Windows XP System Restore/Restart New

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neoxblu

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I have a custom built PC that one of my dads friends built for me, since he is so busy with work he is unable to do it for me.

I want to reinstall XP brand new and delete everything since I have a lot of junk. I am going to get Windows 7 soon but I just want a fresh start at the moment.

I just don't know what I have to do for the drivers and bios?

My motherboard is an ASUS P5E3 Deluxe WiFi

Also how can I do the restore/restart? I have my windows xp cd..
 
Solution
Reloading Windows from scratch is not too difficult. Finding all the drivers again can be a trauma.
You are smart, you are asking about drivers before you wipe your drive.

Get Driver Genius Professional and make 3 backups of your drivers using the different methods it will make them.
The program is actually a pay-program, but the driver backup works for free. It just won't hunt-down newer drivers for free.

It will make a "Zip" file of all drivers, it makes a self-expanding Zip file, or it will make an Auto-install backup that is very easy to use.

Make the backups, all 3 types, (just for the redundancy of it all), and burn to a CD or put on a flash-drive.

After that, just put your Windows CD in the drive, boot from it and...
Reloading Windows from scratch is not too difficult. Finding all the drivers again can be a trauma.
You are smart, you are asking about drivers before you wipe your drive.

Get Driver Genius Professional and make 3 backups of your drivers using the different methods it will make them.
The program is actually a pay-program, but the driver backup works for free. It just won't hunt-down newer drivers for free.

It will make a "Zip" file of all drivers, it makes a self-expanding Zip file, or it will make an Auto-install backup that is very easy to use.

Make the backups, all 3 types, (just for the redundancy of it all), and burn to a CD or put on a flash-drive.

After that, just put your Windows CD in the drive, boot from it and choose to install Windows, DO format the drive (Quick Format is Ok). Follow all instructions and after Windows is done, you can launch the Auto-installer backup you made earlier and all drivers will be plugged back in.

Driver-Genius Professional is here:


http://www.driver-soft.com/
 
Solution


Put it on whichever one you think will run the longest without failure. If on a 2TB drive, you may want to make a couple partitions, giving Windows about 100GB to occupy. If all one partition, it will take hours and hours to ever defrag. Whatever the size of the drive, give Windows enough room to exist along with whatever programs you will be installing.
 

neoxblu

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what do you mean give enough room for windows to exist? Also how do you add more partitions and what do you mean. Sorry if it sounds like idk what I'm doing.
 
Didn't we all learn to walk one step at a time?

If you have a drive that you have nothing of importance on, when you boot from Windows CD to install XP as a new install, there will be a screen that offers to allow you to delete a partition, and also to add partitions. Here you will determine the size of the XP partition that you desire. If you have only an 80GB drive, perhaps you should allocate all the drive to Windows (and programs you will install). If you have hundreds of gigabytes, Windows and the programs you will install probably won't fill the drive. A second partition can hold things like your video and music files, disk images and other things that have little to do with operating Windows or the programs you run. You would never give Windows only 6 or 8 GB on a multi-hundred GB drive, as you would soon run out of space to install/run programs. My rule of thumb, if drive is 100GB or less, a single partition, more drive space? make a second partition.

A second partition will appear as another drive in your computer. It is a logical thing, the drive gets divided up and drive letters are automatically assigned to the partitions you set up. These additional partitions must be formatted. The same screen will also format the partitions if you direct it to do so. The formatting can also be done later after Windows is installed, but the partition Windows will be installed on must be partitioned first before Windows can be installed in it.

More questions? ask away.

 

neoxblu

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Ok, I have 2 hardrives, one is 150GB and the other is 700GB, currently the OS is installed on the 150GB. I want both drives erased and clean.

1. My first question is when I do the clean install can I format (I believe that's what it's called) both drives? Or only one at a time? I dont get it.

2. I should add two paritions to my larger drive corrent? Currently I have drive C and D as hard drives, if i do 2 partitions for my 700GB drive will that mean I will have C, D and E as hard drives? I dont get that either =/

3. I plan on putting the os on my 150GB drive, above you said something about allocating all the drive to windows and software I will install and etc...

4. Does every component use a driver? do the HDD, RAM and CD Drive have drivers aswell, will the program you provided work? If it doesnt how can i find the drivers? Other than the components that came with the cds. Also my otherboard has the wifi option and i will be using it for wireless internet, how do I set it up so it will work?
 
Make your driver backups first. Copy them out of your computer to a Cd or flash drive.

#1: Yes. Setup will offer to format the drive you are going to install Windows on. It will also give you a choice of file system you want to use. Choose NTFS. If the drive is already NTFS (it will indicate current type), then you can do a "Quick Format."

Choose the 150GB drive to be the primary (first) hard drive in your system BIOS! Your BIOS may have a selection for hard drive boot priority, make that choice here. Your BIOS will also have a Boot Priority setting, which is different. Here you determine what storage device is actually going to boot the machine, CD ROM, Hard Drive (the one previously selected), Floppie drive etc.. Make the CD ROM the #1 boot device and the Hard Drive the #2 boot device.
The hard drive boot priority is VERY important! If you boot to the wrong drive, it will be catastrophic to format the other drive later as it will be the drive with the Windows boot loader on it.

The problem: Windows Setup isn't all that smart. You can have the larger drive be the physical boot drive, but have windows installed on the 150GB drive. It will actually work. Only a small loader will be added to the larger drive to send the computer over to the 150GB drive to finish loading Windows when the computer is turned on. It will work, but, here is trouble waiting to happen in this situation. You decide to format your larger drive one day.. fine, it formats. Next time you start Windows, it can't! Because the boot loader is gone, the format erased it! Bummer. So select the 150GB drive in the BIOS as the preferred #1 drive for a hard disk boot. I've gone on and on a bit about this because it is a sad trap to fall into.

After Windows is installed, Windows can format the other (large) drive.

#2: The larger drive does not need multiple partitions, if it is going to house video files, MP3's, DVD copies, downloaded program install files etc. It is going to be a giant storeroom of your data collection.

#3: Installing Windows and your programs on a 150GB drive is a good choice. It's quite large enough for a lot of programs and games.

#4: Nearly all hardware components need a driver. Most drivers are automatically installed by the Windows Setup program. Windows Setup cannot possibly hold every driver for every piece of hardware made out there. Video cards, sound cards, specialty cards all need drivers, and many of these cards were designed and built after Windows XP was published. Service Packs have hundreds of additional drivers, but still cannot ever hope to cover all possible devices. Device manufactures supply drivers to their hardware. These drivers are ones probably not built-into Windows.

The program I supplied a link to will back up every single hardware driver in the machine, even those drivers Windows had it's own driver for. One reason to make all three versions of the driver backup is to give you versatility when installing drivers.

If you make the "Zip File" backup, and expand it into a folder in this machine you are now using, or, on another machine that has a CD burner. You can make a driver CD for your computer. After Windows is installed, you can put that driver CD in your machine and go to the Control Panel, under "System" and Device manager to load drivers. You would right-click on each driver that has a yellow exclamation mark in front of it and select "Update driver." Windows will offer to go look up the driver on the internet, but you decline and specify you want it to look at a CD for the driver. Windows will scan the entire CD looking for the proper driver and when found, will install it from there. It doesn't get much easier than this.

If you make the "Self-Installing" version of the driver backup, after Windows is installed, you would launch the backup EXE file and it will take about 10 minutes, loading every single driver in where it belongs with no more intervention from you. Now it does not get any easier than this!

Next Question??
 

neoxblu

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So I did the clean instal today and everything went pretty well.

BTW the that software for the drivers backs up all the drivers but it only restores video card drivers and something else, it wants you to pay for it to restore everything.

Anyway thats not the problem, I got internet working and I did system update and it found 97 updates. It was almost done updating when I got blue screen and now every time I start my pc I get to the ASUS splash screen but I cannot enter windows the screen just stays blank.

Im really confused
 


If the Zip has all the drivers, you can still put in CD and manually "update driver" for any drivers needed. The auto-loader would have been nice. The program used to do that but alas, corporate greed strikes again.

What you just experienced with automatic updates is precisely the reason I only install updates manually. Automatically, you'll get updates to things you don't have, don't need and will never install/use anyway.

Now that you know how to install Windows, re-install it and this time, have the internet dis-connected. Once XP is up and running, install drivers from the expanded zip file you burned to CD. The nag screens to activate are going to give you 30 days to activate, so put up with it temporarily.

Turn off automatic updates. They can still be downloaded automatically, but installed manually later. Your computer is your friend, protect it. Take the time to look at each update and see if it is relevant to your needs, see if they concern something that you actually have installed. Make plenty of restore points along the way. Updates, even manually installed, should make restore points, but don't count on it. If installing an update crashes XP, you can restore point it out again. Remember which one(s) are dangerous and of course, don't install them again. Updates will protect your computer from a lot of evil out there, but you have to protect your system from bum updates.

To turn off automatic updates:

Start>control Panel>system>Automatic Updates>"Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them"


 
You can have better control yet if you use the Windows Update Catalog. Unlike Windows Update, which installs patches on the fly and then deletes the installation files, the Catalog lets you download updates and store them.

To use the Catalog:

Create a download folder on your system to store your XP Patches.
Click the Find Updates For Microsoft Windows Operating Systems link.
Select your operating system from the list and click Search.
Click Critical Updates And Service Packs.
Click the Add button for each of the updates you'd like to install.
Click Go To Download Basket.
Click Browse and select the download folder you created in step 1.
Click Download Now.
 

neoxblu

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How do I know which update caused xp to crash? Ill read the description of each update and determine is importance to my pc, but aren't all system updates important for the pc?
 



It's a bit like going to the doctor and getting a vaccine for every disease on earth.
If you see an update for an SQL server, you may not want it forced down your computer's throat.
Updates should check for the presence of the item they will patch, but occasionally will put in things for your future use to keep you from needing to go back over and over again for more.

MS cannot ever hope to know every program you have installed or will install, or what the effect their update may have on a few things. They do try to keep everything going smoothly, but this is a computer, subject to a lot of alterations that should be harmless. There is the occasional collision of program "results" that will cause a malfunction. You just loaded XP in all new so I am drowning in adrenalin thinking of what could have possible caused a new install to crash upon being updated.

It is time-consuming to install updates one at a time and it's sometimes difficult to determine if one is actually needed or not. If it is obvious by the description that you don't need it, leave it out, but if in doubt, install it. The restore points are a good thing to have handy.

Your computer needs to be stable with all drivers installed before going after updates. Most of them will affect systems in use for the better. If you update without your chipset driver, and later install it, a surprise may be in store for you.

The saying is, try, try again. It should also say, learn what made the re-try necessary.
 

neoxblu

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The zip file should contain all the driver back ups correct and not be limited to the video drivers and the other thing...?

Also is there a way for me to find out if I have all essential drivers installed? Can I do that with device manager and or cam driver genius identify the missing drivers?

I'll do another clean install when I get home.

Thanks for the great support.
 


Well I don't know how great it's been.

After installing Windows, go to the control panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager and any devices that still need a driver will have a yellow exclamation mark in front of them. If you made a CD of your former drivers, right-click on any that have the yellow exclamation mark and select "Update Driver" and send the wizard to the CD to get whats needed.
Of course I hope you expanded the zip file of the drivers and burned that to a CD. The hardware wizard will not read into zip files.

The Driver Genius program should have made a complete set of drivers. Apparently it won't make the auto-install version any more as you said. The reason for having the drivers on the CD is that the wizard is really good at reading an entire CD looking for the right driver, you don't need to "browse" to show where they are if on a CD.

Driver genius will go online and round up all the latest drivers for you if you purchase it. I don't advise buying it right now. I'm more than disappointed that they took out the auto-loader unless it is purchased.
I bought it about a year ago because it worked so well and it still does. I will be contacting them Monday morning to make them an offer they shouldn't refuse.

 

neoxblu

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Lol haha well I put all the driver back ups onto my flash drive, I can open them up on my laptop and transfer to a cd if it's really necessary. Can it read my USB flash drive or only CDs.

Btw your help has been great =)
 
Sorry, the wizard will only scan a CD. This is not a show-stopper though. You can "Browse" to any of the drivers on the flash drive, it just won't be automated, and it's up to you to know where you are browsing to. The one thing that saves the day is that Driver genius names each folder it made after the driver it contains.






 

neoxblu

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Alright I finished the clean install, i got the drivers in (no yellow exclamations in device manager), I got updates and everything is stable so far.

Thanks for all your help, hopefully it all goes well =)
 


Yay ! Now you just need to install all your [strike]games[/strike] I mean Programs for school and all.

You are now a qualified installer of "difficult" Windows installations.
:hello:
 
G

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Tigsounds,

Slightly off-topic but I wonder if you know this: If you've downloaded a hundred updates manually from the catalog, is there any way to install them in one go with a single reboot as the automatic updater does?

Thanks!



 
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