|
Guide to a Clean Reinstallation of Windows
By Tikkler - August 24, 2000
So, your computer seems to crawl slower and slower as the days go by and you see your hard disk space go down from that spacious few gigabytes to a measly few kilobytes. What about when error messages and blue screens seem to come up every 5 minutes while you're trying to play that game of Quake3 at what seems to also run at about a third of what the frames per second rate you're used to seeing in the "old days"? If this sounds like you, or distantly sounds somewhat like what you're experiencing, then it's time to perform the infamous trick that'll fix just about all of your problems. That's right! It's time to perform the "format c:" command to clear all that junk up and reinstall Windows!
Let's assume your computer is like a room. When you first move into this room, it's completely empty and so you can place anything (well, almost anything) you want into this room--you can even run around this room if it's big enough. As you add more stuff into this room, obviously it becomes more cluttered and your ability to work and play in this room is hampered as you're always rearranging things to make room for a space to work. Obviously, your productivity is reduced and you're not as comfortable when using the room. So, what we basically do when we perform the "format" command is take out everything in the room and put what we only want or need back into the room; therefore, you can do anything you want in the room again. This is the same thing that happens to your computer. When you first get it, it's perfectly clean, but as you install more and more stuff into the computer, things get cluttered and the computer's ability to perform tasks is reduced; therefore, reducing performance.
Don't be fooled, however, as performing this task requires a lot of planning and a lot of time if you're doing this for the first time ever. Of course, as you get used to doing this more often, you'll find that you'll be able to clear things up and then get things back up and running in a matter of a few hours.
The process is entirely different for everyone out there as nobody has exactly the same software or personal data on their computer as anybody else; however, regardless of what you currently have on your computer, there are basically 3 steps to follow in this process:
- Backup
- Perform the Format
- Reinstall
Of course, like all things, it's easier to say than do.
In this guide, OnePC.NET takes you through some examples of performing this task properly and efficiently. We will guide you through the 3 steps mentioned above and stop at when you have Windows (98 and 2000 will be covered) installed and configured to your liking. This entire task will take approximately 1 or 2 days, depending on how much stuff you need to backup and how fast your computer is.
 On to: Backing up Data - Planning Stage
|
