dazmorg 0 Posted January 26, 2002 My computer has been by my side for over 13 months now with programs added, removed, reinstalled, crashes and complete cock ups on my behalf. The consequences are things no longer work, those that work don't work very well and it seems to be slow and sluggish. I can no longer uninstall any program using the uninstall features of the operating system or the program I want to uninstall. Some games now refuse to work, OFP STILL works thank god. I think its now time to reformatt the HD (40gb) and start the lengthy process of reinstalling averything. I run windows ME for my sins and the processor is a 800 Duron. I have 256MB PC 133 memory and I have NO money whatsoever to pay for upgrades etc. Can someone point me in the direction of simple instructions for a complete reformatt/install or provide them? Cheers in advance Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Placebo 29 Posted January 26, 2002 Personally I would just try a fresh install over the top of the current one (yes I know I'll prolly get shot down in flames for saying that) just from my own experiences it's a real pain getting everything all set back up again, if you do an install over the top of your previous one your games/apps/settings all remain intact and it "may" solve your sluggish puter probs, either way it'll only take an hour or so and if it doesn't work then you have the option of a complete format and fresh install, just my tuppence Moving to Troubleshooting Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ralphwiggum 6 Posted January 27, 2002 well...first, why don't u backup all the important data? Second, you gotta have Win CD ready if you are going to go for HD format. But, how about cleaning your HD? I only use 10out of 20 gigs, and my PC runs ok.(my specs are same as yours, but CPU for me is 750mhz, and I use 100hz RAM) most of the reason why resources get used up is having too much stuff on Desktop. If you have it more than 20, try cleaning it up. HardDrive should have at least 10-20% left for various uses. I have 50% so that might help. If you haven't played other games in last 2 months, get rid of it. You are not going to play it as much as you did b4. after you get 40-50% of HD cleaned up, used defrag to defrag your HD. It will take a shit load of time(consider a day for this). but afterwards, it'll be fine... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dazmorg 0 Posted January 27, 2002 Cheers mate but I defragg every fortnight, I delete crap temp files and stuff like that at the end of every day, Mt HD is 80% free, and I CAN'T uninstall any programs, nothing works except physically deleting the folders. But that doesn't delete the registry entries for those programs and I don't think thats the best or safest way to uninstall anything. I have the Boot up floppy and the WIN CD I think its just got to that stage where need to take things back to scratch again. Just need the idiots guide to how. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sahaqiel 0 Posted January 27, 2002 get rid of ur windows me and try 98se or xp instead...hehe Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dazmorg 0 Posted January 27, 2002 Thanks for that, you obviously haven't reached your teenage years yet. Anyone else assist? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aerotrek 0 Posted January 29, 2002 Hey Dazmorg The first thing you could try would be to use 'Scanreg'. Its located in the C:\Windows\Command directory. create a DOS boot disk with Scanreg copied onto the disk, boot from the disk. When the DOS prompt appears type 'scanreg -fix' (without quotes) this should fix any anomalies in the registry. You should then be able to uninstall the software you want. The next step if that doesn't work is to reinstall over the top of what you have, this will replace any missing or corrupt files it will also rebuild the registry. If that doesn't work you will have to reinstall from scratch. I would consider using a different OS other than ME, from my experience ME is very buggy. Hope this helps Andy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mister Frag 0 Posted January 29, 2002 dazmorg, before you do anything, check the type of Windows CD that you have -- some are for sale with a new computer, and others are for upgrades only. If you have the later, you will need to have one of the supported/required OSes on your system, or you won't be able to install! In other words, you might need MS-DOS 5.0 or later or Windows 95 to install a Windows 98 Upgrade CD. If you decide to reformat and know that your Windows CD is good to go, make a bootable floppy with FDISK and FORMAT on it, as well as the drivers for your CD-ROM (OEM-specific driver and MSCDEX). After ensuring that you can access the CD-ROM after booting from the floppy, run FDISK and remove all partitions. Create new ones in their place. After creating a new primary partition, reboot once, then format the partition using FORMAT /S. Next, run the Windows SETUP program. It would be best if your system and Windows CD can be booted from the CD-ROM drive, that really simplifies things. Not all systems and Windows CDs support this. If the CD supports it, it will launch straight into the SETUP program. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
beedlo 0 Posted January 29, 2002 To make a clean reinstall 1. Make a win98/winME bootdisk from the control panel's add/remove program icon. 2. Backup ONLY things that you don't feel confident be able to find it again on the net or in your collection of CDs/Disks. 3. Bootup from your floppy Disk (you may have to goto Bios and set the boot sequence, usually it is A/C/ZIP 4. Don't select CD-Rom support the first time you boot up. 5. Type FDisk in the prompt, delete all your partitions, ALL your partitions. YOu may have to delete your logitcal/extended drives first. 6. Restart computer, boot with CD-Rom enabled. 7. Type Format C: in the prompt 8. Type X: where X is your cdrom drive letter (you may have to play around abit here, usually E and up.. 9. type setup in the prompt, with your Win98/ME/XP/2000 CD in.. 10. The rest is easy, just follow instructions Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dazmorg 0 Posted January 29, 2002 Thanks, I'm building up the courage to do it. I'll let you know how I get on. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dazmorg 0 Posted February 1, 2002 Well I finaly did a format and fresh install of windows ME after an install over the top didn't work. I wouldn't reccommend it to anyone in a hurry it took an age to find all the drivers and you forget all those usefull little programs like WINZIP etc. I'm back up and running now and the difference in performance is fantastic. OFP runs better than ever and other games like Harry Potter (my daughters) finally work My only problem is that I copied the contacts in my address book to floppy but can't place them back into my address book, anyone have any clues? On a seperate note my wife has a website which is loaded onto the web and working correctly but it seems the index/home page is corrupted, my wife being a bit of a dipstick hasn't got a backup copy because she never took my advice seriously and because of the corruption can't get into it to edit it. HOW CAN I DOWNLOAD THE SITE BACK TO MY HARD DRIVE??? to allow us to edit it off line and save it eventually to CD ROM Any help on this would be appreciated Cheers for all the advice given Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
