# Any computer Guru's out here?



## brapbrapboom (Sep 2, 2009)

i need to reformat my windows XP NTFS file type, its quite old school but i still want to keep it running. I dont mind paying a bit.. just let me know what you have in mind xD


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## lemuj (Dec 7, 2006)

not a computer guru, but that's what i do for living....do you have a brand name system? If you do, it usually does come with a recovery to factory default. I must warn you though that all installed programs will be lost and will not be backed up. So i'd suggest you do before formatting.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Quite simple to do, especially if you have a recovery CD/recovery partition on your computer.

I personally despise them and always wipe my HD clean before I start using it though


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

brapbrapboom said:


> i need to reformat my windows XP NTFS file type, its quite old school but i still want to keep it running. I dont mind paying a bit.. just let me know what you have in mind xD


Where abouts are you? I could help you out with that.

I am no guru but used to do small level/assistiant admin tech support. I would back up all data you want to keep off that drive to a portable HD or another computer on your network or CD/DVD/USB drive.

Afterwards when all the data you wish to keep is off the drive locate your WinXP cd. I've got a HP Bootdisk floppy here which I use if the system still has a floppy bay for DOS booting. Afterwards I just FDISK the drive to format it clean.

After FDISK I reboot and stick the WinXP CD in and follow the prompts to format/load NTFS. After WinXP is loaded configure the personal settings you want for Windows then do the WinXP updates right away. After that then I load any applications I want on the box. Tho I normally load an anti-virus after Windows Updates are up to date then update the anti-virus defs. to the most recent.

Make sure in BIOS to set the HDD as the last device to boot. I normally configure 1. Floppy 2. USB 3. CD/DVD 4. HDD in that order so the system checks all bays for bootable disks before starting the HDD.

If you have already taken all data off the drive I would look into Dereks Boot'N'Nuke to check out. It gives the system a 'government wipe' for good data hygiene if you want to experiement with giving the drive a good wipe.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

AquaNekoMobile said:


> Afterwards when all the data you wish to keep is off the drive locate your WinXP cd. I've got a HP Bootdisk floppy here which I use if the system still has a floppy bay for DOS booting. Afterwards I just FDISK the drive to format it clean.


Is this still necessary? I thought the WinXP installation process (if you do a full format) also did a FDISK.



AquaNekoMobile said:


> If you have already taken all data off the drive I would look into Dereks Boot'N'Nuke to check out. It gives the system a 'government wipe' for good data hygiene if you want to experiement with giving the drive a good wipe.


I believe a full format already rewrites zeroes to all sectors of the HD.

Unless this program does several passes over the HD?


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## brapbrapboom (Sep 2, 2009)

problem is though, i dont have any recovery discs or whatever, my uncle used to do it for me but we moved so it'll be a hassle to go to their place lol xD


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## brapbrapboom (Sep 2, 2009)

AquaNekoMobile said:


> Where abouts are you? I could help you out with that.
> 
> I am no guru but used to do small level/assistiant admin tech support. I would back up all data you want to keep off that drive to a portable HD or another computer on your network or CD/DVD/USB drive.
> 
> ...


im around lawrence west and keele intersection, M6L1B1. do I need any installer for monitor and mother board stuffs? ill try to find first if i have those CD's. how long would it normally take to reformat a computer? lol. I was also thinking about just getting this one.

http://www.shopxscargo.com/product_...ategory_1_id=59&category=Computer Accessories

i dunno if its worth it, but is this thing fast? can it handle games?


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

It's not bad...not fast by current standards though. Adequate for middle to low intensity games probably.

XP fresh/full install will ask to format the drive. The Boot'N'Nuke overwrites the drive with random characters a number of times that you select. Not necessary if you are keeping the drive.

It takes about a half day to fully install XP Pro with AV, etc. Then more time to install your programs and set up preferences. You only really need to make sure you have the ethernet drivers saved as XP will look for most other drivers online if you don't have them. What version are you running now? Do you have the key?


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## brapbrapboom (Sep 2, 2009)

its still XP now. about the cd and stuff, im not really sure about that.. i might just get that computer xD


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

Darkblade48 said:


> Is this still necessary? I thought the WinXP installation process (if you do a full format) also did a FDISK.
> 
> I believe a full format already rewrites zeroes to all sectors of the HD.
> 
> Unless this program does several passes over the HD?


Well yes. If you do the floppy/USB FDISK then WinXP format you're formatting the drive two times. Tho with FDISK you can select low level format IIRC. In WinXP I don't think you can low level but I could be wrong on that.

If you DBAN the drive it does IIRC 7 passes on the drive AKA 'goverment wipe'. Pretty much very little can be done to recover data back after DBANing without paying some heavy coin and even then you're looking at X% recovery. I have heard of people DBANing thier drives 2-3 times before selling them to make sure most thier personal data is off that drive.


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

brapbrapboom said:


> im around lawrence west and keele intersection, M6L1B1. do I need any installer for monitor and mother board stuffs? ill try to find first if i have those CD's. how long would it normally take to reformat a computer? lol. I was also thinking about just getting this one.
> 
> http://www.shopxscargo.com/product_...ategory_1_id=59&category=Computer Accessories
> 
> i dunno if its worth it, but is this thing fast? can it handle games?


Pending how much you have to load on the box and how personalized you want to get on customizing the WinXP it can take about 2.5-3hrs if things go right for you. Some factors that will add time is if the HD is a massive drive, slow optical drive (Oh man one time I had to make due with what was around and it was a 4x cdrom because the 32x somehow fubared and that was the persons spare we're able to salvage to use. >_<;;; .... tick.....tock....tick....tock....), how fast a connection you have to download the windows updates unless you happen to have the ISO of the current WinXP Service Pack handy it'll save download time. How fast the HD is. I've mostly done on 7200 and some 5400 RPM's tho I'm sure those 15000 RPM drives would go fast but never had any experience with them before. Tho about half a day if things are not that optimal.

Well... WinXP is smart enough to find the audio, video, NIC on the mobo but I'm not sure of the USB/serial connections as those are needed from the mobo company. You may have o check the mobo companies site and see if they have driver sets for your mobo for DL. I've always been lucky to have the mobo cd when I was doing system installs.

Monitor settings is more the video card. If you have a dedicated video card you can get the drivers off the video card's website and then install it then after WinXP's install.

Not sure the pricing on that box you're looking at. Have to checked TigerDirect.ca ? They do have some refurb boxes as well. If you're looking to play Half Life 1 that system would work well and handle 2D games well of ~2000 games and earlier. Newer games will and may work but at a compromise in graphics settings to speed up the game by lowing the graphics settings. Fallout 3 I'm not even sure would run on that even if you went lowest settings.

I'm not really a gamer anymore as much as I used to be. McGee's Alice was my last game that got me all fired up and it still is an A1 game if you've not played it. Other places to check out are factorydirect.ca given you're downtown at work it's not that far from you. They have a location at College & Spadina IIRC.


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## brapbrapboom (Sep 2, 2009)

aqua, I was wondering, if i just got this.. can you install a windows xp OS on it?

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=7_124&item_id=032824


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