Diskwipe, then XP reinstall

This question has probably been asked before, but I can't figure out how to
search for it. Apologies. If you can point me to a thread I will be happy
to go there.

I have an old Dell PC,( vintage 2003), with XP Home Edition. It has been
updated regularly, so the XP version is current. But the machine is so
burdened with junk software that it can barely crawl anymore. I need to
wipe the disk and re-install XP.

I have the original SP-1 reinstallation disk that was provided by Dell with
the purchase.

My question: What is the best way to bring the re-install up to the current
release version?

Thank you very much, in advance.

http://www.altavista.com/web/results...ll&kgs=1&kls=0

"David" wrote:

This question has probably been asked before, but I can't figure out how to
search for it. Apologies. If you can point me to a thread I will be happy
to go there.

I have an old Dell PC,( vintage 2003), with XP Home Edition. It has been
updated regularly, so the XP version is current. But the machine is so
burdened with junk software that it can barely crawl anymore. I need to
wipe the disk and re-install XP.

I have the original SP-1 reinstallation disk that was provided by Dell with
the purchase.

My question: What is the best way to bring the re-install up to the current
release version?

Thank you very much, in advance.
.

Short answer (JMO) is that after you wipe the disk and install SP1, install
the SP3 update. That will bring you a good ways up to date, but if you want
more updates, you can go to the MS website for more.

David wrote:
This question has probably been asked before, but I can't figure out how
to
search for it. Apologies. If you can point me to a thread I will be
happy
to go there.

I have an old Dell PC,( vintage 2003), with XP Home Edition. It has been
updated regularly, so the XP version is current. But the machine is so
burdened with junk software that it can barely crawl anymore. I need to
wipe the disk and re-install XP.

I have the original SP-1 reinstallation disk that was provided by Dell
with
the purchase.

My question: What is the best way to bring the re-install up to the
current
release version?

Thank you very much, in advance.

David wrote:
This question has probably been asked before, but I can't figure out
how to search for it. Apologies. If you can point me to a thread I
will be happy to go there.

I have an old Dell PC,( vintage 2003), with XP Home Edition. It has
been updated regularly, so the XP version is current. But the
machine is so burdened with junk software that it can barely crawl
anymore. I need to wipe the disk and re-install XP.

No you don't.

On May 30, 12:41*am, David wrote:
This question has probably been asked before, but I can't figure out how to
search for it. *Apologies. *If you can point me to a thread I will be happy
to go there.

I have an old Dell PC,( vintage 2003), with *XP Home Edition. *It has been
updated regularly, so the XP version is current. *But the machine is so
burdened with junk software that it can barely crawl anymore. *I need to
wipe the disk and re-install XP.

I have the original SP-1 reinstallation disk that was provided by Dell with
the purchase.

My question: What is the best way to bring the re-install up to the current
release version?

Thank you very much, in advance.

Why don't you just fix up what you have?

Guesstimate the time it takes you to create a new XP slipstreamed CD
(and hope it works) or use your SP1 CD (is it a Dell CD or a genuine
Microsoft CD?), backup all your personal data, reformat your drive,
reinstall XP and all your various chipset/motherboard drivers you
acquired since you first got your system, get back on the Internet to
update your Service Pack(s) and then download and install all the
Critical Updates from MS, locate, reinstall and configure all your
application software from scratch and then update all them and finally
restore any personal data you backed up before you started. Then
spend a day or two or three adjusting and tweaking to get things back
to normal.

Guesstimate about 1 hour to analyze and optimize current your system
performance and configuration (depending on what is going on).

Which is more appealing?

I have never reinstalled XP on this old machine in 6+ years and it
still runs great in spite of my continual abuse and burdening.

David wrote:
This question has probably been asked before, but I can't figure out
how to search for it. Apologies. If you can point me to a thread I
will be happy to go there.

I have an old Dell PC,( vintage 2003), with XP Home Edition. It has
been updated regularly, so the XP version is current. But the
machine is so burdened with junk software that it can barely crawl
anymore. I need to wipe the disk and re-install XP.

I have the original SP-1 reinstallation disk that was provided by
Dell with the purchase.

My question: What is the best way to bring the re-install up to the
current release version?

Thank you very much, in advance.

HeyBub and Jose are probably correct. That is, unless your PC is
compromised beyond belief, reinstalling XP is most likely not necessary.
It is better to identify the problem and solve it. Otherwise, it will
most likely return.

If you are certain there is no malware, skip ahead to steps 4 and 5 and
let us know your Commit Charge figures and which hard drive access mode
you see (i.e., DMA or PIO).

In the event that you must perform a Clean Install, there is an SP3
installation file you may download from Microsoft. You should download
and save it to an external hard drive now. Or you can create a CD that
contains SP3. You have two choices:

http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/d...displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

You should definitely look at and print these two pages:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://groups.google.com/group/micro...66ae41add7dd2b

Here are the usual causes of sluggishness:

1. Malicious software (malware). You need to rule this out first! This
page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...iruses_Malware

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware programs
available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, and Avira).

3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge. (Then again, many programs
that run in the background have trivial consequences.)

To determine every program and process you are currently running, use
the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Processes tab. You should
be able to sort by CPU usage or Memory usage to get a good ideas which
ones are the resource/memory hogs. You should write down the names of
all the processes for future detective work (or take a snapshot and
print it out).

Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how to
configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup...p#THE_PROGRAMS
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Taskl...s/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to
the startup list anyway!

If you do wish to use msconfig, it may be accessed this way:

Start | Run | type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) | Enter (or
OK)

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File Monitor
for Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/i...while-copying/

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduc...duck/udma_fix/

Thank you for your constructive response, "HeyBub"



On Sun, 30 May 2010 07:42:08 -0500, "HeyBub" wrote:

David wrote:
This question has probably been asked before, but I can't figure out
how to search for it. Apologies. If you can point me to a thread I
will be happy to go there.

I have an old Dell PC,( vintage 2003), with XP Home Edition. It has
been updated regularly, so the XP version is current. But the
machine is so burdened with junk software that it can barely crawl
anymore. I need to wipe the disk and re-install XP.

No you don't.

On Sun, 30 May 2010 06:09:35 -0700 (PDT), Jose wrote:

Thank you, Jose. Your response IS constructive. And appealing. The
problem is that I am just not smart enough to know what is necessary to
analyze and optimize my current system performance and configuration. I
wish I was. As only one example, there are some 50-75 programs in my Start
Up file that most of which I have no idea what they are doing, and whether
it would be safe for me to disenable them. That's only one example. For
me to educate myself on all that is necessary to know, I fear, would take
much more time than to just wipe the disk and start over. (But this I am
expecting will be bad enough already, as you say.)

Why don't you just fix up what you have?

Guesstimate the time it takes you to create a new XP slipstreamed CD
(and hope it works) or use your SP1 CD (is it a Dell CD or a genuine
Microsoft CD?), backup all your personal data, reformat your drive,
reinstall XP and all your various chipset/motherboard drivers you
acquired since you first got your system, get back on the Internet to
update your Service Pack(s) and then download and install all the
Critical Updates from MS, locate, reinstall and configure all your
application software from scratch and then update all them and finally
restore any personal data you backed up before you started. Then
spend a day or two or three adjusting and tweaking to get things back
to normal.

Guesstimate about 1 hour to analyze and optimize current your system
performance and configuration (depending on what is going on).

Which is more appealing?

I have never reinstalled XP on this old machine in 6+ years and it
still runs great in spite of my continual abuse and burdening.

David wrote:
This question has probably been asked before, but I can't figure out how to
search for it. Apologies. If you can point me to a thread I will be happy
to go there.

I have an old Dell PC,( vintage 2003), with XP Home Edition. It has been
updated regularly, so the XP version is current. But the machine is so
burdened with junk software that it can barely crawl anymore. I need to
wipe the disk and re-install XP.

I have the original SP-1 reinstallation disk that was provided by Dell with
the purchase.

My question: What is the best way to bring the re-install up to the current
release version?

Thank you very much, in advance.


All legitimate WinXP installation CDs are bootable and have the
capability of deleting, creating, and formatting partitions.

Simply boot from the WinXP installation CD. You'll be offered the
opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the
installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the order of boot
devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.)

HOW TO Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...B;en-us;316941

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

Daave wrote:
Here are the usual causes of sluggishness:

1. Malicious software (malware). You need to rule this out first! This
page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...iruses_Malware

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive
each time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware
programs available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast,
and Avira).
3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge. (Then again, many
programs that run in the background have trivial consequences.)

To determine every program and process you are currently running, use
the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Processes tab. You
should be able to sort by CPU usage or Memory usage to get a good
ideas which ones are the resource/memory hogs. You should write down
the names of all the processes for future detective work (or take a
snapshot and print it out).

Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how
to configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup...p#THE_PROGRAMS
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Taskl...s/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs
to not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to
the startup list anyway!

If you do wish to use msconfig, it may be accessed this way:

Start | Run | type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) | Enter
(or OK)

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the
pagefile. A quick way to determine if this is happening is to open
Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note
the three values under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand
corner: Total, Limit, and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory
you used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value
of Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File
Monitor for Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/i...while-copying/

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduc...duck/udma_fix/

Hmmm, that second link is dead. Here's another useful link:

http://winhlp.com/node/10

On May 30, 10:15*am, David wrote:
On Sun, 30 May 2010 06:09:35 -0700 (PDT), Jose wrote:

Thank you, Jose. *Your response IS constructive. *And appealing. *The
problem is that I am just not smart enough to know what is necessary to
analyze and optimize my current system performance and configuration. *I
wish I was. As only one example, there are some 50-75 programs in my Start
Up file that most of which I have no idea what they are doing, and whether
it would be safe for me to disenable them. *That's only one example. *For
me to educate myself on all that is necessary to know, I fear, would take
much more time than to just wipe the disk and start over. *(But this I am
expecting will be bad enough already, as you say.)





Why don't you just fix up what you have?

Guesstimate the time it takes you to create a new XP slipstreamed CD
(and hope it works) or use your SP1 CD (is it a Dell CD or a genuine
Microsoft CD?), backup all your personal data, reformat your drive,
reinstall XP and all your various chipset/motherboard drivers you
acquired since you first got your system, get back on the Internet to
update your Service Pack(s) and then download and install all the
Critical Updates from MS, locate, reinstall and configure all your
application software from scratch and then update all them and finally
restore any personal data you backed up before you started. *Then
spend a day or two or three adjusting and tweaking to get things back
to normal.

Guesstimate about 1 hour to analyze and optimize current your system
performance and configuration (depending on what is going on).

Which is more appealing?

I have never reinstalled XP on this old machine in 6+ years and it
still runs great in spite of my continual abuse and burdening.

This is not a new issue! It is so un-new, I can just copy/paste
guidance to get you started. If some part of it not clear in any way,
let me know so I can change my instructions.


If you want to fix it yourself, do this:

Click Start, Run and in the box enter:

msinfo32

Click OK, and when the System Summary info appears, click Edit, Select
All, Copy and then paste back here.

There would be some personal information (like System Name and User
Name) or whatever appears to be only your business that you can delete
from the paste.

Download and install CCleaner from he

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Launch it and save the Startup information to a text file. Click
Tools, Startup, Save to text file... and save the startup information
to your desktop (or someplace you can find it) open the file with a
text editor, select all and paste the contents back here for analysis.

Uninstall CCleaner later if you don't like it (most people seem to
like it for it's other features).

Get the latest CCleaner he

http://www.ccleaner.com/

When you are done, we will be able to see all your startup items and
help you decide what to keep. I have zero Startup items and maybe you
can too.

Right click the Taskbar, choose Task Manager and select the Processes
tab.

Click View, Select Columns, check the box that says: Virtual Memory
Size. Expand the width of the Task Manager by dragging the corners so
you can see all the columns and processes in one window if possible.

Double click a column heading in TM to sort by the column. For
example, sort Task Manager by the CPU or Virtual Memory size column.

Take a screenshot of what you see in Task Manager (see below for
instructions).

To create and email/post/print a screenshot:

Press the Print Scrn button to copy your entire screen to the Windows
clipboard.

Press Alt Print Scrn to copy just the active window to the Windows
clipboard.

Open MS Paint:

Start, Programs, Accessories, Paint

When Paint opens, press CTRL-V to paste the clipboard, save the new
Paint file to your desktop or someplace you can remember. JPG files
take up less hard
disk space than BMP files and are just as readable.

Make as many screenshots as you need. Practice makes perfect. Be
careful your screenshot does not contain any personal information.
Practice viewing your images before you upload them to be sure they
are okay.

Some sites will let you attach a file directly to your post. If the
site has some kind of attachment/upload function it is usually easiest
just to use it.

If there is no such function in your message board to upload files,
then use a free third party image hosting WWW site.

Create a free account on some free picture hosting web site. You can
always remove your account later if you want. Here are some free
image hosting sites:

http://www.imageshack.us/
http://photobucket.com/

Using your free account, upload your screenshot(s) (the JPG or BMP
files) to the site and it will return to you a URL web address (a
Direct Link) for your new image(s) which you can paste the Direct Link
in a message post, email, etc.

Post that Direct Link web address back here in your response and we
can click on the link address and see your screenshot. Post as many
as you need - the sites are free.

When you are done, what you post for others to use should look
something like this:

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/6530/taskmanagerv.jpg

While you are waiting for feedback on your stuff, do this:

Download, install, update and do a full scan with these free malware
detection programs:

Malwarebytes (MBAM): http://malwarebytes.org/
SUPERAntiSpywa (SAS): http://www.superantispyware.com/

They can be uninstalled later if desired.

David wrote:
Thank you for your constructive response, "HeyBub"


You're welcome.

I just want to leave the world a better place than I found it.

David wrote:
Thank you for your constructive response, "HeyBub"

"HeyBub" wrote in message
...
No you don't.


You're welcome.

I just want to leave the world a better place than I found it.

Go to dictionary.com and look up constructive and sarcasm.

You guys have completely overwhelmed me! Thank you so much for your
responses! As always, this NG is so knowledgeable and helpful!

My original intent, for lack of time, was to take the box in to the shop
and have them do the diskwipe, (while saving the drivers, etc.), and then
do the XP reinstall. Afterwards I would reinstall the few applications
myself.

You all have convinced me that I should first try to clean things up by
myself. But I still have a serious time problem, and you have just given
me a month's worth of spare-time homework. Please forgive me if I do not
respond immediately, because I intend to first fully digest everything that
you have provided so that I don't do something stupid. You folks are far
more familiar with all of this than I am.

I will respond as soon as I can. For now, thank you again!

David schreef:
Thank you for your constructive response, "HeyBub"


David,

Heybub is wellknown in here for his ****poor advice.
You'll find better responses from others. ;-)

Regards,
Erwin




On Sun, 30 May 2010 07:42:08 -0500, "HeyBub" wrote:

David wrote:
This question has probably been asked before, but I can't figure out
how to search for it. Apologies. If you can point me to a thread I
will be happy to go there.

I have an old Dell PC,( vintage 2003), with XP Home Edition. It has
been updated regularly, so the XP version is current. But the
machine is so burdened with junk software that it can barely crawl
anymore. I need to wipe the disk and re-install XP.
No you don't.





--
"There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to
make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the
other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious
deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult."
-- C.A.R. Hoare