Reinstalling my system
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Malta Soron
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Reinstalling my system
I am planning on formatting and reinstalling my system this summer. Could you give me advice on the steps to take in preperation and execution?
Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.
- George Santayana
- George Santayana
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Vicsun
- Posts: 4547
- Joined: Mon Dec 25, 2000 12:00 pm
- Location: liberally sprinkled in the film's opening scene
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1) Backup files you wish to keep
-Do this by either moving them to another computer, burning them to CDs/DVDs, using a tape drive, or an external hard-disk.
2) Format & Install Windows
-Insert your Windows CD and restart your computer. At one point, before windows loads, you'll be given a chance to boot from the CD (it should say something to the effect of 'press any key to boot from the CD'). If you can't boot from a CD (unlikely), you'll have to change your boot sequence from your BIOS. To do this press the delete key just after you have restarted your computer and then change the boot sequence ( just make sure you know what you're doing before changing anything in the BIOS). Once you boot from the CD there should be an option to the effect of "format disk and install windows". It's noteworthy that if you want to partition your hard-drive, now's the time to do it; it's not impossible to do after you've installed windows, but it's more of a pain.
The process is really quite simple. You should also probably know that you can reinstall windows without reformatting, which will have the same effect as reformatting sans losing all your data. The only data that will be lost is the one contained in my documents, the windows directory, and the desktops, in addition to the registry (which means you'll have to reinstall most of your programs, even though the data on the hard-drive will be retained - e.g. you'll need to reinstall BG2, but any mods/save games will still be there). To reinstall, choose 'reinstall Windows' when you boot from the CD.
This is the first link I got off google when I searched for reformat. You might want to read it, it looked useful. On second thought I should have only posted the link saving myself time and reducing the chance of RSI in the future. On second second thought, you should have probably tried finding the answer by yourself using google before posting the thread - that would have saved both of us some time.
-Do this by either moving them to another computer, burning them to CDs/DVDs, using a tape drive, or an external hard-disk.
2) Format & Install Windows
-Insert your Windows CD and restart your computer. At one point, before windows loads, you'll be given a chance to boot from the CD (it should say something to the effect of 'press any key to boot from the CD'). If you can't boot from a CD (unlikely), you'll have to change your boot sequence from your BIOS. To do this press the delete key just after you have restarted your computer and then change the boot sequence ( just make sure you know what you're doing before changing anything in the BIOS). Once you boot from the CD there should be an option to the effect of "format disk and install windows". It's noteworthy that if you want to partition your hard-drive, now's the time to do it; it's not impossible to do after you've installed windows, but it's more of a pain.
The process is really quite simple. You should also probably know that you can reinstall windows without reformatting, which will have the same effect as reformatting sans losing all your data. The only data that will be lost is the one contained in my documents, the windows directory, and the desktops, in addition to the registry (which means you'll have to reinstall most of your programs, even though the data on the hard-drive will be retained - e.g. you'll need to reinstall BG2, but any mods/save games will still be there). To reinstall, choose 'reinstall Windows' when you boot from the CD.
This is the first link I got off google when I searched for reformat. You might want to read it, it looked useful. On second thought I should have only posted the link saving myself time and reducing the chance of RSI in the future. On second second thought, you should have probably tried finding the answer by yourself using google before posting the thread - that would have saved both of us some time.
Vicsun, I certainly agree with your assertion that you are an unpleasant person. ~Chanak