factory restore

Hi everyone
to cut a VERY VERY VERY LONG story short here is my question

Is it dangerous to restore your computer back to factory settings a few
times in such a small period of time - 3 times in one month. It has already
been done twice due to computer being stuck in a loop when trying to upgrade
it.

i have xp home edition pre installed and i was hoping for the last time, to
restore it back to factory settings!! I just brought internet norton security
2005 and it loaded correctly but i had to take it off for certain reasons and
now it loads with many erros. i was hoping to start all over again!!!!

will any damage be done!! I have been told no that is what it is for but
even in such a small period of time - any advice would be great

thanks

The Aussie Girl wrote:
Hi everyone
to cut a VERY VERY VERY LONG story short here is my question
=20
Is it dangerous to restore your computer back to factory settings a
few times in such a small period of time - 3 times in one month. It
has already been done twice due to computer being stuck in a loop
when trying to upgrade it.
=20
i have xp home edition pre installed and i was hoping for the last
time, to restore it back to factory settings!! I just brought
internet norton security 2005 and it loaded correctly but i had to
take it off for certain reasons and now it loads with many erros. i
was hoping to start all over again!!!!=20
=20
will any damage be done!! I have been told no that is what it is for
but even in such a small period of time - any advice would be great
=20
thanks

How do you manage to save your important documents / files? Don't you =
hate losing those?

Repeated "factory restores" are not dangerous in terms of the hardware. =
However, your Windows "loses" security updates , and other Windows =
Updates (that occur over time), as well as your application programs =
(possibly ----- and antivirus programs certainly) also losing updates.

What I'm getting to is that "factory restores" ought to be a measure of =
last resort.

Do hang around the MS XP groups, get into some good forums ( =
http://www.computerhaven.info , http://forum.aumha.net , =
http://aumha.org) to learn some strategies / methods of preventing & =
resolving problems.
Example: Article on Backups by Patty MacDuffie =
http://www.computerhaven.info/backups.htm

Also, learning how to start Windows in Safe Mode, how to use Task =
Manager in Windows , how to use Windows XP's System Restore are just a =
few things you would benefit from. But mainly, having & using =
"off-line" backups of your system would prevent your having to do =
"factory restores".
--=20
Maurice N
MVP Windows - Shell / User
-----

Do yourself a favor and buy a retail version of XP Pro upgrade. Then cgoogle
XP for "XP clean install" or such.
Michael

"The Aussie Girl" wrote in message
...
Hi everyone
to cut a VERY VERY VERY LONG story short here is my question

Is it dangerous to restore your computer back to factory settings a few
times in such a small period of time - 3 times in one month. It has
already
been done twice due to computer being stuck in a loop when trying to
upgrade
it.

i have xp home edition pre installed and i was hoping for the last time,
to
restore it back to factory settings!! I just brought internet norton
security
2005 and it loaded correctly but i had to take it off for certain reasons
and
now it loads with many erros. i was hoping to start all over again!!!!

will any damage be done!! I have been told no that is what it is for but
even in such a small period of time - any advice would be great

thanks

No damage to the hardware will occur. You can do nothing except reimage the
machine all day long and it won't cause any problems. However, your patience
will be sorely tried and you won't get any thing productive done with the
machine.

Start with some specifics, although I'll tell you point blank that NIS is
not a product I recommend any one voluntarily install.

--
Walter Clayton
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.


"The Aussie Girl" wrote in message
...
Hi everyone
to cut a VERY VERY VERY LONG story short here is my question

Is it dangerous to restore your computer back to factory settings a few
times in such a small period of time - 3 times in one month. It has
already
been done twice due to computer being stuck in a loop when trying to
upgrade
it.

i have xp home edition pre installed and i was hoping for the last time,
to
restore it back to factory settings!! I just brought internet norton
security
2005 and it loaded correctly but i had to take it off for certain reasons
and
now it loads with many erros. i was hoping to start all over again!!!!

will any damage be done!! I have been told no that is what it is for but
even in such a small period of time - any advice would be great

thanks

Hmmmm.

And that's supposed to solve what problem how?

--
Walter Clayton
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.


"Phillips" wrote in message
...
Do yourself a favor and buy a retail version of XP Pro upgrade. Then
cgoogle XP for "XP clean install" or such.
Michael

"The Aussie Girl" wrote in
message ...
Hi everyone
to cut a VERY VERY VERY LONG story short here is my question

Is it dangerous to restore your computer back to factory settings a few
times in such a small period of time - 3 times in one month. It has
already
been done twice due to computer being stuck in a loop when trying to
upgrade
it.

i have xp home edition pre installed and i was hoping for the last time,
to
restore it back to factory settings!! I just brought internet norton
security
2005 and it loaded correctly but i had to take it off for certain reasons
and
now it loads with many erros. i was hoping to start all over again!!!!

will any damage be done!! I have been told no that is what it is for but
even in such a small period of time - any advice would be great

thanks

Hi Maurice
thanks for your advice.
but i had no other alternative but to restore my computer back to factory
mode when i was stuck in a loop with a blue screen saying "windows is
restarting" then it would click over to a black screen saying "windows can
not restart" i went into f8 and tried to start in safe mode and the last
known configuration where windows started normally and couldnt do anything.
I had no other alternative as my computer was stuck in a loop and no one
could help me even my own IT manager decided to tell me to do factory
restore. I could not get into my computer to try system restore.
i couldnt even turn my computer off i had to pull it out at the wall.
thanks again for your advice but if i could of gotten into my computer i
wouldnt have restored it, and i didnt lose any files what so ever only
programs but i have them on disc so not a drama really

"Maurice N ~ MVP" wrote:

The Aussie Girl wrote:
Hi everyone
to cut a VERY VERY VERY LONG story short here is my question

Is it dangerous to restore your computer back to factory settings a
few times in such a small period of time - 3 times in one month. It
has already been done twice due to computer being stuck in a loop
when trying to upgrade it.

i have xp home edition pre installed and i was hoping for the last
time, to restore it back to factory settings!! I just brought
internet norton security 2005 and it loaded correctly but i had to
take it off for certain reasons and now it loads with many erros. i
was hoping to start all over again!!!!

will any damage be done!! I have been told no that is what it is for
but even in such a small period of time - any advice would be great

thanks

How do you manage to save your important documents / files? Don't you hate losing those?

Repeated "factory restores" are not dangerous in terms of the hardware. However, your Windows "loses" security updates , and other Windows Updates (that occur over time), as well as your application programs (possibly ----- and antivirus programs certainly) also losing updates.

What I'm getting to is that "factory restores" ought to be a measure of last resort.

Do hang around the MS XP groups, get into some good forums ( http://www.computerhaven.info , http://forum.aumha.net , http://aumha.org) to learn some strategies / methods of preventing & resolving problems.
Example: Article on Backups by Patty MacDuffie http://www.computerhaven.info/backups.htm

Also, learning how to start Windows in Safe Mode, how to use Task Manager in Windows , how to use Windows XP's System Restore are just a few things you would benefit from. But mainly, having & using "off-line" backups of your system would prevent your having to do "factory restores".
--
Maurice N
MVP Windows - Shell / User
-----

You may partition your HDD as you wish; also, you have control over the
installation since drivers updates must be added anyway.
Michael
"Walter Clayton" wrote in message
...
Hmmmm.

And that's supposed to solve what problem how?

--
Walter Clayton
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.


"Phillips" wrote in message
...
Do yourself a favor and buy a retail version of XP Pro upgrade. Then
cgoogle XP for "XP clean install" or such.
Michael

"The Aussie Girl" wrote in
message ...
Hi everyone
to cut a VERY VERY VERY LONG story short here is my question

Is it dangerous to restore your computer back to factory settings a few
times in such a small period of time - 3 times in one month. It has
already
been done twice due to computer being stuck in a loop when trying to
upgrade
it.

i have xp home edition pre installed and i was hoping for the last time,
to
restore it back to factory settings!! I just brought internet norton
security
2005 and it loaded correctly but i had to take it off for certain
reasons and
now it loads with many erros. i was hoping to start all over again!!!!

will any damage be done!! I have been told no that is what it is for but
even in such a small period of time - any advice would be great

thanks

Not sure factory-installed OEM XP is a qualifier for an upgrade...

"Phillips" wrote in message
...
You may partition your HDD as you wish; also, you have control over the
installation since drivers updates must be added anyway.
Michael
"Walter Clayton" wrote in message
...
Hmmmm.

And that's supposed to solve what problem how?

--
Walter Clayton
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.


"Phillips" wrote in message
...
Do yourself a favor and buy a retail version of XP Pro upgrade. Then
cgoogle XP for "XP clean install" or such.
Michael

"The Aussie Girl" wrote in
message ...
Hi everyone
to cut a VERY VERY VERY LONG story short here is my question

Is it dangerous to restore your computer back to factory settings a
few
times in such a small period of time - 3 times in one month. It has
already
been done twice due to computer being stuck in a loop when trying to
upgrade
it.

i have xp home edition pre installed and i was hoping for the last
time,
to
restore it back to factory settings!! I just brought internet norton
security
2005 and it loaded correctly but i had to take it off for certain
reasons and
now it loads with many erros. i was hoping to start all over again!!!!

will any damage be done!! I have been told no that is what it is for
but
even in such a small period of time - any advice would be great

thanks

....and?

What does partitioning have to do with solving the problem? Why does
selective driver updates solve the problem?

BTW: Are you aware that the ability to partition has nothing to do with the
install media and you must install those drivers that you must?

--
Walter Clayton
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.


"Phillips" wrote in message
...
You may partition your HDD as you wish; also, you have control over the
installation since drivers updates must be added anyway.
Michael
"Walter Clayton" wrote in message
...
Hmmmm.

And that's supposed to solve what problem how?

--
Walter Clayton
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.


"Phillips" wrote in message
...
Do yourself a favor and buy a retail version of XP Pro upgrade. Then
cgoogle XP for "XP clean install" or such.
Michael

"The Aussie Girl" wrote in
message ...
Hi everyone
to cut a VERY VERY VERY LONG story short here is my question

Is it dangerous to restore your computer back to factory settings a few
times in such a small period of time - 3 times in one month. It has
already
been done twice due to computer being stuck in a loop when trying to
upgrade
it.

i have xp home edition pre installed and i was hoping for the last
time, to
restore it back to factory settings!! I just brought internet norton
security
2005 and it loaded correctly but i had to take it off for certain
reasons and
now it loads with many erros. i was hoping to start all over again!!!!

will any damage be done!! I have been told no that is what it is for
but
even in such a small period of time - any advice would be great

thanks

C'mon, OEM XP just restore the software the way it was set up when you
bought the machine - mainly to avoid customer service costs. Moreover, OEM
XP comes with a lot more crap/junk that one rarely, if ever, needs; that
junk just fills the HDD.
You install the drivers that are best - they might be beta, leaked, enhanced
and so on; it takes MS quite a while (months) to certify a driver update -
see, for ex, NVidia drivers.
Partitioning saves a lot of trouble - better file protection, easy defrag,
antiwhatnot drive scan (faster to scan a 15-20GB system drive than a 200GB
HDD) etc.
Michael

"Walter Clayton" wrote in message
...
...and?

What does partitioning have to do with solving the problem? Why does
selective driver updates solve the problem?

BTW: Are you aware that the ability to partition has nothing to do with
the install media and you must install those drivers that you must?

--
Walter Clayton
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.


"Phillips" wrote in message
...
You may partition your HDD as you wish; also, you have control over the
installation since drivers updates must be added anyway.
Michael
"Walter Clayton" wrote in message
...
Hmmmm.

And that's supposed to solve what problem how?

--
Walter Clayton
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.


"Phillips" wrote in message
...
Do yourself a favor and buy a retail version of XP Pro upgrade. Then
cgoogle XP for "XP clean install" or such.
Michael

"The Aussie Girl" wrote in
message ...
Hi everyone
to cut a VERY VERY VERY LONG story short here is my question

Is it dangerous to restore your computer back to factory settings a
few
times in such a small period of time - 3 times in one month. It has
already
been done twice due to computer being stuck in a loop when trying to
upgrade
it.

i have xp home edition pre installed and i was hoping for the last
time, to
restore it back to factory settings!! I just brought internet norton
security
2005 and it loaded correctly but i had to take it off for certain
reasons and
now it loads with many erros. i was hoping to start all over again!!!!

will any damage be done!! I have been told no that is what it is for
but
even in such a small period of time - any advice would be great

thanks

"Phillips" wrote in message
...
C'mon, OEM XP just restore the software the way it was set up when you
bought the machine - mainly to avoid customer service costs. Moreover, OEM
XP comes with a lot more crap/junk that one rarely, if ever, needs; that
junk just fills the HDD.

....and? Considering the cost of HD space, why is the presence on the drive
important of OEM fluff an issue? Or even revelant in this instance?

You install the drivers that are best - they might be beta, leaked,
enhanced and so on; it takes MS quite a while (months) to certify a driver
update - see, for ex, NVidia drivers.

That's a categorical statement that doesn't hold water.
I'll give you laptops for a prime example. Most of the drivers I'm running
are from XP SP1 HE.

As for beta, leaked, "enhanced", BTDTBTS and puked more than my share of
systems doing so. Unless there's an actual reason, drivers should never be
updated once the system is stable.

Partitioning saves a lot of trouble - better file protection, easy defrag,
antiwhatnot drive scan (faster to scan a 15-20GB system drive than a 200GB
HDD) etc.
Michael

I can argue both sides of that position. But still, what does that have to
do with the original question? What is partitioning going to do to solve a
hardware/application intermix issue?

--
Walter Clayton
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.

There are differences in the ways people use computers: some use them for
mundane tasks such as light word processing, email, Internet surfing and
thus are happy with the default OEM OS. Others need to aqueeze any bit of
performance from their machines for games, software testing, video
processing, exotic hardware etc. For the later, a customized XP Pro
installation is beneficial. To keep it short, there are quantifiable
benefits (speed, for ex) that justify (albeit subjectively to some extent)
installation of the latest software, drivers, firmware, tweaks, partitioning
strategies etc. Generally, enthusiast users build their own dedicated
(games, multimedia) machines and rarely use XP Home OEM's.

Michael

"Walter Clayton" wrote in message
...
"Phillips" wrote in message
...
C'mon, OEM XP just restore the software the way it was set up when you
bought the machine - mainly to avoid customer service costs. Moreover,
OEM XP comes with a lot more crap/junk that one rarely, if ever, needs;
that junk just fills the HDD.

...and? Considering the cost of HD space, why is the presence on the drive
important of OEM fluff an issue? Or even revelant in this instance?

You install the drivers that are best - they might be beta, leaked,
enhanced and so on; it takes MS quite a while (months) to certify a
driver update - see, for ex, NVidia drivers.

That's a categorical statement that doesn't hold water.
I'll give you laptops for a prime example. Most of the drivers I'm running
are from XP SP1 HE.

As for beta, leaked, "enhanced", BTDTBTS and puked more than my share of
systems doing so. Unless there's an actual reason, drivers should never be
updated once the system is stable.

Partitioning saves a lot of trouble - better file protection, easy
defrag, antiwhatnot drive scan (faster to scan a 15-20GB system drive
than a 200GB HDD) etc.
Michael

I can argue both sides of that position. But still, what does that have to
do with the original question? What is partitioning going to do to solve a
hardware/application intermix issue?

--
Walter Clayton
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.

"Phillips" wrote in message
...
There are differences in the ways people use computers: some use them for
mundane tasks such as light word processing, email, Internet surfing and
thus are happy with the default OEM OS. Others need to aqueeze any bit of
performance from their machines for games, software testing, video
processing, exotic hardware etc. For the later, a customized XP Pro
installation is beneficial.

Not really. It just complicates matters, in some instances immensely and
unnecessarily.

Besides that doesn't address the issue the OP is having with hardware and
application interaction issues. Must stablize the patform *before*
"tweaking" it to the point of unusablility.

To keep it short, there are quantifiable benefits (speed, for ex) that
justify (albeit subjectively to some extent) installation of the latest
software, drivers, firmware, tweaks, partitioning strategies etc.

Partitioning always negatively impacts performance. There are no exceptions.
This has to do with forcing increased actuator movement to span empty areas
that must be left between partitions which precludes any oppurtunistic data
placement as a result of defragging. Allowing the system to clump and defrag
the data according to usage patterns tends to avoid the issue of arbitrarily
forcing a whole lot of empty space between heavily accessed data which
generally results in large scale actuator movement. The only way to
micro-manage data without negatively impacting performance is to add
physical drives.
At best, with partioning, if properly managed, you take a hit in performance
up front and mitigate the effect of fragmentation over time, although with
NTFS even that's no longer the case. The rules for FAT simply do not apply
to NTFS. And that's something that some folks still haven't realized yet.
Attempting to tune NTFS HD structure based on the behavour of FAT is like
training for a marathon vs. training to sprint.

Be wary as well of categorially classifying all "performance" tweaks as
univerally acceptable on all platforms. "Tweaking" is robbing Peter to pay
Paul. If Peter can stand the loss, then there can be an overall benefit.
Problem is that it's not unusal for Peter to start getting grumpy if down
right cranky.

Generally, enthusiast users build their own dedicated (games, multimedia)
machines and rarely use XP Home OEM's.

That last statement is categorically false. ;-)
I know of a lot of people that will save the difference in cost between He
and Pro and put it in the hardware where it does more good. They also buy
off the shelf.

There is no performance difference between HE and Pro. The only difference
is enterprise level security and networking requirements. Actually, I can
make a case that HE is the prefered platform for those wanting to "tweak"
into oblivion. Pro has additional protocol and security overhead that
doesn't exist in HE, therefore shorter path lengths for some functions which
leads to better performance on HE. To flip that around, in no instance does
HE have a longer code path than Pro for any function. Nor is HE any less
"tweakable".

--
Walter Clayton
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.

It wasn't my intention to claim that partitioning increases overall system
performance; partitioning is a cheap solution to have the data available in
case that the OS has to be reinstalled. OEM versions wipe up the drive and
put the system in the original factory state. Everything is "wiped" off the
harddrive - albeit you can recover some of the bits/files. Of course, one
can use other backup solutions (optical media, external HDD etc) but at a
cost.

My original intended claim was that partitioning (possible only with the
retail OS) becomes useful in that the user can move some of the folders
originally installed on the boot drive - MyDocu, Email, Favorites blah blah
for one or more accounts - to other partitions; in this case, a clean
(re)installation of the retail OS does not wipe off those personal folders.
The drawbacks of partitioning can be alleviated by various tweaks - run OS
kernel in RAM, no swap file or swap file on RAM Drive, extravagant Solid
State Disks (SSDs) for Billionaires.

Tweaks are inherently necessary - when done right - since the OS comes with
default settings to fit the average hardware setups and thus lower support
costs. However, for most custom built machines, the defaults can (and must
be customized for a more efficient usage - one has to justify the trouble
of building the machine - of the hardware; such tweaks can be quantified
using performance testing programs - 3DMark, PCMark etc for the average
tweaker.

As you mentioned, the advantage of XP Pro over XP Home derives mainly from
better networking ( a must these days) and more administrative control over
safety policies; these features alone justify the price difference since
most machines are connected to a form of other of network. Of course,
partitioning comes again handy for file protection - you can hide a
partition, encrypt etc - at lower costs.

Michael


"Walter Clayton" wrote in message
...
"Phillips" wrote in message
...
There are differences in the ways people use computers: some use them for
......

In ,
Phillips typed:

It wasn't my intention to claim that partitioning increases
overall
system performance; partitioning is a cheap solution to have
the data
available in case that the OS has to be reinstalled. OEM
versions
wipe up the drive and put the system in the original factory
state.
Everything is "wiped" off the harddrive - albeit you can
recover some
of the bits/files. Of course, one can use other backup
solutions
(optical media, external HDD etc) but at a cost.


It's true that there is a cost to using what you call "other
backup solutions," but it's a necessary cost if you care about
your data.

If you are depending on having your data available in a second
partition, and you think that that removes the need for a backup,
you're kidding yourself. Most of the most common dangers can
affect everything on the physical drive, not just that on a
single partition. A hard drive crash, user error, nearby
lightning strike, virus attack, even theft of the computer, can
easily cause the simultaneous loss of everything on your drive.

Secure backup needs to be on removable media, and not kept in the
computer. For really secure backup (needed, for example, if the
life of your business depends on your data) you should have
multiple generations of backup, and at least one of those
generations should be stored off-site.


Partition any want you want to, but don't think that partitioning
is any kind of substitute for backup.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
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