Computer Question (JONG)

[Pillars]

I've had my computer for about two years and it's always been great for what I need. The only problem is, lately little things are going wrong. For example i've tried downloading a few programs and installing them and it always says the process was interrupted.

Besides the fact that little things are screwing up, I also feel like my computer is getting bogged down so i'd like to start fresh. I have the necessary windows CDs etc, so how would I go about doing this? I don't want to erase everything and start with a completely blank hard drive because I'm not sure if I still have all the CDs with the drivers for my monitor, CD burner, etc. So I guess my question is, what's the easiest way I can start fresh without having to reformat my drive?

[milkman]

1) Delete any programs you don't want/use
2) Go to www.download.com and try downloading adaware or spybot. Delete anything these programs find. I know you said you can't download anything, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway...
3) Go to Start, Run and type msconfig. On the General tab select Selective Startup and uncheck Load Starup group Items. Reboot and try downloading again. You could just have a lot of junk in startup that may be affecting your performance.
4) Reload Windows. Don't worry about drivers. Windows will have enough drivers to get you up and running and you can download the rest later. Also, your burner won't need a specific driver and your monitor will run with a generic driver until you download the correct one.

[Ripzalot]

you didnt say what operating system. but no matter....

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/


so easy even my mother could do it. and did.

[Pillars]

For reloading windows, do I need to do anything with the windows already on my computer or just put the CD in and choose Install Windows?

[bagtagley]

IMO, a regen is just a temporary solution. There's nothing quite as satisfying as formatting the hard drive and starting fresh.

With the exception of some serious software (Office, Photoshop, etc) most stuff can be found online, and cracks are just as easy to find. Consolidate all your data and burn it to disk. Then go through and determine what software you use and whether you have it/can get it. Run the windows setup and tell it to format the drive. This is a time consuming option, but I think it's worth it.

[G]

Originally posted by bagtagley

With the exception of some serious software (Office, Photoshop, etc) most stuff can be found online, and cracks are just as easy to find.

speaking of software cracks....

I'm a jong at stealing software, but it seems like most cracks come as an exe file. Is this necessary? isn't it just a series of numbers needed to release a program?

if an .exe crack is the only way, can I be confident in running it after it's been through the antivirus checker?

thx

[Sublime]

exe or zip cracks are the most common. It's normally just a little box that generates a serial number for you. I would highly recommend running them through an up to date anti-virus software, most of the viruses(sp) i've gotten have been through cracks.

Stay away from RAR files they are just a pain in the ass.

[G]

Why does it have to be an exe? why can't they just publish the serial number?

Can I dig out the serial number with a hex editor or something like that, without running the exe?

[Pillars]

Welp, I'm happy to say that I did the whole reformat thing and I'm now back online. My question now is, if you were in my situation what would you download when you got back online?

So far I've downloaded Symantec AntiVirus, Mozilla FireFox, Ad Aware, SpyBot, WinAmp, Java platform, and a few other things. Just making sure i'm not missing anything important.

[hopped]

Throw out Winamp and get iTunes. No comparison.

Also, download LimeWire Free, and through it download LimeWire Pro for all your music thefting needs. Mozilla Thunderbird if you do a lot of e-mailing. AIM if you're into that sort of thing, DON'T download RealPlayer, what a horrible program. There aren't that many .ram files out there worth watching.

With a 10GB hard drive containing 3GB of music, 4GB of pictures, and 2 or 3 big programs(Photoshop 7, Office 2000, a content rich video game), I've become a Zen master of computer minimalism.

[The Jackamo]

i'm gonna become a master of hoarding - got a 120gig WD caviar se yesterday for $50. partitioned it down the middle (cause i had 2 extra HDs previously so i didn't want to mess up all the shortcuts and whatnot) and now i have enough storage space to last me through the apocalypse

[Mountain Junkie]

Originally posted by The Jackamo
now i have enough storage space to last me through the apocalypse

Which, unfortunately, is not that far away now that Microsoft is set to release a new OS.

How is Firefox? Didn't know that Mozilla came out with a new browser. Their first effort, IMHO, sucked ass. Seemed like Opera DID what Mozilla wanted to do.

[The Jackamo]

the few survivors will still be using xp... not all will be lost.

new os? are you sure you're not thinking of SP2?

[hopped]

Firefox is like diet Mozilla- No integrated mail client, etc. Taked about 15MB less of system memory to run on my machine(5 yr old 350mHz box running W2K with 128MB RAM)

[fez]

Originally posted by Geoff
Why does it have to be an exe? why can't they just publish the serial number?

Can I dig out the serial number with a hex editor or something like that, without running the exe?

these programs do a few different things. some patch/update registry keys to make trial software think it will never expire, some patch the actual program to make it think it has recieved a valid key. the problem with just handing out keys is that more and more software is contacting the mothership to make sure the key is actually valid. for instance, with windows, if you look at the actual registration number of your win xp os, it is not the same as the cd key you get. windows hashes information from the cd key with signatures from hardware on your compouter and uses this information to validate your computer. Thats why if you replace your hard drive or make certain changes in your computer you have to re-register windows. So if crackers are just handing out keys, someone will use it, then someone else will try and use it, then the key will be blacklisted and neither person will be able to use it.

instead, crackers figure out the algorithm used to generate a key for a program, write a little program to generate the key following this algorithm, and distribute that. with the huge amount of keys that can be valid for a given piece of software it is unlikely you will generate very many that wont work.

scanning any program you download and intend to install on your system for viruses is always a good idea, but is critical when using cracked programs.

there is a chance of hosing your system using cracked software. if this is unacceptable for you, BUY THE DAMN LICENSE. Or look for an open source or free ware equivelent. OpenOffice is a damn good office suite. Linux actually is a viable operating system for the slightly above average user. There are good free or opensource antivirus and image processing and firewall programs out there. Check out sourceforge or freshmeat for possible replacements of other programs.

edit: firefox kicks ass.

[Pillars]

I'm having a similar problem again...

What I want to do is just start all over, as in hard drive just how I got it when i first purchased it. I don't want anything on there at all. All this SpyWare that SpyBot and AdAware weren't able to fix are really fucking up my shit. When I first installed this drive, I formated it into a C drive (5GB..for WindowsXP and stuff like that) and D (35GB..for everything else). All the SpyWare is on the C drive and when I try reinstall Windows, it has a problem installing it on C because there is already a copy of Windows on there. Eventually it will install it, but it will save a bunch of the files from my last install on the C drive. So now i'm stuck with my C drive almost filled to capacity with Windows files and such and SpyWare. It won't let me delete the Windows files, and I can't reformat C: because it's the drive where my OS is. Argh! Help me Minions...you're my only hope.

[fez]

i was having a problem a few weeks ago trying to wipe windows200 from a computer. i tried using the xp install disk to format the drive, but that didnt work. we had a linux install cd kicking around and put that in the cd rom, rebooted, told it to format the hard drive. once the format finished, just before install started, i canceled the install. windows xp then installed fine on the drive.

as always, back up your data before you try this.

[phUnk]

Originally posted by Pillars
I'm having a similar problem again...

What I want to do is just start all over, as in hard drive just how I got it when i first purchased it. I don't want anything on there at all. All this SpyWare that SpyBot and AdAware weren't able to fix are really fucking up my shit. When I first installed this drive, I formated it into a C drive (5GB..for WindowsXP and stuff like that) and D (35GB..for everything else). All the SpyWare is on the C drive and when I try reinstall Windows, it has a problem installing it on C because there is already a copy of Windows on there. Eventually it will install it, but it will save a bunch of the files from my last install on the C drive. So now i'm stuck with my C drive almost filled to capacity with Windows files and such and SpyWare. It won't let me delete the Windows files, and I can't reformat C: because it's the drive where my OS is. Argh! Help me Minions...you're my only hope.

I think XP has options for its idiot-proofing stuff like "Protect Special System Files" that you can turn off. Do that, then you can delete the extra files. (No, I don't remember how to turn that stuff off. Google it up [or search http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=winxp ])