Reformating your computer - GoFuckYourself.com

Babagirls · 02-10-2001, 02:26 AM

I'm about to reformat my computer this week...how many of you have done it before? And if you did, and you have a gateway computer, can you help me out?? THANKS!

Bake · 02-10-2001, 04:42 AM

Its prity easy to do go to setup on start type in formate c but back up everything first

wizardmerlin · 02-10-2001, 04:48 AM

Make sure you have all you disks and serial#'s handy. It's a real pain in the ass when you are missing just one. Don't forget to save your bookmarks.

Email me if you need any serial #'s

------------------

These Guys are solid, and pay every week. Direct Deposit! $10 MIN

02-10-2001, 09:39 AM

Make sure you have a working boot disk handy or you will be screwed. Make sure you can access your CDROM drive from DOS when using the boot disk. Also, as a time saver, copy the win98 directory (or whatever OS you're using) off the CD to your hard drive first before reinstalling windows. This will speed things up. And make sure you have your OS serial number or you won't be able to install it.

Hazen · 02-10-2001, 10:43 AM

Babagirls, I don't know how often you reformat, but if you do it often, this tip I read in Maximum PC a ways back has saved me many hours when it comes to this tedious task. You'll need a CD-Burner for this to work.

Pick up PowerQuests "Drive Image"

Reformat your system, reinstall windows and when everything works fine, defrag.

Install Drive Image, have it take a image of your harddrive. Burn that image to CD. Include the Drive Image directory too. Be sure to make this a bootable CD.

Test it out to make sure that everything works.

Now whenever you want to reformat, you just pop that cd in and restore the image. Within a couple minutes you've got a brand new PC with windows already installed and defragged.

sixfm · 02-10-2001, 05:15 PM

Oooh, Hazen, that's a great idea!

ALWAYS back up your bookmarks. That seems to be the one thing I always forget. Do you know how much time it takes to search all of your sponsors for the link to their stats page? UGH! And then there's that really cool site that had all the helpful information, you know, it's www. something hard to remember.com. Anyway, there's my 2 cents worth! I am in the same boat, I get to install a new hard drive tomorrow. Oh the joy of upgrading!

Babagirls · 02-11-2001, 01:09 AM

THanks for the helo everyone!! I appreciate it!!

Babagirls · 02-19-2001, 11:11 PM

HELP!!! I want to buy a CD Burner this week....what should I look for?? External? Internal? Specifications?? Should i have someone professional install it?? I dont know a THING about CD Burners!! HELP! :O

------------------
A wise man once said.."Wherever you go, there you are!"

Gemini · 02-20-2001, 03:33 AM

It's no different to install a burner over a regular CD. But if you have never installed anything inside yourself and are nervous, call around and find a shop that will let you go back and have the tech show you what he's doing. Ask lotsa questions to find out what cable is what etc so you get an idea whats inside.

The first time *I* got inside a customers system I was a nervous wreck. lol It gets easier as you do different things until its old hat. Internal over external? Internal everytime. External system parts might have pluses but try and rearrange your system with all that stuff sitting everywhere!

Slower burners are cheaper and some of the fast ones are unreliable in the percentage of errors. So we opt for a slower one usually. Not everything in this World needs blinding speed. Go for one burn over having an error disk. Keeps you frim starting over!

markvh · 02-20-2001, 11:01 AM

I use a slow cd burner for my cd's "2 speed wright and 4 speed read" it works very good! I had it now for about 4 years and it never gave my any shit! I recently bought a rerightable thats pretty fast but havn't tried it out yet!

------------------

Poizon · 02-20-2001, 12:56 PM

I've fdisk'ed my computer a couple of times. Re-installing EVERYTHING can be a pain though.

------------------
Sometimes you just don't get it.

Babagirls · 02-20-2001, 07:28 PM

So, i should buy a INTERNAL that is SLOW cause it will give less ERROR MESSAGES and last longer??

BEST BUY offer to come out and install it for the customer for a price...if its not TOO expensive, I may do that and watch them do it so that I am educated!

NO A QUESTION: I alot of songs on REALJUKEBOX, and I am going to reformat soon-is there anyway to save ALL my songs ???

------------------
A wise man once said.."Wherever you go, there you are!"

Gemini · 02-20-2001, 07:42 PM

Slower writers are 1) cheaper 2) less apt to error out and 3) more compatible with all systems. If you get a super fast writer and have a slow motherchip... lol
I'd recommend staying away from Best Buy. Try to find a small shop you can take your box in to. Hint on a good shop... they only need your box and sometimes your mouse. We used to do alot of repairs on systems AFTER someone went to Best Buy for a install or repair. lol Downside to that is they expected *us* to do it cheap since they got ripped off by a so called comarade. So we just sell used gear when we bother at all. Don't have any burners tho. They go quick when we happen to find em.

kush · 02-20-2001, 07:52 PM

I formatted my hard drive just last week. A CD Burner is a HUGE help! Make sure all of your updates and downloaded programs are on the CD, and add any pics and html sites, recip images, etc that you would hate to have to find again.

Babagirls · 02-20-2001, 08:21 PM

SO, if I get a CD Burner BEFORE i reformat, then I can copy RealJukeBox that have ALL of my songs on it right?? That might be a better idea...WoW!! You guys are GREAT at this shit! LOL

So, dont use BEST BUY?? Is it OK to buy a burner from them?? LOL

------------------
A wise man once said.."Wherever you go, there you are!"

Gemini · 02-20-2001, 08:36 PM

Its cheaper and sometimes free installation from the smaller shops when you buy from them. They won't be you're buddy if you walk in with the burner in hand. lol It got to where we refused to install pre-bought items. You'd be surprised on the pricing in small shops. You say Hey BB has that for $xx and they usually will match it.

And yeah get the burner first! Copy off your stuff and all your data to disc. You have to keep in mind that its not really any different than a regular CD when you go to install programs or Windows etc. The same drivers in 'DOS' will run it to reinstall your op system.

Thats one of the pluses in having a network with huge storage caps. lol Just copy what you want over to a different system or the server and go on. We have data archived from 1994 still floating in some system or another here. And I can pull up what one of my Avon customers bought in 1988 even. Like thats a value eh?

MaestroJJP · 02-20-2001, 11:24 PM

Hi, hope you get this in time (if it helps)...

Remember bookmarks especially, buddy lists/contact lists, and your website designs on your computer. Also, you may wish to download the installation files to important programs (web browser if you need it, graphics programs, AIM, ICQ, etc) and burn them to a CD before you start. People are also right about serial numbers. Perhaps a graphic snapshot of your desktop and start -> programs menu expanded would be good too, printed out, so you know what you had.

Those are important, hope it helps.

Interlude · 02-20-2001, 11:49 PM

Reformatting is an absolute joy if you have two hard drives... simply copy everything you think you'll need to the secondary drive (bookmarks, scripts, web graphics, email folders if you archive stuff, etc.) and go to town on the primary drive.

Seriously, pick up a small secondary drive if for nothing else than for reformatting; these days they cost less than a 50-pack of blank CDRs. Of course, you could also go the full-out pro-level route and have one drive for Windows, programs etc. and a separate one for your memory swap files, and use the smaller swap file drive for reformatting jobs.

------------------
50/50 Celebrity Partnership Program

blakkfrogg · 02-20-2001, 11:57 PM

Greetings fellow web freaks.

I just lost two years worth of work because a hard drive died. Oops. Good thing all the important sh!t is on a remote server, right? Hmmm....

It does not matter what kind of machine it is or what parts you use. All computers are out to get us.

Watch your backs, y'all.... They're out there and they know what you look like.

Heh-heh-heh...

------------------
Got Fetishes?
Post Your Fetish Galleries Here

Babagirls · 02-21-2001, 01:39 AM

WoW!! Thankx for ALL of your help!! Man, all this advice is going to be SUPER helpful !!!

I'm going to look at Internal HP Burner's this weekend and wait for some money to come through the mail this week (I have 2 checks on their way).

I'll copy Explorer v.5 , RealPlayer & RealJukeBox ...and THANK YOU for reminding me to write down my buddy list!!! I forgot that!!! And I ALMOST forgot to save files in COREL WordPerfect!! :O And i NEED some of those files...LOL

You guys have been a LIFE SAVER!!! If you have ANY more advice, LET ME KNOW!! I'm going to reformat next Monday probably.

THANKX AGAIN!

------------------
A wise man once said.."Wherever you go, there you are!"

Gemini · 02-21-2001, 02:49 AM

Everyone has pretty well covered it, but the old man takes two days just to go through the hard drives before he even thinks of a re-format. Minutely picking thru each program for possible data files or lists. We've found that if he doesn't, invariably we lose that one file we really need down the road. He also keeps on paper the drives and programs so he can sit and 'study' as he calls it to make sure not to miss something.

We once reformated and lost about 20 autocad drafts that took 40 hours to redo. All because of hurrying. lol Unless you are hard crashed there is no reason to hurry a format. Also using a small drive like a 2 gig to keep the Windows on is great too. You may have to reinstall all your progs over the progs to get them to work when you just swap drives, but it protects all you data. This system has 3 HD's with one being only the Windows drive. All the data is protected from crashes of Gates Folly more or less.

Poizon · 02-21-2001, 05:14 AM

Or if you don't want to buy a second hard drive and you know a bit more about the technical side of computers, you can partition your hard drive and make it two sepearate ones. Like a c and f drive or whatever you choose. A little harder to maintain but you can keep all your backup files on your partition while you format C:

------------------
Sometimes you just don't get it.

Babagirls · 02-21-2001, 05:29 AM

YIKES!!! Tech stuff??? Oh boy.....I'm the kinda person that would hit the switch to turn off power for the whole country! LOL I am SO non-tech , its not even funny anymore! LOL

------------------
A wise man once said.."Wherever you go, there you are!"

02-10-2001, 02:26 AM	#1
Babagirls Text Writer Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 18,812	Reformating your computer I'm about to reformat my computer this week...how many of you have done it before? And if you did, and you have a gateway computer, can you help me out?? THANKS!

02-10-2001, 04:42 AM	#2
Bake Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Outback of bumfuck Aussie Posts: 5,463	Its prity easy to do go to setup on start type in formate c but back up everything first

02-10-2001, 04:48 AM	#3
wizardmerlin Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Porncity Sewers Posts: 418	Make sure you have all you disks and serial#'s handy. It's a real pain in the ass when you are missing just one. Don't forget to save your bookmarks. Email me if you need any serial #'s ------------------ These Guys are solid, and pay every week. Direct Deposit! $10 MIN

02-10-2001, 09:39 AM	#4
evildick Guest Posts: n/a	Make sure you have a working boot disk handy or you will be screwed. Make sure you can access your CDROM drive from DOS when using the boot disk. Also, as a time saver, copy the win98 directory (or whatever OS you're using) off the CD to your hard drive first before reinstalling windows. This will speed things up. And make sure you have your OS serial number or you won't be able to install it.

02-10-2001, 10:43 AM	#5
Hazen Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 224	Babagirls, I don't know how often you reformat, but if you do it often, this tip I read in Maximum PC a ways back has saved me many hours when it comes to this tedious task. You'll need a CD-Burner for this to work. Pick up PowerQuests "Drive Image" Reformat your system, reinstall windows and when everything works fine, defrag. Install Drive Image, have it take a image of your harddrive. Burn that image to CD. Include the Drive Image directory too. Be sure to make this a bootable CD. Test it out to make sure that everything works. Now whenever you want to reformat, you just pop that cd in and restore the image. Within a couple minutes you've got a brand new PC with windows already installed and defragged.

02-10-2001, 05:15 PM	#6
sixfm Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: State of Confusion Posts: 139	Oooh, Hazen, that's a great idea! ALWAYS back up your bookmarks. That seems to be the one thing I always forget. Do you know how much time it takes to search all of your sponsors for the link to their stats page? UGH! And then there's that really cool site that had all the helpful information, you know, it's www. something hard to remember.com. Anyway, there's my 2 cents worth! I am in the same boat, I get to install a new hard drive tomorrow. Oh the joy of upgrading!

02-11-2001, 01:09 AM	#7
Babagirls Text Writer Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 18,812	THanks for the helo everyone!! I appreciate it!!

02-19-2001, 11:11 PM	#8
Babagirls Text Writer Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 18,812	HELP!!! I want to buy a CD Burner this week....what should I look for?? External? Internal? Specifications?? Should i have someone professional install it?? I dont know a THING about CD Burners!! HELP! :O ------------------ A wise man once said.."Wherever you go, there you are!"

02-20-2001, 03:33 AM	#9
Gemini Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: o-HI-o Posts: 7,183	It's no different to install a burner over a regular CD. But if you have never installed anything inside yourself and are nervous, call around and find a shop that will let you go back and have the tech show you what he's doing. Ask lotsa questions to find out what cable is what etc so you get an idea whats inside. The first time I got inside a customers system I was a nervous wreck. lol It gets easier as you do different things until its old hat. Internal over external? Internal everytime. External system parts might have pluses but try and rearrange your system with all that stuff sitting everywhere! Slower burners are cheaper and some of the fast ones are unreliable in the percentage of errors. So we opt for a slower one usually. Not everything in this World needs blinding speed. Go for one burn over having an error disk. Keeps you frim starting over!

02-20-2001, 11:01 AM	#10
markvh Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 258	I use a slow cd burner for my cd's "2 speed wright and 4 speed read" it works very good! I had it now for about 4 years and it never gave my any shit! I recently bought a rerightable thats pretty fast but havn't tried it out yet! ------------------

02-20-2001, 12:56 PM	#11
Poizon Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Smilyville, USA Posts: 157	I've fdisk'ed my computer a couple of times. Re-installing EVERYTHING can be a pain though. ------------------ Sometimes you just don't get it.

02-20-2001, 07:28 PM	#12
Babagirls Text Writer Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 18,812	So, i should buy a INTERNAL that is SLOW cause it will give less ERROR MESSAGES and last longer?? BEST BUY offer to come out and install it for the customer for a price...if its not TOO expensive, I may do that and watch them do it so that I am educated! NO A QUESTION: I alot of songs on REALJUKEBOX, and I am going to reformat soon-is there anyway to save ALL my songs ??? ------------------ A wise man once said.."Wherever you go, there you are!"

02-20-2001, 07:42 PM	#13
Gemini Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: o-HI-o Posts: 7,183	Slower writers are 1) cheaper 2) less apt to error out and 3) more compatible with all systems. If you get a super fast writer and have a slow motherchip... lol I'd recommend staying away from Best Buy. Try to find a small shop you can take your box in to. Hint on a good shop... they only need your box and sometimes your mouse. We used to do alot of repairs on systems AFTER someone went to Best Buy for a install or repair. lol Downside to that is they expected us to do it cheap since they got ripped off by a so called comarade. So we just sell used gear when we bother at all. Don't have any burners tho. They go quick when we happen to find em.

02-20-2001, 07:52 PM	#14
kush Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 3,382	I formatted my hard drive just last week. A CD Burner is a HUGE help! Make sure all of your updates and downloaded programs are on the CD, and add any pics and html sites, recip images, etc that you would hate to have to find again.

02-20-2001, 08:21 PM	#15
Babagirls Text Writer Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 18,812	SO, if I get a CD Burner BEFORE i reformat, then I can copy RealJukeBox that have ALL of my songs on it right?? That might be a better idea...WoW!! You guys are GREAT at this shit! LOL So, dont use BEST BUY?? Is it OK to buy a burner from them?? LOL ------------------ A wise man once said.."Wherever you go, there you are!"

02-20-2001, 08:36 PM	#16
Gemini Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: o-HI-o Posts: 7,183	Its cheaper and sometimes free installation from the smaller shops when you buy from them. They won't be you're buddy if you walk in with the burner in hand. lol It got to where we refused to install pre-bought items. You'd be surprised on the pricing in small shops. You say Hey BB has that for $xx and they usually will match it. And yeah get the burner first! Copy off your stuff and all your data to disc. You have to keep in mind that its not really any different than a regular CD when you go to install programs or Windows etc. The same drivers in 'DOS' will run it to reinstall your op system. Thats one of the pluses in having a network with huge storage caps. lol Just copy what you want over to a different system or the server and go on. We have data archived from 1994 still floating in some system or another here. And I can pull up what one of my Avon customers bought in 1988 even. Like thats a value eh?

02-20-2001, 11:24 PM	#17
MaestroJJP Registered User Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Ohio Posts: 39	Hi, hope you get this in time (if it helps)... Remember bookmarks especially, buddy lists/contact lists, and your website designs on your computer. Also, you may wish to download the installation files to important programs (web browser if you need it, graphics programs, AIM, ICQ, etc) and burn them to a CD before you start. People are also right about serial numbers. Perhaps a graphic snapshot of your desktop and start -> programs menu expanded would be good too, printed out, so you know what you had. Those are important, hope it helps.

02-20-2001, 11:49 PM	#18
Interlude Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: State of Denial Posts: 1,147	Reformatting is an absolute joy if you have two hard drives... simply copy everything you think you'll need to the secondary drive (bookmarks, scripts, web graphics, email folders if you archive stuff, etc.) and go to town on the primary drive. Seriously, pick up a small secondary drive if for nothing else than for reformatting; these days they cost less than a 50-pack of blank CDRs. Of course, you could also go the full-out pro-level route and have one drive for Windows, programs etc. and a separate one for your memory swap files, and use the smaller swap file drive for reformatting jobs. ------------------ 50/50 Celebrity Partnership Program

02-20-2001, 11:57 PM	#19
blakkfrogg Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: South of sobriety Posts: 582	Greetings fellow web freaks. I just lost two years worth of work because a hard drive died. Oops. Good thing all the important sh!t is on a remote server, right? Hmmm.... It does not matter what kind of machine it is or what parts you use. All computers are out to get us. Watch your backs, y'all.... They're out there and they know what you look like. Heh-heh-heh... ------------------ Got Fetishes? Post Your Fetish Galleries Here

02-21-2001, 01:39 AM	#20
Babagirls Text Writer Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 18,812	WoW!! Thankx for ALL of your help!! Man, all this advice is going to be SUPER helpful !!! I'm going to look at Internal HP Burner's this weekend and wait for some money to come through the mail this week (I have 2 checks on their way). I'll copy Explorer v.5 , RealPlayer & RealJukeBox ...and THANK YOU for reminding me to write down my buddy list!!! I forgot that!!! And I ALMOST forgot to save files in COREL WordPerfect!! :O And i NEED some of those files...LOL You guys have been a LIFE SAVER!!! If you have ANY more advice, LET ME KNOW!! I'm going to reformat next Monday probably. THANKX AGAIN! ------------------ A wise man once said.."Wherever you go, there you are!"

02-21-2001, 02:49 AM	#21
Gemini Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: o-HI-o Posts: 7,183	Everyone has pretty well covered it, but the old man takes two days just to go through the hard drives before he even thinks of a re-format. Minutely picking thru each program for possible data files or lists. We've found that if he doesn't, invariably we lose that one file we really need down the road. He also keeps on paper the drives and programs so he can sit and 'study' as he calls it to make sure not to miss something. We once reformated and lost about 20 autocad drafts that took 40 hours to redo. All because of hurrying. lol Unless you are hard crashed there is no reason to hurry a format. Also using a small drive like a 2 gig to keep the Windows on is great too. You may have to reinstall all your progs over the progs to get them to work when you just swap drives, but it protects all you data. This system has 3 HD's with one being only the Windows drive. All the data is protected from crashes of Gates Folly more or less.

02-21-2001, 05:14 AM	#22
Poizon Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Smilyville, USA Posts: 157	Or if you don't want to buy a second hard drive and you know a bit more about the technical side of computers, you can partition your hard drive and make it two sepearate ones. Like a c and f drive or whatever you choose. A little harder to maintain but you can keep all your backup files on your partition while you format C: ------------------ Sometimes you just don't get it.

02-21-2001, 05:29 AM	#23
Babagirls Text Writer Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 18,812	YIKES!!! Tech stuff??? Oh boy.....I'm the kinda person that would hit the switch to turn off power for the whole country! LOL I am SO non-tech , its not even funny anymore! LOL ------------------ A wise man once said.."Wherever you go, there you are!"