PC Formatting

flogen

Im on the verge of formatting my disk drive on my pc (for a number of reasons including alot of adware and viruses that have messed things up and many programmes etc that have clogged up the pc and made things very hard to work with) and i just wanted to run by a check-list of things to save onto discs etc before hand.

so far i have the usuals:
mp3s, doc files, picture files, saved game files

and i have the discs for the following:
printer, zip drive, macromedia stuff, boot discs for pc and cd writer discs, digital camera and minidisc cds

i just want to make sure i have all i need so i can start from scratch and not miss anything important.

has anyone else ever decided to do this kind of thing because of alot of crap on thier pc?

Flogen

joePC

You say you have boot discs, make sure you have the Install disc for whatever OS your running.

Creamy Goodness

i recently formatted my pc and i forgot my cs config file.
dont forget it if you play cs.

also maybe your internet fav's outlook (express) inboxes and the sort.

that's all i can think of


and it's not uncommon for people to format when their pc get out of control.

The_B_Man

theres also the possibility of partitioning the hard drive and puttin all the stuff u wanna save (drivers, games configs, PORN) on that partition and installin ur OS on the other. then if u keep ur OS on the separate partition and install everything on the other partition, it might be handier in future.

flogen

theres also the possibility of partitioning the hard drive and puttin all the stuff u wanna save (drivers, games configs, PORN)

me....? porn...? well, how you could you even......

but you make a good point there. my drive is already partitioned and i never use the second 'section', how do i go about formatting one bit and not the other?
or do you mean that when i do reinstall my OS i do it on a seperate partition to save hastle in the future?

Flogen

The_B_Man

well i suppose u could copy over all ur "stuff" to ur 2nd partition and reinstall over the original one. is it just linux or is there an option in windows to format during installation? if xp duz it then u shud do that.

also, if u do it the other way, then u should have a system partition with just the OS and install ur programs on another partition, thus keeping the system totally separate from other software in case u get some dodgy software or virus ridden stuff, and keep downloads on the other partition too!!


also also, i sed u have porn coz it seems like u have the net coz u mentioned adware and viruses, so wats the main usage of the internet? exactly!!

OfflerCrocGod

Use partition magic to format that 'unused' space for you....that's if you are using Windows.

unkel

Originally posted by flogen
has anyone else ever decided to do this kind of thing because of alot of crap on thier pc?B]

Yes sirrey, about 3 to 4 times per year

IrishPug106GTi

I recently reformatted a PC that I had that was running Windows NT 2000 Profeesional. I wanted to install XP Professional that the system was designed for. However, that process showed me that the Hard Drive was partitioned and that I was only able to format one partition at a time. I chose the largest sector but now I am asked which OS I want to run when booting up. Any ideas on how to format the second partition?

moridin

um, ok...

if you have windows 2000 installed then right click My Computer, click on Manage, and then go to disk administrator.

Your post is a little unclear tbh, if you need more specific help then post up more details... it sounds like you have 2 versions of windows installed now tbh, NT4 and 2000?

IrishPug106GTi

Moridin:
That is exactly the problem. I now have two operating systems on my PC and at boot-up I am asked which one I want to run.

MarkR

If you have a choice of two o/s's on boot, you installed another o/s parralel to your old one. If you want one o/s and just a single partiotion, best to boot from the recovery cd and start from scratch. If you want to keep two partitions, but one o/s, then boot using the recovery cd and delete the second partition. Recreate the partition in the unpartitioned space.

Mark

IrishPug106GTi

I want to delete the second partition and run on just a single partition. I already did a system recovery from the recovery CD and it has left the PC in this state.

moridin

get a linux install cd, go as far as the disk partitioning, delete all the partitions... reboot, stick in your restore cd and let it create a new partition taking up all the space on the empty drive

MarkR

There are several ways to use the cd, and it's easy to get it wrong. Using your own recovery cd, put it in and turn off the computer. Turn it on and when prompted press any key to boot from cd. After several minutes of scanning etc it will tell you what partitions have been detected. Press either "L" or "D" to delete each partition, starting from the bottom up. Once all partitions have been deleted create one large partition. (It will automatically suggest the full size) On the next screen choose format the partition using either NTFS of FAT, but don't choose either of the quick options. After that it's fairly self explanatory...

Mark

flogen

well guys and gals thanks for all the help, the deed is done... and after a little bit of trouble with my modem everything is working a treat and running like a dream

thanks for all the help and info!!

Flogen