POHPOH is not only correct here is what I do I DO LOW LEVEL format II and I happen to know my shit so back off you non-formaters oh and CM69 I am disappointed with your comp knowledge you are younger you should be teaching us kids now a days are lazy
I am a computer technician and I suggest you just reformat your computer. It's not very difficult and it will fix your problems. Just back up the important stuff on some type of external media and pop in the windows cd.
Reformat annually at the very least. Reinstall everything. Back up files you want to keep. Not that hard, reformat, reinstall OS, then reinstall software as the need for it comes up. That way you don't have to do one big marathon reinstall. Microsoft used to recommend an annual format and reinstallation in the win 98 days, don't know if they still do but it works.
Wouldn't that just reinstall his old problems? Acronis TrueImage et al will restore the hard drive sector by sector - the good as well as the bad. If your system is really hosed, just reformat NTFS, reinstall XP then your apps. Only bring back data files as needed, not programs and registry keys. Reinstall those from scratch.
Full Format Only, do not waste your time with this. Do not use Zone Alarms or any other free Crapware. After you format the drive: Unplug the Internet, then 1. Reinstall the system. 2. Ghost-it on DVD. 3. Install full retail Spy Sweeper + latest Norton Internet Security. 4. Connect to the Net, Update Windows and the two programs. 5. Ghost-it again. 6. Install the rest of your crap. 7. Ghost- it again and keep creating new DVD images every 3 months. When in trouble, just fire up the Ghost and overwrite it with one of the DVD images. Trouble free operation guaranteed.
Techanalysis ... the key is to keep old versions of the image. My favourite is the first one because there is no extra crap, no changes, nothing to slow things down. Then you just update with any new software + backup data. 20 mins for the basics and 10 mins to tidy up (if you're fast )
Kiwi - Gotcha. Nice idea, to have a freshly-installed, updated and customized SP2 image ready to go. That alone saves 2+ hours.
you guys have summed it up well... acronis true image windows xp sp2 home reformat i like avg free anti-virus and then you are ready to FLY.