Fresh XP Install Question

[Darthshearer]

Hi Guys

Just a couple of questions regarding Windows XP install.

I am currently running Windows XP Pro. After a few months of non-backup etc I am starting to get a clutterd hard disk, instead of trawling through and tidying up I want to back up the tings I want to keep and format my HDD and do a fresh intsall of XP.
Now the questions.

1) AFter backup do I re-boot with CD and is there an option for fresh XP install where is should format my PC and get rid of all the rubbish and all in theory I should have to do is install SP1 after my install of XP Pro?

2) I have been thinking about getting a nw HDD and usingit primerialy for my OS. I Currently have a 40Gb HDD, I dont really want to partition it. If I do get a new HDD for my OS what would be an OK size and how do i go about setting it up? Just slap it in as my Primary HDD on cable and then format and install my OS and the OS should detect that I ahve another HDD installed?

Anyway Thanks for the advice in advanvce

 

[Jonty]

Hi Darthshearer

I'll leave your second question to the experts, since I've never done it myself. As to your first question, though, you should just be able to put the XP CD in your drive, reboot and then choose to boot from the CD when prompted. The install program should then launch, and you'll be presented with the option to reformat your hard-drive from there. Note that you must enable booting from the CD/DVD drive in the BIOS (if it isn't already enabled). I've undertaken this procedure a few times and it really is fairly painless. Just out of interest, are you using a full or upgrade XP CD?

Good luck

Kind Regards

Edit ~ And yes, once reformatted and Windows is installed, just pop on SP1a and you're away (newer copies of XP now come with SP1a preinstalled, but I'm not sure if that applies to you).

P.S. you technically don't have to install SP1a straight away, as Windows will work fine 'out of the box', but it's probably good practice, and certainly aids security and such (and DirectX and some drivers require SP1).

 

[Darthshearer]

Cheers Jonty

I think it is a full version (my dads ) and not just the upgrade. I have done it once before its just I cant remember as it was ages ago.

Thanks again

 

[xane]

Just a tip.

Microsoft VM (the Java thingy) has been removed from SP1a, you can still install it but it has to be done separately, so if Java stuff stops working you'll know why

 

[Darthshearer]

Cheers Xane

 

[phlash]

<Java bias>
Having said that - you might be better off with the Sun JVM, at least it can be removed again!
</Java bias>

 

[Panda On Smack]

Thinking about question 2, doing a partition might be the best solution as you dont need loads of space. I currently partition about 8gig of my primary HDD for my OS so i can format at anytime and not lose loads of stuff or have to back it up somewhere.

Im running win2k and im using 3.15 of 8 gig so still plenty of space.

Kind of a waste just to buy a HDD just for the OS, will take longer to format it as well.

so just partition it man :touch:

 

[Krazeh]

If you were going to buy a new HDD you may as well get a bigger one and use it for data storage, then use the smaller 40gb one for your windows install. But like Panda said i'd still be tempted to create a smallish partition (say about 10gb) and install windows on there.

 

[Darthshearer]

Ooooooooo I may go for the partition then

/me is scared

So when my HDD gets clogged up with poo that I DL and old games etc I dont play are on a part of the partition is it easy to format, leaving my nice clean OS Partition OK?

 

[phlash]

Mostly this works, but you do have to be careful with all the things that get installed in the windows directory (or below), and it helps to relocate 'Program Files' to a separate partition too (there might be a nice way to do this - I bet Shovel will know - I just hacked my registry settings!).

 

[Darthshearer]

Ahhhh Right flahs, hmmmm didnt think about that poo!

/me looks at shovel

 

[pgh]

/me waits. Would be nice to know an easy way to this too..

 

[xane]

I'm just wondering what is wrong with the Add/Remove Programs tool ?

 

[Darthshearer]

Well what about certain files that dont use that? I.e backed up files and other stuff I wanna get rid of?

 

[xane]

Well what about certain files that dont use that? I.e backed up files and other stuff I wanna get rid of?

We are talking about pr0n right ?

How about Delete then ?

 

[Darthshearer]

Shhhhhh no we are not. I do a lot of CAD work and it backs up my dwgs, so I have them backed up, they are easy to delete. But what about hidden files etc? I sometime unistall a file using the uninstall wizard and it still leaves bits of the programme on my HDD Sub folders etc

 

[pgh]

Even at that using Add/Remove Programs removes say, in an average game, Add/Remove can remove only about 90% of the files related to it. Things like saved data, backed up data, needed codecs/dlls/whatever else the system needs to run it may be dump in Windows dir somewhere and so on. So imaging say having 5 games on your system and then you delete it. Your left with an extra 1/5th of crap on your system than what should be there.

 

[Darthshearer]

Thats what I'm going about pgh. But will some of that stuf I.e DLL's etc be put on my OS Partition? Say I did add/remove blah blah will that have any affect?

 

[stormrider]

After having to reinstall windows so many many many times, I always have the OS in a separate partition. Over the years I ve gone from 5, to 10 and now 20 gig partition for it (but I do have 2 x 120 Gb drives). The longer you keep using the paritition, the more stuff windows drops in there. Plus windows needs space for it to maintain its page file.

On top of that I have separate partitons for programs (40Gb), games(60Gb), data(60Gb) and CD images (and directories of data to burn onto CD)(60Gb).

 

[Shovel]

My XP partition is a measly 6 Gig. Generally been fine, though I had to shift the page-file onto a different partition to make space to install Visual Studio... Other than that it's been enough. I then have 40 gig for programs (including games), and a separate 40GB drive for user stuff (including music... it's getting a bit full).

There's also about 10 gig set aside for Linux, but I can't get a working kernel out of that yet, so it doesn't count.

 

[Darthshearer]

So the partition looks a good move?

Now where do I start

 

[xane]

Partitions are best used to minimize fragmentation, if you can get all your highly fragmented stuff onto one partitition then it leaves the others in better shape and improves overall performance.

Fragmentation is at its worse when caused either by frequent extending of a file, or by continuous creation and deletion of smaller files, so the idea is to locate those files that get updated on a regular basis, and those folders that get loads of little files in them, and put them somewhere away from the rest.

Obviously, data files (documents, pictures, etc) are updated too, to a much lesser extent, so they should be moved as well, to another partition if possible, which adds security too..

Windows and Programs go on one partition, no point in separating them, if one crashes then the other needs to go too.

I always set up a smallish (<5Gb) partition and put the swapfile, temp folders and browser caches on it. This partitiion never gets defragmented, that would be a waste of time. This contains most of the fragmented parts of my system, all in one place, away from the good stuff. It doesn't need to be secured and can be wiped at any time. Finally, in the event of a system crash, 90% of the time all file recovery takes place in this small partition and as such is very fast.

My Documents etc should be on another partition, for both security and performance, you can also shift e-mail files and stuff like Palm backups etc on this one too, run through your applications and move the working directories here.

I put my games on a yet another separate partition simply because they often contain a lot of save files that get updated regularly, and because of all the demos and crap that gets installed and then wiped out.

Finally I have a "scratch" partition containing files I don't really need, downloads, CD and DVD images for ripping, etc.

I run defragmentation on the Windows/Programs partition, the My Documents partition and the Games partition every week, each one takes less than 5 minutes to complete because they just dont get fragmented, the My Documents partition is regularly archived and backed up too.