Plz, Help With Reformatting HD

Razorbacx · Post by **Razorbacx** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 12:15 pm

I've had it with MS and all their crappy software! Ever since dl'ing the latest updates my pc is literally limping along, freezes up and doesn't seem to be able to handle more than one app at a time. My first thought was that I had a bug that went undetected, but after running scan after scan I cannot locate anything. All trouble points towards freakin MS! Short of reinstalling WIN XP (home) I've tried everything that I know how to do, so if anyone out there has any advice, please let me know.

I need to know how to reformat my HD without reinstalling WIN XP, because I'm thinking hard about giving Ubuntu a try. Thoughts please.

Thanks in advance,

Razorbacx

Darkstar · Post by **Darkstar** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 12:35 pm

You cant reformat your harddrive without wiping everything on it, including the OS. If you have not turned off system restore go back to the latest date before the updates. Or you can go to the add/remove programs in the control panes, tick off the "show updates" box and remore the most recent updates. If your system is still sluggish after removing the updates then it is something else.

Razorbacx · Post by **Razorbacx** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 4:21 pm

I already did a system restore and my computer ran like it used to do, however once the new updates automatically installed back on there it started running like crap again.

I want to start over and completely wipe my HD, but the only way that I know how to do that is to reinstall Windows on it.

Thanks,

Razorbacx

Darkstar · Post by **Darkstar** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 6:56 pm

you can do that, or you can take it off automatic updates, deselect the updates when they show up and have them not ask again to install the updates. Then go back to automatic updates and tjey will not install automatically. I installed all the updates on 40 systems with no problems though, so there might be something else going on there.

werty316 · Post by **werty316** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 10:34 pm

Unplug your internet cable and disable windows updates.

KnightRid · Post by **KnightRid** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:31 am

It might be another program running in the background, especially if it is slow on everything!

Try spybot - http://www.spybot.com - update then run it and fix problems.

reboot - not slow - finished - still slow then...

delete all temporary internet files from internet options.

repeat reboot - not slow - finished - if still slow

a bit advanced - go to run and type msconfig - go to startup and remove whatever you can that loads when windows boots without crashing windows of course - make sure you know what the programs are before you disable it!

repeat reboot - not slow - try re-enabling 1 thing at a time in msconfig and rebooting between each - see where the slowdown occurs and try looking for an upate to that program, or jsut get rid of it for right now - continue to check all of them.

if still slow, pull out a gun and shoot the omputer

no, if it is still slow after that the only thing i could say is either you didint turn off all the stuff you could, defrag, or it is jsut so screwed up you should reinstall windows.

YOU CAN REPAIR WINDOWS WITHOUT LOSING EVERYTHING! Some things will give you problems and need reinstalled, like AVG did when I repaired the kids after installing a new motherboard. Boot from the windows cd - DO NOT ENTER REPAIR CONSOLE tell it to install windows, cant remember how far later it asks about repairing a windows installation, but select that one!

Above would be the last ditch effort if everything else fails.

Mike

I hate system restore - jsut hides problems as far as I am concerned. I dont even have it turned on

Razorbacx · Post by **Razorbacx** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:28 am

Mike, thanks for the info and I will attempt to follow your advice.

Dark, thanks again for your help.

werty, not sure what to say other than you must be a goofball, but that's all good...HA!

Gotta say that what bugs me the most is that I had my pc running great before these last updates or prior to whatever sinister little bug creeped on my system. However, I will go on record as saying that the if I had my way right this moment I would dump windows and go with a linux OS like Ubuntu or even the MAC OS. Windows just seems to get all fouled up no matter how many precautions you take or how hard you to fight to keep your system bug free. I know that the MS update from late March totally screwed up my sound as I did some research on it and found that (MS) found that there was a conflict with Realtek audio software and came out with a hotfix, but it did not completely correct their screw up as I still have some issues with my sound device.

Thanks again for your help!

Razorbacx

stev · Post by **stev** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:23 pm

If you want to totally clean the HDD and loose everything to start afresh, try the "fdisk /mbr" command. A websearch will turn up some good things on getting that HDD totally clean before formating.