Reinstalling Win XP SP3

[atferrari]

I need to reinstall Windows XP SP3 in this PC to repartition my HD and to eliminate anomalies which seem beyond repair.

Having found the restoring system utility disabled (wonder who/what did it), formating and reinstalling is the way to go.

Prior making my HD flat I will have all data, duly saved in my back up disk.

Since my intention is to end with a properly trimmed version (call it minimalist) with just the necessary functions for my needs I am asking about suggestions around this. How to eliminate the unnecessary?

Sorry for being imprecise. My knowledge is limited on all this. Many unconnected fragments here and there.

Concrete suggestions appreciated!

 

[cr0sh]

You want to "eliminate anomalies" and "trim out the bloat" - I can tell you how to do both in one fell swoop, but you likely won't like the answer...

 

[Reloadron]

cr0sh

You want to "eliminate anomalies" and "trim out the bloat" - I can tell you how to do both in one fell swoop, but you likely won't like the answer...

OK, after cr0sh suggest a clean Linux install we can visit XP.

Since my intention is to end with a properly trimmed version (call it minimalist) with just the necessary functions for my needs I am asking about suggestions around this. How to eliminate the unnecessary?

Unfortunately properly trimmed and minimalist may be well defined for you I have no clue what you actually mean. For example systems like Dell, Compaq, and a mountain of OEM systems from computer manufacturers come with a mountain of what we like to call crapware in addition to the Windows OS (Operating System) but you don't mention what you have? Maybe you could better define a "minimalist" install? There are tools out there to create an install disk adding or subtracting components but you really have to know what you are doing.

Another option is install what you have and then remove what you don't like. Once you have things as you like on the install then create a mirror image of your HDD and save it. That is another option.

Ron

 

[atferrari]

Tell me more, please

Hola Ron,

I expected somehow a reply like yours. My question tends to know where to look at to eliminate / stop any function I do not want.

A guy that "knows a lot" did a trimming, messing with the registers but after few months I started to have more and more problems and my PC became close to useless. No more.

After repartition / reinstalling I want to do something valid without compromising my data and sanity of Anita (my secretary) and myself.

What is the actual use of a mirror? To be of any use, has it to be updated? Is it like restoring the system?

Thanks for your time.

Me too I was born on February 7th. Good people the Aquarians. I go along with them quite well, specially with girls.

 

[Grossel]

Hi. You need to look at this:

When taking away any features (if you don't know exactly what you're doing), there is always a risk to alter the OS useless. Because of this, it is neccesary to maka a system backup.
I have being using PING (Partimage Is Not Ghost) a couple of years now. It have being successfull as the program is free (does need to register an email address before download) and also runs on Linux. That is, it runs on virtually all kind of hardware and is NOT dependent on a functionally os being preinstalled to use, like many other backup/imaging software for windows.

Well. Point is: Install windows from scratch. Install neccesary drivers. Use ping to take a system snapshot. You can always take a snapshot before the drivers is installed. That wil ensure a clean system if you need to replace drivers at a later time.

After that: install any neccesary programs and licenses (but not too many) and you can do a snpshot again.

When there come a time where your computer must surrender for the malware army, just boot up with the ping cd and restore from previous snapshot.

One more thing: Read the docs on the ping homepage carefully as it can be a little tricky to use. God luck.

 

[cr0sh]

OK, after cr0sh suggest a clean Linux install we can visit XP.

LOL - you know me too well, Ron!

On a different note, last Friday at my work (I'm a web developer at a small shop here in Phoenix) one of the owners (he's not a tech slouch by far; actually is a pretty cool guy and great coder) managed to blue-screen the Windows 7 PC in our conference room, simply by installing the free version of PGP for the desktop (we needed it for a project we're working on). Seriously, it went thru the install process, asked to reboot the machine, and after the reboot, blue screen. Went into safe mode, attempted to uninstall the software from safe mode, and safe mode tells us that some "uninstall service" was missing. Apparently my boss (the other owner - he's more into sales and running the business, but I've seen him pull some interesting stuff with getting Windows and other boxes back in shape - he's knows his hardware, but he's not a coder) spent that weekend trying anything and everything to clean that box up, no dice. He ended up doing a clean install of Windows 7, because the machine was needed immediately the following monday for a client meeting...

When you can b0rk a PC running Windows 7 by simply installing legit software on it (and that's all we've ever had on it - and its got full Norten and everything else, we're behind a firewall, yadada), that doesn't give me any faith in anything that Microsoft says or does. Not that I've ever had much faith in them for the longest time, especially seeing the vitriol and everything else (blatent anti-trust crap - if it hadn't been for the changeover of the guard in 2000, there might have been some measure of a penalty; so much for "government by the people") they threw against anything "not Windows" that attempted to take their market share.

The only thing "running" Microsoft in my house right now is my Color Computer 2 and 3, which run "Extended Color BASIC", which was licensed from Microsoft oh-so-long-ago; amazingly enough, it is fairly bug free, and doesn't crash the machine at a simple glance. Since it is in ROM, there isn't much I can do about it (though I have contemplated removing the ROM, reprogramming it with something else, then changing my floppy boot ROM to insta-boot into OS-9 from Microware - but I have a ton of programs and other software in BASIC and ML that need the ROM - oh well!)...

 

[Reloadron]

Hola Ron,

I expected somehow a reply like yours. My question tends to know where to look at to eliminate / stop any function I do not want.

A guy that "knows a lot" did a trimming, messing with the registers but after few months I started to have more and more problems and my PC became close to useless. No more.

After repartition / reinstalling I want to do something valid without compromising my data and sanity of Anita (my secretary) and myself.

What is the actual use of a mirror? To be of any use, has it to be updated? Is it like restoring the system?

Thanks for your time.

Me too I was born on February 7th. Good people the Aquarians. I go along with them quite well, specially with girls.

Yes, February 7th and in my case 1950. Damn, that was quite a few years ago.

Anyway, a few little explanations. You will frequently hear the term "mirror" as it applies to mirroring a drive for example. Another way to say it is to "image" a drive. You may want to think of these terms as taking a picture of a drive or drive partition. Hey, image, picture see the connection? Cloning is another popular term.

Read the post by Grossel carefully. He mentions some pretty good and free software for creating a disk image of your HDD following a nice fresh clean install of the operating system. The software used to image, clone or mirror a disk is a tool and there are no shortage of both free and paid tools out there like the Free Hard Disk and Partition Imaging and Backup Software found here. The link includes the software Grossel mentions.

Something to note is you will see statements like this with PING and other software tools:

This is a live ISO that you can burn onto a CD so that you can use it on any computer regardless of the operating system that is running.

What that is telling you is that when you download the file you get a large file called an ISO file. That file then needs to be burned to a CD or DVD to be of any use. Once burned to a disk then the disk is bootable media and you can boot the computer from the disk and use the utilities on it. Pretty good stuff but... You need to get familiar with it and understand it before really using it.

So what are we doing with this approach? First we do an install of Windows and once we install Windows and any needed drivers and other software we create an image of the HDD on a DVD. That image is your system how you created it less any junk and crapware you have uninstalled. Then you can tweak and peak and burn another CD or DVD. The only limitation is how much data you can burn to a DVD disk. Now you have a complete backup so if things go amuck you can easily restore your computer to exactly how you set it up on day one.

Another option is to place all of the content of a Windows install disk in a folder on a hard drive of another computer. Then using a tool like Nlite create a slipstream install disk for Windows. This method involves going into the folder and removing and adding components of your choosing. I won't really get into "slipstreaming" as unless someone is quite savy it can become a nightmare real quick. There are things (components) that can and can not be removed and it becomes easy to start creating install disk that won't run or function correctly even if they do install.

Last but not least, many will suggest using Linux as your operating system. Linux works and is a great operating system. However, much of this Linux really depends on what you use the computer for and if there are Linux applications out there that will do as you want them to do. Since you are working in a Windows environment I believe your secretary would really dislike you if you gave her a Linux box in the business world.

Be wary of those who will "help" you by removing Windows components to speed up or improve your computers performance. Bad things can happen.

Ron