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  • #1

    formatting- HELP!!!!

    quick ?

    I have had my computer for about 11 months, and had used probally around 15 gigs... I have a 10 gig hard drive, and have 1 gig available.
    lately, i have noticed that the system sometimes stops responding. until I click on a field.... It became real evident when accessing my display properties.... i was thinking it was time to reformat... I have never done so, since it came OEM....


    my question is: When would one know its time to reformat?
    a digital display of evolution
    (G200 with aid of Diamond Monster 3D II-SLI)
    Tags: None
  • #2
    I feel it is time to reformat you HD anytime you want to do a clean install of your operating system owing to repeated fault warnings or inability to boot to the OS (and it is clear it is an OS software issue and not hardware). From you description, I don't think this is the case. I am guessing you need to clean up your HD, at the very least, or maybe invest in additional storage space (new HD). You can probably gain performance by the clean-up of temporary files, defragmenting, setting a permanent swap file, etc.

    Comment

    • #3
      I see. well I really dont want to purchase a new hard drive, becuase mine works fairly well.... I guess my main question would be more or less,


      "CAN YOU TELL IF YOU NEED TO FORMAT?"

      My Cpu cleanses temp files on a regular basis, and I never have problems, I have just notice recently, that sometimes, It halts for a moment, then waits for me to do something.... I also noticed that with some Browsers that the backspace key is hella slow.... like you cant hold it down..... these things have just became evident.... I havent reformated since I bought the CPU, and was wondering if there is just alot of useless shit sitting in the registry or if my computer was just wanting a clean install..... I have heard from alot of my friends, that if your system is fuct- reboot. If its still fuct- reformat.... this is their bible guide... hmmm...

      So would I or should I be able to tell if I need new formatting? If so- what are some of the things one would experience?

      Thanks in advance....

      released TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      a digital display of evolution
      (G200 with aid of Diamond Monster 3D II-SLI)

      Comment

      • #4
        The pausing you are experiencing sounds a lot like your hard drive is going to sleep. Goto your power management settings in the control panel and see if the hard drive is set to suspend after a certain amount of time, if so, just disable it.

        Rags

        Comment

        • #5
          rags,


          I will try that- I dont think thats it, because it just started doing it, but I will check on that....

          any other suggestions on when you think u would need to format?
          a digital display of evolution
          (G200 with aid of Diamond Monster 3D II-SLI)

          Comment

          • #6
            I format every 2 months, but that's just me. Plus I have 2 hard drives, so I can just back everything up to my D: drive and wipe the big one clean. It's the best way to clean out a clogged registry. And it's also the best way to clean up constant updating of drivers. You can start clean with the latest drivers for everything without re-installing over top of old ones. It depends on how comfortable YOU are wiping off your hard drive.

            ------------------
            The Rock
            "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: His eyes are closed."
            -- Albert Einstein


            [This message has been edited by The Rock (edited 02 November 1999).]
            Bart

            Comment

            • #7
              so i can just place the cd in the drive, reinstall windows (without formatting) and that may help?


              hmm?


              I dont understand?


              RATM is out today!!!!!!
              a digital display of evolution
              (G200 with aid of Diamond Monster 3D II-SLI)

              Comment

              • #8
                Just re-installing windows by itself may help, but it won't clean up the mess. :-) If your comfortable with this, make a Win98 startup disk. Test the disk by booting with it and make sure you have access to your CD-ROM. If you have cd-rom access, and you have all your crap backed up (bookmarks, etc), just FORMAT C: and afterwards, go to the Win98 CD and run SETUP. But make sure you have all your drivers for video / sound / modem / etc BEFORE you even consider this. This process is NOT for someone who hasn't really done it before though. You can really get screwed up if you dont know what your doing.

                ------------------
                The Rock
                "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: His eyes are closed."
                -- Albert Einstein
                Bart

                Comment

                • #9
                  digitalwarfare, in another posting i found this the titleof the posting was shopvac and only had a link so it probibly got overlooked by most here i was board and followed the link and found this information (it workes!!)


                  This method is virtually foolproof for cleaning the registry, without the dreaded crashes associated with editing it.
                  Follow the instructions exactly! Beware, this may take some hours to complete, depending on fragmentation of your HD, size of your vcache, size of HD, number of programs you have.Shut down everything in the taskbar.
                  Do a thorough scandisk. Do a thorough defrag Copy SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT to your root C: drive. (they're in the c:\windows directory) START > RUN > REGEDIT.EXE Select REGISTRY > EXPORT REGISTRY At the flashing cursor, type: C:\TEMP.REG and hit Enter.
                  START > SHUTDOWN > RESTART in DOS MODE
                  At the C:\Windows prompt, type: REGEDIT /C C:\TEMP.REG
                  Wait several hours. When it completes, type EXIT to return to windows. Remember, this could take several hours to complete. Even if it seems to hang, leave it and walk away, it will work. It seems to hang around 20%, and again at about 80%, this is normal, and it will continue! Providing your system does not overheat, and crash, it will work. When it's done, compare the size of your old user.dat and system.dat files (in root C to the new ones in the C:\windows dir. Remember that this is pure text, and a 2k difference is a lot of data. If everything is working fine, delete user.dat, system.dat, and temp.reg from the root c dir.

                  Cheers, and good luck.
                  p.s. There is no software anywhere that will clean out the registry of invalid references like this method, and this is free!

                  ------------------
                  Who needs a life?, I have internet!
                  Cheers, Jim http://members.cnx.net/reboot

                  this was the posting i found at the link i followed. i have a new k7 system on the way and i want to try and get it all together with out reformating my windows partition. after doing this my system.dat srunk 400k and user.dat by about 100k. it took about 2.5 hours for it to finish. i normaly use norton utilitys to keep my reg in shape and i had just finished checking all that with it before doing this so it missed alot of junk. from what i under stand this searches your hard drive against reg entrys and any thing it cant find or find's missing (it can make your reg fioles bigger if you have missing classes and key becuase a install failed.)it deletes and or repairs the entrys.

                  look in this fourm for the shopvac posting and follow the link. lots of info thire from people eho have done this. it can take 13hours to compleete if your reg is really messed up.

                  ------------------
                  EVIL IS GOOD. EVIL IS LIVE SPELLED BACKWARD AND WE ALL WANT TO LIVE RIGHT ?
                  INTEL EVIL INSIDE, INTEL SPYCHIP INSIDE
                  INTEL AND MICROSOFT HAND IN HAND AS THEY SCREEEW YOU OUT OF YOUR HARD EARNED DOSH.
                  MICROSOFT THE OTHER EVIL EMPIRE.

                  msi 6167 mobo k7 500 wk41 now at 650. 256 meg ram ,addtronics case w 250watt sp power supply, matrox g400, maxtor diammax 2500+ 10gig hd,10x aopen slot dvd, 3com 10/100 nic, sb live xgamer sound card, efecent networks dsl modem, dlink 701i dsl router/firewall, lots of controlers (joystick throttle rudder raceing wheel), 19in ctx monitor, logitech mouseman wheel usb, and klipsch promedia v2-400 speakers. win98 oem and win2k pro dual boot.

                  noel
                  it's times like this that make me think of my fathers last words....

                  Don't son that gun is loaded.

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Here's the original thread.
                    Thanks for the repost!
                    http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000007.html

                    ------------------
                    Who needs a life, I have Internet!
                    http://members.cnx.net/reboot
                    Who needs a life, I have Internet!
                    http://members.cnx.net/reboot

                    Comment

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