Reformatting HD

[Verdant_Force]

Computer needs some new life before I go out and buy more RAM (only have two 512 sticks...upgrading to two 1gb sticks in a month or two). Therefore, I need to get rid of the copious amounts of junk. Problem is, it's been about 2 years since I last re-formatted and I completely forgot how to do it. I know it's pretty simple, but I don't want to run into the project blindly.

If anyone knows a good site for a tutorial or anything like that please reply. Thank ye kindly

[Impaqt]

You want to simply Wipe out Everything on your Hard Drive? That usually doesnt make it run much better.

[thatguy]

Computer needs some new life before I go out and buy more RAM (only have two 512 sticks...upgrading to two 1gb sticks in a month or two). Therefore, I need to get rid of the copious amounts of junk. Problem is, it's been about 2 years since I last re-formatted and I completely forgot how to do it. I know it's pretty simple, but I don't want to run into the project blindly.

If anyone knows a good site for a tutorial or anything like that please reply. Thank ye kindly

Boot to your windows install disk and let it run. At one point it going to ask you if you want to format the drive. It's pretty straight forward. You may want to back your stuff up to an external device before you do so so you don't lose anything important.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316941

[Verdant_Force]

Yeah, mostly everything except DDO, iTunes, etc.

Spyware has invaded plus I just generally have too much ****; might have a virus too (too cheap to buy virus protection). The drive is packed to the max.

Anyway, the main point to the original post is that I'm asking folks that use their computers like I do for a little help.

[thatguy]

Yeah, mostly everything except DDO, iTunes, etc.

Spyware has invaded plus I just generally have too much ****; might have a virus too (too cheap to buy virus protection). The drive is packed to the max.

Anyway, the main point to the original post is that I'm asking folks that use their computers like I do for a little help.

Did you read the knowledge base article? It tells you everything you need to know about installing Windows. Just follow the directions detailed in section 2. That's all the help you need right from the horse's mouth.

[Impaqt]

Yeah, mostly everything except DDO, iTunes, etc.

Spyware has invaded plus I just generally have too much ****; might have a virus too (too cheap to buy virus protection). The drive is packed to the max.

Anyway, the main point to the original post is that I'm asking folks that use their computers like I do for a little help.

The folks that use their computer like you do probobly arent the best to seek advice from.... SPyware.. VIrus'.... HD at Capacity..... bad bad bad......


anyway, throwing in the windows disk and reinstalling certainly will fix your problem... Unfortunatly, Your also going to lose ALL your itunes.... Now I dont know about you, but my friends who are in your boat have pretty large iTune libraries and dont back up.

First.. What size HD do you have? How much free space is actualy left?

If your infected with Malware and/or Virus' you might want to try a good online scanner/Removal tool. TrendMicro's Housecall is great for this... Its a Deep Scan offer removal for most infections, and its safe.

If your on a SIngle Hard drive System, your best bet would be to purchase a Second hard drive (Internal or an External USB/Firewire model) to Backup/Transfer your itunes to before you do your Reformat/Reinstall.

[EazyWeazy]

Make sure you get the files that you want backed up. One key point that I'd recommend is for you to make note of your computer name and rename it the same. When you buy music from iTunes you have to 'activate' the computer you are using your account on. If you format and rename the computer something different than before, then iTunes will think you are activating another computer and will count it against their limit of 5 activated computers.

Other than that, make sure that you download the drivers you need BEFORE you format and save them where you will be able to access them post-install.

Good luck and have fun.

[Verdant_Force]

The folks that use their computer like you do probobly arent the best to seek advice from.... SPyware.. VIrus'.... HD at Capacity..... bad bad bad...... I'll spare you the details about how I got all those


anyway, throwing in the windows disk and reinstalling certainly will fix your problem... Unfortunatly, Your also going to lose ALL your itunes.... Now I dont know about you, but my friends who are in your boat have pretty large iTune libraries and dont back up. Yeah, it's about 10 gigs...not huge but still pretty sizeable - I plan to to put the whole itunes music folder onto my external HD

First.. What size HD do you have? How much free space is actualy left? about 6 gigs are left of my original 200 lol

If your infected with Malware and/or Virus' you might want to try a good online scanner/Removal tool. TrendMicro's Housecall is great for this... Its a Deep Scan offer removal for most infections, and its safe. Yep, I've known about this for about 5 years now and used to use it regularly until it just stopped midway through the last couple of times. I left it running overnight and it was still in the same spot.

If your on a SIngle Hard drive System, your best bet would be to purchase a Second hard drive (Internal or an External USB/Firewire model) to Backup/Transfer your itunes to before you do your Reformat/Reinstall. Yeah, that's what I plan to do...only pain in the ass though is that will I have to add all the songs individually or is there a way to move the whole folder?

responses in cyan.

[Freeman]

As far as virus/spyware/adware, if you have more than two on your computer, it will be faster to format and reinstall than to try to get rid of the slippery things. It will also clear away a lot of bloat as well. I usually only make sure I have a local copy of the network card drivers(Or whatever you use to connect to the internet). Once you get those loaded, you can download any other drivers you need.

I'd also back up any music/movies/etc beforehand. I don't mess with Itunes myself, but I know it would be a pain to replace everything I have. Believe me, I know from experience. My wife was copying all my mp3s to several CDs a few years ago. Her plan was to copy them all to her computer, then burn them to the Cds there. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that by highlighting and dragging them, she was actually deleting them from my computer. Once she was done burning the CDs, she deleted them from her computer. She then mailed the CDs to where I was stationed overseas for several months. I copied them onto my work computer there, and I threw away the CDs. I was upset when I got home.

[Steiner-Davion]

First off, BACK UP your iTUNES Folder. Simply go to My Documents/My Music and copy the entire iTunes folder. Then after you re-install iTunes on the newly reformatted computer, you simply copy the entire iTunes Folder back to My Document/My Music making sure you replace any existing files, this will preserve your play lists and all that info etc... Also before you format, besure to deauterize the computer in iTunes, so that you you do not chew up one of your authorized computer allowances.

Secondly, Boot up your computer and entire the BIOs, by pressing F8. Then change your bios settings so that the CD Drive is booted from before the hardrive. Save the settings, insert your Windows CD and reboot the computer. Select the options to install windows, tell it to install over itself, then tell it to format your hard drive (I recommend the complete format, and not the quick format). Windows will then install takes about 30 minutes or so, once windows is installed besure to install all of your drivers, firewall and some anti-virus software (it is cheap enough now, about 50-70 dollars).

Re-install DDO and update. If you haven't already downloaded the trial do so now before you format, as it has all of the updates through MOD 6 (click here if you haven't) and then download the Mod 7 prepatch installer so that you can quickly install the latest Mod, minus the pathces of recent weeks) and thus have minimum patching to do once you launch the game and are ready to play.