Sunday, February 03, 2008

Take 2...

So two and a half days of reinstalls and XP still isn't working right. IE 7, windows update and other things just aren't working. The deal breaker is when I can't get any anti virus or Quicken to load.

I make some calls. I talk to some people who assure me that indeed I have to push the Big Red Button. They told me to do this originally but I though I could do this half-assed. Several friends admit that they do a re-install twice a year. I back up 72 GIGs of info onto a portable hard drive. I scan it with an online virus scan. I triple check for info I need to have. And then, I wipe the drive.

While the system formats I take a shower. It's a spiritual as well as physical cleansing. I have lost almost an entire week because of my mistake. And there is NO guarantee that my work, pictures, music or anything will still work when I restore it.

When it's done I start the reload. This time it goes much faster and workes much better. I get a LOT of hard drive space back. I download 82 security updates to XP. I restore my documents and so far (knock on wood) it all looks good. One of the most annoying things is trying to remember user names and passwords from various sites.

It is done. This system is clean.

3 comments:

Monkey said...

Well My Friend, Welcome to the world of "oops, did I click that?" and the follow-up "F***, Where is that XP disc?"

So when are we talking about better backup strategies?

Monkey

Anonymous said...

I hate to say this but, have you ever considered dual booting with Linux or getting a Mac? I really only surf the web in Linux these days (other than at work) and keeping the Win side off the net? Yes I know Linux has a bitch of a learning curve, but the only time I have ever had to reinstall my Linux box (I have one that only runs Linux) is for OS upgrades or because of hardware failure. also, you should make an ISO of that fresh install right now. that way you will have a re-install option ready for the next time Win goes F.U.B.A.R.


Nims

Steve said...

A drive wipe and reinstall also has some other advantages. It cleans out a LOT of crap. All that demo software you tried out? Gone. Temp files, unimportant images, utilities. Gone.

I'm going to make an image of this installation and keep it in a safe place.