October 9, 200917 yr Good day everyone. I come begging for some advice. My PC has become really slow of late, taking about 10 mins to load. It's got a 3ghz processor and 2gb ram so i don't think it should be that slow. My plan is to get rid of everything and start again. I've got an external hard drive to keep all important files and i'm going to keep it simple in terms of what software I will have on it. Finally i will be getting windows 7 providing it will run on the pc. What I'm asking for is any tips/guides on how to clear the PC and start a fresh. I'm guessing I'll have to put windows 7 on to a cd.
October 9, 200917 yr you need to make a boot disk, you can get here i would imagine <a href="www.piratebay.org"> Official Microsoft Website </a> I had to do a clean install of W7, because vista wouldn't boot, I used a recovery disk but then it wouldn't recognise any drivers My kingdom for a more reliable OS!
October 9, 200917 yr Author I'm going from XP so I have to do a clean install I guess this will do everything for me. That microsoft site will help me recover any programs I lose.
October 9, 200917 yr I'm going from XP so I have to do a clean install I guess this will do everything for me. That microsoft site will help me recover any programs I lose. Why do you need microsoft to recover any programs you loose if you have access to it now? You say you've got an external hard drive so put everything you need on there and just do a complete wipe of your hard drive.
October 9, 200917 yr You say you've got an external hard drive so put everything you need on there and just do a complete wipe of your hard drive. Just to ask a stupid question, if I copied my program files folder to an external device, could I then copy it to a new machine? I feel like it wouldn't work...
October 10, 200917 yr Just to ask a stupid question, if I copied my program files folder to an external device, could I then copy it to a new machine? I feel like it wouldn't work... There are ways to copy it but it's a very long and complicated process. When you install a program it makes loads of enteries into the registery and would take you a very long time to find them all. Do you ask because you want to save time installing all the programs? Or because you don't have them anymore?
October 10, 200917 yr There are ways to copy it but it's a very long and complicated process. When you install a program it makes loads of enteries into the registery and would take you a very long time to find them all. Do you ask because you want to save time installing all the programs? Or because you don't have them anymore? Just curious really, I'm up and running again program-wise but it would have been nice to have been able to to do it all in one go. Seems like once you've done a clean install a (windows) machine is never the same again, some drivers don't take, some games don't work... Like the ad on TV says I don't want to fight the system I just want it to work, and I don't feel that buying a new Operating System because windows vista won't take drivers after using the recovery disc that came in the box is on. I'm having a really bad couple of weeks with Microsoft I still don't know what corrupted my hardrive in the first place
October 10, 200917 yr To clear your HD and start fresh you'll just get the option to format your HD once you start installing your new OS. I just reinstalled Vista myself, thinking about 7 but if it's anything like Vista's launch, it'll be buggy for a while, so I'm holding back abit. Gotta love that new OS smell tho...
October 10, 200917 yr You can copy programs from computer to computer if you have a big enough external hard drive to copy every little file that the program puts onto your hard drive. Yeah I'm not sure anyone that uses Microsoft is their biggest fan lol but I guess it's the same with anything you use. You will hate it for the errors it gives you. And to evu Windows 7 is meant to be a lot better and more reliable then what Vista was when it was first released. Everyone that has it, is talking it up to be an amazing OS. I personally haven't got it yet but if you've got the chance to get it a lot of people would say do it.
October 14, 200917 yr I doubt Mark is around this thread anymore, but I can't help the urge to clean up whats been said here... First off, no matter what size your external hard drive, you can't just drag-n-drop your installed program files on to a newly wiped hard disk and expect any of the files to be useful in running the process. at all. ever. Now if you'd like to try it anyway, you could drag-and-drop your installed program files onto that dear sweet external. Copying it onto that drive would take just as long as any other file. So even if you copied the entire Windows folder to that external, it would still only take about 12 minutes to move across using USB 2.0 (its about 9gb in size)! reason being: even if it's a programs, music, video, text, pdf files, pictures...whatever...it all moves the same. it's all fragments that the computer would just shovel on the external as soon as you order it to! Second, even if that was possible, the use of a new OS would prevent that. Kernel changes, process changes, and tons of other stuff would affect the programs ability to be processed. Now I'm not speaking on compatability. The majority of programs compatible on XP and Vista will run great on Windows 7 when installed properly (i.e. no drag-n-drop!). third - to evu and jo5hr: Every version of windows and Mac OS's that has graced any platform at anytime has never been flawless. therefore, yes, windows 7 will have bugs. Now the difference is that it has already been tested and reviewed by outside sources that absolutely hated vista, and they have been screaming, cheering, and crying in joy to the fact that Windows 7 should be smoothest running OS to be released by Microsoft ever! This means less bugs than what you'd expect from an OS's initial launch! Please keep in mind that these guys test this stuff for a living, so when they say it's good...ya best believe 'em! I do not mean to seem rude or anything...i'm just tired and felt obligated to clear all this up. P.s. Mark, Windows 7 is about as demanding, if not less, than XP. It blows Vista out of the water as far as efficiency! So you should be fine if you decide to upgrade to 7. in b4 windows fanboy! Cheers. >Michael<
October 14, 200917 yr Author I was pretty sure that wouldn't work. I've run the update guide thing for windows 7 and it says my PC won't cope with windows aero. So what to do now, new PC (can't really afford), new graphics card (i'm assuming that's what I need) or re-install XP (if i can find the disk).
October 15, 200917 yr I was pretty sure that wouldn't work. I've run the update guide thing for windows 7 and it says my PC won't cope with windows aero. So what to do now, new PC (can't really afford), new graphics card (i'm assuming that's what I need) or re-install XP (if i can find the disk). well even if its not capable of pushing aero, it'll almost be the same xp gui except with the new features. so basically, if you do decide to go with 7, it'll run fine aslong as you have aero disabled...you'll still get all the new features! good luck! Cheers >Michael<
October 15, 200917 yr XP is still The best OS from Microsoft. To make it a worthwhile - install 7 only if your XP is older than 2-3 years and starts to lag.
Create an account or sign in to comment