quick post-xmas tecchie question...

I think my pc has eaten too much turkey - it's slow, sluggish and parts of it have nowstopped working (e.g. the cd drive won't read cd's)</p>

it's about 2 1/2 years old now. 80gb - and that's about all I can recall of the spec.</p>

I've tried de-fragging it, clearing spyware, cookies, temporary files and all thatbasic stuff, but I think it's past that now..</p>

if I bought a memory stick and transferred my photos and itunes onto it (the only files I'm concerned about saving) is there a process where I can re-format or kind of 'wash' the whole computer, start from scratch with everything??or would I lose any programmes and suchlike!?</p>

I have a basic knowledge, but am no tecchie-head so would it be better to take it to someone to do it? any recommendations?</p>

all help greatly appreciated....</p>

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you may be as well as

re-installing windows

(ie not from scratch) but run a repair just incase any drivers have become corrupt for yor CD drive.

What kind of Virus Software and Spyware remover you used?

Just to give you an idea I have the following installed....

BT Spyware
Nortan Virus
Spybot Search and Destroy
Adaware

and they all pick up different things....

Best one by far is a "plug in" to the adaware called adwatch, it runs constantly and stops around 99% of spyware getting on to start with, rather than removing them after the event...

you may as well try other spyware/virus software scans first, and then do a repair on windows

Failing all the above stuff, back up what you need and flatten it and start from scratch, but do this as a last resport cos it could take you ages

 

If you reformat the HD then you lose <u>everything</u>, so you need to save everything you want to keep. Photos, documents, odds & sods, email address book, favorites etc etc etc. It will be like when you first took delivery of it.

Plus, after the reformat, you need to reinstall Windows, so you'll need the CD it came on, plus the drivers for the mother board (chipset).

Not forgetting all your passwords too - for email accounts, ISP, and other things you may use.

It's a daunting job the 1st time you do it, but I reformat mine now every couple of months or so, takes about 4 hours including downloading all the updates from Microsoft and getting everything back on.

Good luck!

 

do

a full system scan in safe mode for viruses and spyware and check available disk space. If plenty of space then removing files wont help. Also check memory management in system settings and check that its set to let windows manage memory and it ha sa swapfile set.

 

Have you got the original discs that came with the PC? If so, you should have a recovery disc that will enable you to take the pc back to how it was when you first bought it. You will still need to back up any data that you want to keep tho'
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cheers all...

think I need to take it to someone who knows what they're doing then!</p>

or buy a new one.</p>

probably not cheap either way, but safer than me losing all that I want to keep.</p>

thanks again.</p>