Reinstallation of WinXP

[Tosh McCaber]

My computer has slowed down considerably, and I want to do a reinstall of Windows. Is there any way of saving my many applications on my C Drive, or will I be forced to reinstall them manually after my re-format?

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Is there any connection between:

My computer has slowed down considerably

and

I want to do a reinstall of Windows

?

Do you think that doing a reinstall will make it go faster? Or are you actually proposing to do a reformat?

If you're proposing to do a reinstall, chances are that that won't fix whatever is making it slow. A reformat followed by a reinstall probably will, but that's a seriously drastic step to take - it typically takes me around a month to set up a new system, by the time I've found and installed and configured all the little odds and sods that I only use very occasionally and have forgotten about, and there's no way I'd want to go through all that when I didn't have to!

Now, even after you reformat, and reinstall Windows, and reinstall each of your applications one at a time, and reconfigure everything back to the way you want it, your computer will just slow down again in exactly the same way, unless you identify what you've done to cause it this time and take steps to avoid doing the same thing again.

Why not just take the easier and (vastly) quicker option:

(1) find out why it's got slow
(2) fix it
(3) make sure you don't do it again.

(Yes I know there are people who just throw their PC away and buy a new one when they've installed so many viruses and so much spyware that the thing has become unusable. But that approach isn't good for global warming, now, is it.)

[Tosh McCaber]

Thanks, Gert. You are probably correct- I have fair amount of "junky" applications on board now- which I do use from time to time. But I am pretty sure that there are no nasties on board- at least not according to AVG (run every night), Adaware and Spybot, run regularly.

But it certainly is running slower than when new!! The hard drive regularly rattles away for some time, prior to getting on to a new page, etc.

1.4 Gh AMD Athlon 64 processor, 1Gb memory, Win XP

Any thoughts on where to look for slow-down nasties?

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Any thoughts on where to look for slow-down nasties?
Er, rather difficult to do sight unseen, there are so many possibilities. If I had the machine in front of me I'd probably find something eventually.

See what the CPU load is and which tasks are using it (nobody would dream of running a PC without Task Manager constantly loaded, would they); see if it's disk bound when it's slow, then see if you're using more virtual than physical memory; if it's disk bound and not thrashing virtual memory then that's going to be more fun to pin down, perfmon might help; see if there's heavy network traffic, or network traffic that you aren't expecting.

(I'm just reacting against the pimply-faced-youth-at-PC-World's advice - for them the answer to everything is "reinstall Windows", because that's all they've been taught how to say. However to reinstall Windows is rarely necessary and quite often won't fix what you wanted fixing anyway.)

[frostbite]

Just a thought on reading this. Is it that your HD is rather full and windoze is having difficulty with the swap file?

[Sh3113y]

What about the usual glut of Temporary Internet Files, or the having loads of unnecessary icons running in the system tray. If you don't regularly use them then why having them running. It only takes a few more seconds to load the progam manually from All Programs.

[seacue]

Defragged lately?

[Tarq57]

Excess start items is often a culprit, also. Trim them to those you only need to run. (Use msconfig). This is particularly applicable if it takes a long time to boot, but then runs only a little slow. There are quite a few programs that come with windows that I reckon are a waste of space. (Like messenger).
If the HD is more than about 70-80% full, things will load slower.
As stated above, clean up temporary files, and defrag. CCleaner is and excellent application for the former, JkDefrag or Auslogics deffragger for the latter.
AdAware and Spybot don't find as much as they used to. Try Superantispyware, instead (As a demand scanner, don't configure it to load at start, which is it's default.) Or you could try an online scan with TrendMicro's housecall, or Fsecure or similar, for peace of mind.
You might want to consider installing a second HD (if not installed already), transfer the files/program installers etc you want to it, and just keep the OS and other programs running on the C drive.

[Keef]

All of those things!

Don't wipe and reinstall. That's a sledgehammer approach.

First thing I'd do is just to press Ctrl-Alt-Del when it's up and running, select Task Manager, Processes, then click on the CPU column until it shows running programs in the order of how much CPU they are using.

If nothing is running, but a large proportion of the CPU capacity is being used, look at the stuff using it. That often reveals a lot.

Then look to see if Drive Indexing is turned on - My Computer - click on Drive C - right-click - Properties - General an dlook to see if "Allow Indexing Service..." is turned on. If so, turn it off.

Then, check the stuff like free disk space, defragging, temporary files, and that stuff.

[Tosh McCaber]

Thanks for all the advice. I’ve checked, and have now got virtually nothing in the Start-up menu. I’ve turned off Allow Indexing Service. Cleared out Temporary Internet Files. Unfortunately, not a lot of difference so far.

It still gives a problem from time to time with 100% CPU usage for no reason, and a gradual build-up of PF usage to beyond the 1Gb mark, when I’ve left the computer on for a couple of days. When I turn it on, and back on again, everything’s back to low level usage.

[Tarq57]

While Spybot and Adaware are still fairly useful, it's possible you have stuff they're not picking up. Try downloading AVG antispyware, 30 day trial then resident shield stops. At that point you should reconfigure it to be a demand scanner. One of the beauties of this application is that when doing a memory scan only, which doesn't take long, it releases or frees up used memory that is no longer required. Don't ask me for a more technical explanation, I've read reports that it can help in this sort of situation. And if parasites are the problem, it's likely to find them. (Other good antispyware applications include Asquared, Superantispyware, and SpywareTerminator.)
When you say virtually nothing in start up menu, do you mean the start menu available when clicking start>programs, or the one in msconfig?
Have you defragged?
What percentage of the disk is used?

[Gertrude the Wombat]

100% CPU usage for no reason
No, it won't be for no reason. Common reasons, malware aside, are (a) anti-virus software (personally I don't run it for precisely this sort of reason) and (b) unecessarily flashy stuff in web pages.
Find out.
build-up of PF usage to beyond the 1Gb mark
What exacly do you mean by "PF usage"? Are you running some application continuously that has a memory leak?
when I’ve left the computer on for a couple of days
Oh. I don't do that, personally, I tend to have to go to sleep every now and then. Ever heard of global warming? - if you're not using it turn the ******* thing off! := (Unless it's a server providing a 24/7 service to the outside world, of course.)

[vapilot2004]

TMcC:

All good advice above, however I highly recommend the clean slate method.
A reformat and re-installation of Windows can do wonders for your machine. We do it every few years around my house and office.

XP can become damaged and loaded with junk of all kinds that will slow your machine down. One item that begs for help is the registry. This group of files grows with each software installation and there are no easy ways around thoroughly cleaning it up. Rather than attempting what may end up being a frustrating hunt and peck method, I would say go for it.


Couple of things:
Backing up everything on your disk is best if you have the capability.
At the very least, save the contents of your Documents and Settings Folder and subfolders along with the folders you know have your data within.

Specific things you may want to do:
Export your Outlook (or Outlook Express) Email and News accounts for easy configuration.
Export your Windows Address book.
Save your favourites.
Save your email folder and re-import.
MS Office templates if you have created custom ones.
MS Outlook (not Express) .pst file if you use this program.

Download and make a CDROM of the latest drivers for:
Video
Network Card
Sound Card
USB
Peripherals like printers and scanners.

Details on the manufacturers of the above hardware can be found in your My Computer Properties box.

Look around for your data. Not all programs save your work
in the My Documents folder.

Recall and record your various passwords used on the web. (this one always gives me a headache)
Download and backup an IT professional copy of the Windows XP SP2 (service pack 2) to ease the Windows Update process.
Download and backup the latest version of DirectX.
www.microsoft.com/downloads.


Whatever you decide to do, Good Luck!

[Gertrude the Wombat]

I highly recommend the clean slate method
And I don't. It's vastly more trouble than could possibly be necessary. Personally I've never had to do it, and I've been running Windows since 3.1.

[vapilot2004]

And I don't. It's vastly more trouble than could possibly be necessary. Personally I've never had to do it, and I've been running Windows since 3.1.

Gawd, then you must remember the winsock and how it allowed one to magically connect to the ether.

On the subject at hand, a re-install is estimated to be about 3-5 hours work with much of it proceeding unattended. In reality, however I discovered myself getting things back to 'normal' in less than a weeks time - mostly. :\

At least we can agree to disagree on this one, GTW. :)

[blackace]

I used to have to reinstall windows every 6 months when I had that piece of crap Microsoft released called millennium edition.

I have to concur with the majority, a good old format C does wonders.

It is not hard, it is not really troublesome, XP carries most drivers and those it doesn't can be detected by XP and downloaded direct. Very few drivers would need installing again from CD's.

For programs that's a different story, obviously everything you use as third party software would need to be reinstalled.

I have a HD caddy with about 3 drives in it, I back everything up to that before doing a reformat.

But you should always remember to keep any saved files from any application off your C drive anyway so you never lose anything in a reformat, saves a lot of worry if it ever needs to be done.

[Saab Dastard]

I'm with GTW on this one - re-installing really is a sledgehammer solution for a problem that may well reappear as soon as you re-install the software / driver that is causing the problem.

I have one laptop that has been running the same installation of XP for just on 4 years now, without re-installing! And I do some serious work with it too!

I've had to re-install XP once on my home machine in 3.5 years. That was when the installable / demountable file system (CD, USB) decided to go AWOL and I simply couldn't fix it.

Fortunately I had a networked PC to hand to backup to.

SD

PS - I recently chucked out the 5 1/4" floppies that Windows 3.0 came on, along with the Windows 3.1 and 3.11 diskettes! I also remember the early versions of DOS, at least as far back as DOS 3.0 & 4.0 - I recall the joy of EDIT appearing in DOS 5 so that EDLIN could be consigned to the BIN! Pun intended ;)

[11K-AVML]

I don't suppose you use McAfee do you?

That uses 100% CPU out of the blue every so often! ( I think their latest version update has solved this)

[stickyb]

If you don't identify what is causing the problem how will you stop it coming back and doing the same after a reinstallation?

Use Task Manager. this will identify the rougue process when the cpu goes to 100%

Also, you can select columns to view that show you the memory used, so again you can identify which one is growing and growing over 2 days.

(As an aside, one of the more popul;ar p2p programs used to have a memory leak and started running at 100%cpu in rimary mode - do you use any of those?)