disk you simply follow the onscreen instructions for installing Windows by first choosing among the hard drives detected if more then one are installed. If the hard drive is a sata not ide drive then you may have need for a driver floppy to be made up first and press the F6 option seen on the first installation screen when booting from the XP disk.
The installer then copies and loads the driver from the 3 1/2" floppy in order for it to see the sata drive(s) on the system. The need for that depends on the socket type and chipset of the board and the type of hard drive Windows will go onto. Is this on a sata or ide type drive there?
For cleaning of a drive totally one fast method would be to delete the current primary partition and choose between the XP installer or drive partitioning tool when going to create a fresh new primary to see a clean install of Windows. For seeing the ideal results a drive partitioning like Partition Magic(retail) or the free Linux Gnome Partition Editor(GPsrted live for cd) will easily create the new primary as well as seeing the actual total of physical drive space available more so then the XP installer.
Often a smal space of 1-8mb is left unallocated by the XP installer at either end of the drive. But for a simple fast installation of a new copy of Windows with no fuss you simply boot from the XP disk by either choosing the F8 boot device menu seen along with the option to enter the bios setup during the first post tests or have to go into the bios to see the cd rom option as the first boot device.
Once you boot from the install disk you simply follow the onscreen instructions for installing Windows by first choosing among the hard drives detected if more then one are installed. If the hard drive is a sata not ide drive then you may have need for a driver floppy to be made up first and press the F6 option seen on the first installation screen when booting from the XP disk.
The installer then copies and loads the driver from the 3 1/2" floppy in order for it to see the sata drive(s) on the system. The need for that depends on the socket type and chipset of the board and the type of hard drive Windows will go onto. Is this on a sata or ide type drive there?
Windows is running fine, what I really want to do is wipe every single program off the hard disk and start all over fresh there are other errors in this machine that I for the life of me cant figure out, for instance .net frame work, I cant download the available updates Im getting SL,tmp errors, there was one error that came up once when trying to relaod these programs saying a block of files is missing. It's strange to because in my add remove programs where it shows .net frame work, it shows that it's used rareley and there is no uninstall icon next to them. My automatic updates show that there are two critical updates available but when i try to download them download fails. My system seems to be working excellent, but it bugs me when i have reports of files missing and not being able to download critical updates to the .net framework. All other updates download fine.
That just got me thinking about wipeing the whole disk and i mean every single program on it and reinstall everything from scratch. I dont know how to do it though.
I did try to reinstall windows with the disk that came with my machine but it could not locate one of the files and closed out. Might be better off to take it to a professional, I dont know.
That just got me thinking about wipeing the whole disk and i mean every single program on it and reinstall everything from scratch. I dont know how to do it though.
I did try to reinstall windows with the disk that came with my machine but it could not locate one of the files and closed out. Might be better off to take it to a professional, I dont know.
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There should be a process for seeing Windows restored back to the way it was when the system was first bought. That will see a clean copy of Windows installed and clean up all of the crud and missing system files if any. That's what the recovery disk are for. Again the other option would be to buy a full install copy and see everything removed for that copy's own fresh installation.
That would mean downloading updates for everything and not seeing any softwares that came bundled with the machine. If you can't see Windows restored with the original disks then this is the alternative for seeing everything cleaned off to have a fresh start all over again. This is also why I build my own here not to get bound up when a preinstallation goes bad on you. There's no hidden files to worry about.
That would mean downloading updates for everything and not seeing any softwares that came bundled with the machine. If you can't see Windows restored with the original disks then this is the alternative for seeing everything cleaned off to have a fresh start all over again. This is also why I build my own here not to get bound up when a preinstallation goes bad on you. There's no hidden files to worry about.
The place called Alienware custom build laptops for a ..... "high price"! 
there. Those are mainly gaming builds where you can pay $4000-$5000 easily! You can boost up a portable to a degree for far less while laptops/notebooks are still higher priced items to start with.
As far as OSs you can still wipe the original crud off if you want to risk the warrantys for a clean install with a full version OEM for system builders disk. But portable units will always remain seeing limitations for gaming purposes since the best stuff generally goes into a desktop build.
there. Those are mainly gaming builds where you can pay $4000-$5000 easily! You can boost up a portable to a degree for far less while laptops/notebooks are still higher priced items to start with. As far as OSs you can still wipe the original crud off if you want to risk the warrantys for a clean install with a full version OEM for system builders disk. But portable units will always remain seeing limitations for gaming purposes since the best stuff generally goes into a desktop build.
the only thing I do with this machine is surf the web, I don't play games on it at all or do any buisness type of work. Mainly just internet.
I did format and reinstall windows, I have it up and running again. The only difference now is it used to show a drive c NTFS files and a drive d fat32 files. Now all im showing is drive c NTFS files everything is on that drive I dont even understand what the smaller size drive d was for. I got everything back up on drive c and everything seems to be operating fine.
The only thing I do see now is it is showing on the black startup screen two versions of windows xp even though i completely formatted the whole thing. When you select the second version of windows on the startup screen I think it said something like windows is not completely installed. I dont know if this will hurt anything or not. My system runs fine with the other version of windows that it shows on there.
One other thing does anybody know how to fix it so it doesn't count down from 26 second before windows loads. I thought there was a place to type in like 2 in place of the number 26 but i can't remember.
If anybody can please help me understand these two small problems, that is if they are a real problem.
Edit note.
Ok on the black windows startup screen where It shows Microsoft windows Xp home edition twice, I tried clicking on the second one and it took me to the microsoft windows setup page and asked me to insert the setup disk, so it is the setup program. before it said Microsoft Windows XP Setup. the name of it changed for some reason. I closed out of it and went back and choose the first Microsoft Windows XP Home edition and it took me to windows xp, I guess the name just changed for some reason.
I did format and reinstall windows, I have it up and running again. The only difference now is it used to show a drive c NTFS files and a drive d fat32 files. Now all im showing is drive c NTFS files everything is on that drive I dont even understand what the smaller size drive d was for. I got everything back up on drive c and everything seems to be operating fine.
The only thing I do see now is it is showing on the black startup screen two versions of windows xp even though i completely formatted the whole thing. When you select the second version of windows on the startup screen I think it said something like windows is not completely installed. I dont know if this will hurt anything or not. My system runs fine with the other version of windows that it shows on there.
One other thing does anybody know how to fix it so it doesn't count down from 26 second before windows loads. I thought there was a place to type in like 2 in place of the number 26 but i can't remember.
If anybody can please help me understand these two small problems, that is if they are a real problem.
Edit note.
Ok on the black windows startup screen where It shows Microsoft windows Xp home edition twice, I tried clicking on the second one and it took me to the microsoft windows setup page and asked me to insert the setup disk, so it is the setup program. before it said Microsoft Windows XP Setup. the name of it changed for some reason. I closed out of it and went back and choose the first Microsoft Windows XP Home edition and it took me to windows xp, I guess the name just changed for some reason.
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The system restore doesn't go back hardly at all, I could only go back a month. I had a program in here at one time that was suposed to clean up all traces of past internet activity and so many other things but i think it was a little to good because when i went to use the system restore after using that, that was cleaned out too. Be carefull with these programs. I dont even use thoose anymore.
The system restore feature will only go back on the current calandar month not June or July or anything like. This is one drawback with that limitation. But your drive doesn't get filled fast with restoration files taking up drive space either.
The dual boot option is apparently an unintended entry in the boot.ini file found at the root of C. When reformatting you may have deleted the second partition you previously had or now have to verify it since a second installation apparently going to that one is now preventing access to it.
A manual edit of the boot.ini can be done two different ways to see to set which is default while you will want to use NotePad after unchecking the hide all protected system files option in tools>folder options>view found in MyComputer or the Windows Explorer window to make it visible.
Once you have the boot.ini file opened in NotePad the process is easy for removing the setup line of text and reducing the wait time seen default as 30 seconds. This is for setting the delay when dual or multibooting different versions to allow more time to select which one will be loaded for that session. Left alone the default will load automatically by itself regardless of the time over some 2 seconds usually 5 second recommended for a minimum.
The screen shot below is how the default boot.ini file should appear before reducing the amount of the delay.
Note there's nothing seen past the fastdetect on a fresh installation of XP Home. Ignore the "/usepmtimer" seen there.
The dual boot option is apparently an unintended entry in the boot.ini file found at the root of C. When reformatting you may have deleted the second partition you previously had or now have to verify it since a second installation apparently going to that one is now preventing access to it.
A manual edit of the boot.ini can be done two different ways to see to set which is default while you will want to use NotePad after unchecking the hide all protected system files option in tools>folder options>view found in MyComputer or the Windows Explorer window to make it visible.
Once you have the boot.ini file opened in NotePad the process is easy for removing the setup line of text and reducing the wait time seen default as 30 seconds. This is for setting the delay when dual or multibooting different versions to allow more time to select which one will be loaded for that session. Left alone the default will load automatically by itself regardless of the time over some 2 seconds usually 5 second recommended for a minimum.
The screen shot below is how the default boot.ini file should appear before reducing the amount of the delay.
Note there's nothing seen past the fastdetect on a fresh installation of XP Home. Ignore the "/usepmtimer" seen there.
I did have a goof up the first time i tried to reload everything, something happened and it wanted to load and run everything off drive d, witch was to small of a partion and i ran out of space. I had to try and redo everything, when it asked me to type in the amount of partion i needed the second time i tried it i just went with the maximum amount because i was not sure how much i would need. I had to try through trial and error to get this up right. Everything is on drive c NTFS file type. Something must have got mixed up in the whole overhaul process somewhere. When the black screen comes up and it shows microsoft Windows home edition, instead of waiting so many seconds I can hit ennter and it will load windows right away. Somebody on here awhile back told me an easy way to go in and change it through some setting so I wouldn't have to wait but two seconds to get into windows, Im not real computer literate when it comes to programing The easiest way possible is best for me..
Just figured out how to make it bootup quicker, this is one problem solved
click start
right click on my computer
click properties
click advanced
click on start up and recovery settings
In time to display list of operating systems changed the numer 30 to 2
click ok.
Now I have a much quicker bootup.
I noticed in system config under boot initiate the line below is added twice.
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
If anybody can give me step by step instructions on fixing this problem it would be greatly apreciated.
Just figured out how to make it bootup quicker, this is one problem solved
click start
right click on my computer
click properties
click advanced
click on start up and recovery settings
In time to display list of operating systems changed the numer 30 to 2
click ok.
Now I have a much quicker bootup.
I noticed in system config under boot initiate the line below is added twice.
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
If anybody can give me step by step instructions on fixing this problem it would be greatly apreciated.
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Take notes on the way the screen shot above lists everything there except for the addition part past the /fast detect mentioned earlier. That was from something on the XP Home installation presently seen here while the rest is just the way it is seen on most systems.
Once you unhide protected system files you notice the boot.ini file as slightly less visible that the folders on your hard drive. This is normal. However when you double click on it NotePad will usually be the text editor that will open it right up. One thing to note is when going to save any changes made you have to use the "all files" option on the selector not a txt or doc file type typical with NotePad and WordPad in Windows. This will allow the new version to overwrite the problem file you now have.
When editing the boot.ini you can easily lower the delay time as mentioned earlier since you are already going to have to go in there to make the needed corrections. As for the D partition and current C a free Linux drive tool known as GParted live for cd can remove the D entirely and resize the C to the drive's full capacity. Or you can choose to shrink the C primary and have D as a storage partition for backing up your files.
For now seeing the boot.ini file corrected isn't a hard task but needed first. You can keep your browser windows open and open NotePad at the same time for this. That's how fast and easy it is. You should see the 2 second setting you already made. However the delay is actually only seen when more then one version of Windows has an entry. Otherwise a single installation already default simply loads without delay. You simpy have to remove the invalid entry for this.
Once you unhide protected system files you notice the boot.ini file as slightly less visible that the folders on your hard drive. This is normal. However when you double click on it NotePad will usually be the text editor that will open it right up. One thing to note is when going to save any changes made you have to use the "all files" option on the selector not a txt or doc file type typical with NotePad and WordPad in Windows. This will allow the new version to overwrite the problem file you now have.
When editing the boot.ini you can easily lower the delay time as mentioned earlier since you are already going to have to go in there to make the needed corrections. As for the D partition and current C a free Linux drive tool known as GParted live for cd can remove the D entirely and resize the C to the drive's full capacity. Or you can choose to shrink the C primary and have D as a storage partition for backing up your files.
For now seeing the boot.ini file corrected isn't a hard task but needed first. You can keep your browser windows open and open NotePad at the same time for this. That's how fast and easy it is. You should see the 2 second setting you already made. However the delay is actually only seen when more then one version of Windows has an entry. Otherwise a single installation already default simply loads without delay. You simpy have to remove the invalid entry for this.
I might be all set like it is right now, i just checked into some other things. Drive c is actually a 70 GB harddrive, Drive D 4 GB drive. Since I have reinstalled everything Drive c is showing that it is a 74.52 GB harddrive, it looks like it combined drive c and d together as one. My dvd rom drive used to be drive j and now it is showing that as d. My free space reads 68.81 GB 92 % free.
My computer does boot automatically, it takes it around 25 seconds to load everything. My computer has a 2.66 Celeron D processor and 512 mb of a cheaper grade ram, i forget the name of it now.
The other Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition option, when i click on it , it simply takes me to a screen that shows the windows setup screen. It will show some sort of error and ask you to put in the setup disk after you put the disk in that option works fine.
The computer does bootup fine though. I thought 25 second really wasn't that bad for a bootup time considering the speed of my system. That of course also includes the bootup of norton antivirus, norton personal firewall, antispyware and all bells and whistles. All programs seem to run smoothly.
The only thing i had noticed is that the setup option was just worded a little different than before.
When i told you it said on the black screen "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" twice the second Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition is the setup process. It's just worded differently.
As long as this is nothing that will hurt my machine I think I will leave it be. Registry programs right now are not finding any registry errors and the system is running pretty darn good.
Please feel free to let me know what you think.
My computer does boot automatically, it takes it around 25 seconds to load everything. My computer has a 2.66 Celeron D processor and 512 mb of a cheaper grade ram, i forget the name of it now.
The other Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition option, when i click on it , it simply takes me to a screen that shows the windows setup screen. It will show some sort of error and ask you to put in the setup disk after you put the disk in that option works fine.
The computer does bootup fine though. I thought 25 second really wasn't that bad for a bootup time considering the speed of my system. That of course also includes the bootup of norton antivirus, norton personal firewall, antispyware and all bells and whistles. All programs seem to run smoothly.
The only thing i had noticed is that the setup option was just worded a little different than before.
When i told you it said on the black screen "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" twice the second Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition is the setup process. It's just worded differently.
As long as this is nothing that will hurt my machine I think I will leave it be. Registry programs right now are not finding any registry errors and the system is running pretty darn good.
Please feel free to let me know what you think.
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The line for Windows setup would still be seen in the boot.ini file and can be easily removed. It doesn't hurt anything while being more of an annoyance if you should happen to highlight that when first booting.
When in Windows it will always appear as the C drive despite where you have it installed whether the first primary on the first drive or second on a 3rd drive. The Disk Management tool allows for reassigning the drive letters designed to any and all other drives installed. Those are seen as logical drives.
If you split one drive into two or more partitions each is given it's own drive letter. A second partition bumps all other drives by one letter while Windows is still seen as C. Your first optical then may become E instead of D for this reason. But you can reassign a second partition as F,G,H,I, or any higher letter and change the then E optical back to D.
When in Windows it will always appear as the C drive despite where you have it installed whether the first primary on the first drive or second on a 3rd drive. The Disk Management tool allows for reassigning the drive letters designed to any and all other drives installed. Those are seen as logical drives.
If you split one drive into two or more partitions each is given it's own drive letter. A second partition bumps all other drives by one letter while Windows is still seen as C. Your first optical then may become E instead of D for this reason. But you can reassign a second partition as F,G,H,I, or any higher letter and change the then E optical back to D.
Thank you for your help PC eye, it is greatly appreciated. I have everything back to normal again. I wiped the drive again and did a reinstall to clean up my mistake. Now when I log on it doesn't show the black screen with the Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, now it just goes right on in to Windows Xp.
I downloaded Firefox web Browser
AvG Free Anti virus
Zone Alarm Firewall
Ad-aware se 2007
Spybot search and destroy
downloaded the latest windows updates
Here is some info on Vol C
Volume size 74.52 GB
Cluster Size 4KB
Used space 5.43 GB
Free Space 69.09 GB
Percent free space 92%
volume fragmentation
total fragmentation 0%
file fragmentation 1%
Free space fragmentation 0%
file fragmentation
total files 21,938
average file size 312 KB
total fragmented files 121
total excess fragments 535
average fragments per file 1.02
page file fragmentation
page file size 756 MB
total fragments 1
folder fragmentation
total folders 2,310
fragmented folders 2
Excess folder fragments 3
master file table (MTF) fragmentation
total MTF size 24 MB
MTF record count 24,311
percent MTF in use 99
total MTF fragments 2
I downloaded Firefox web Browser
AvG Free Anti virus
Zone Alarm Firewall
Ad-aware se 2007
Spybot search and destroy
downloaded the latest windows updates
Here is some info on Vol C
Volume size 74.52 GB
Cluster Size 4KB
Used space 5.43 GB
Free Space 69.09 GB
Percent free space 92%
volume fragmentation
total fragmentation 0%
file fragmentation 1%
Free space fragmentation 0%
file fragmentation
total files 21,938
average file size 312 KB
total fragmented files 121
total excess fragments 535
average fragments per file 1.02
page file fragmentation
page file size 756 MB
total fragments 1
folder fragmentation
total folders 2,310
fragmented folders 2
Excess folder fragments 3
master file table (MTF) fragmentation
total MTF size 24 MB
MTF record count 24,311
percent MTF in use 99
total MTF fragments 2
I hope you backed up anything important first before wiping the drive clean. At least you now have the stalling problem resolved. That's good! But there is one question about Zone Alarm. If that's the free version you may want to go with something else. There's been some complaints heard about it.
Another program that works well with AVG and Ad-Aware on Vista as well as XP is called the Spyware Terminator. This is one that seems to have it's own mild form of firewall included. http://www.spywareterminator.com/
The two more popular freeware firewalls are Jetico and Commodo for this type of program. The freeware version of the Jetico Personal firewall program can be downloaded from http://www.afterdawn.com/software/network_software/firewalls/jetico_personal_firewall.cfm
Commodo is strictly a free firewall found at http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/
These should give you some better options there. The ST program catches what Ad-Aware misses and vice versa and neither one conflicts with each other or AVG. It kind of makes a winning combination in several ways. With the ST program you will get prompted for anything new that you try to install for the allow or deny confirmation. I generally find that it has a big edge over Spybot S&D and several others.
Another program that works well with AVG and Ad-Aware on Vista as well as XP is called the Spyware Terminator. This is one that seems to have it's own mild form of firewall included. http://www.spywareterminator.com/
The two more popular freeware firewalls are Jetico and Commodo for this type of program. The freeware version of the Jetico Personal firewall program can be downloaded from http://www.afterdawn.com/software/network_software/firewalls/jetico_personal_firewall.cfm
Commodo is strictly a free firewall found at http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/
These should give you some better options there. The ST program catches what Ad-Aware misses and vice versa and neither one conflicts with each other or AVG. It kind of makes a winning combination in several ways. With the ST program you will get prompted for anything new that you try to install for the allow or deny confirmation. I generally find that it has a big edge over Spybot S&D and several others.
I did not have any personal stuff downloaded on here, the only thing that is on here is the stuff that came with my computer. So I didn't have anything personal to back up if that is what you are talking about, I know i would have lost all of that otherwise if i didn't back it up but there was nothing of mine to back up.
another program i have on here is ccleaner, all things in my system seem to be running just as good now as they did when i bought it. I just wiped the drive and did a clean install with the cd rom that came with my machine. All this machine is used for is internet surfing and that is it.
Thanks for warning me about zone alarm, I had this years ago and never had a problem with it, maybe it has changed though, i will check out the others you have mentioned.
My parents are still running the old IE explorer on there machine and the windows xp firewall and thats it, they have had one for six years now and don't get viruses.
My machine is performing like new now.
another program i have on here is ccleaner, all things in my system seem to be running just as good now as they did when i bought it. I just wiped the drive and did a clean install with the cd rom that came with my machine. All this machine is used for is internet surfing and that is it.
Thanks for warning me about zone alarm, I had this years ago and never had a problem with it, maybe it has changed though, i will check out the others you have mentioned.
My parents are still running the old IE explorer on there machine and the windows xp firewall and thats it, they have had one for six years now and don't get viruses.
My machine is performing like new now.
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I uninstalled zone alarm. I also downloaded spyware terminator, it didn't find anything on here, I do like the idea to that they offer real time protection for free.
Now i have as follows
ccleaner
spybot search and destroy
spyware terminator
windows xp firewall ( Ive heard complaints about this one but really have never experienced any problems with it, my parents have not had any problems either.
I am thinking about purchasing registry mechanic, do you like this.
Now i have as follows
ccleaner
spybot search and destroy
spyware terminator
windows xp firewall ( Ive heard complaints about this one but really have never experienced any problems with it, my parents have not had any problems either.
I am thinking about purchasing registry mechanic, do you like this.
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