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Thread: The PERFECT Format Guide? PLEASE¬!

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    Yer Da Sells Avon! keef247's Avatar
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    Question The PERFECT Format Guide? PLEASE¬!

    hi,
    woooo first post. well tomorrow i am going to do a full reformat. now what i want to know is what is the best order for a reformat, including when to update and doing drivers etc, as my previous install had some wierd driver laggout with some apps such as msn messenger.i would click on a contact when in previous format it would come up straight away... but with this it would graphically lagout... this is the only reason for the format as its really annoying and must be affecting other things. now i have tried both OMEGA and ATi driver reinstalls using drivercleaner pro etc but no joy.so i guess my best bet is to do a clean reformat. so what i need people is a tried and tested method/order in which to install etc... oh and i need it by tomorrow morning LOL.

    cheers

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    Here is my usual routine.

    1) Back up files to either another drive or seperate partition on the same drive. I usually keep my music and other keepers on seperate partitions anyway.

    2) PRE DOWNLOAD ALL YOUR DRIVERS! Mainboard, Graphics Card, Sound Card etc. and put them on the other drive partition - this will save you major hassle when you get windows installed later on especially if you need the network port drivers to access the internet.

    3) Format. I like the old school Windows 98 floppy technique but Ultimate Boot CD has all the necessary utilities for the job. " Format C:"

    4) Install Windows. An anywhere recent system will allow you to boot from CD so stick in the Windows CD, restart after the format and away you go. If for some reason you can't boot from CD and need to use floppy discs to load CD drivers here is a useful tip which saves you using the ridiculous 6 disk installer Microsoft have on their site.

    Take a normal Windows 98 floppy and add smartdrv.exe to it. You might have to google for it but its basically a memory management utility for DOS. Boot the floppy with CD Drivers then run smartdrv.exe and this will be all you need to start the XP installation. Go to the CD drive and the directory /i386 and run winnt.exe to start the install process. Saves a lot of chaging around floppies.

    5) After installing Windows install the minimal drivers you need to get the internet working and then perform a full Windows update. Get all the essential patches but forget the hardware updates, you'll want to use your own drivers.

    6) After updating Windows you can now install all your Drivers. These will update or fill in any gaps Windows update left and bring your system up to speed.

    7) Install any AV or Firewall software you use - and that's pretty much you ready to go!

    Another tip for you, if you have Norton Ghost I would suggest Ghosting your entire install drive after step 5 - Saves all the hassle of installing Windows from scratch again if something goes wrong.

    That's by no means the be all of step by step Windows installation but I hope it helps

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    Yer Da Sells Avon! keef247's Avatar
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    cheers man will try that.

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