Does reinstalling Windows and starting from scratch speed up the computer much?

[ComputerQuestio]

I've had my notebook with Windows XP for about 2 years now. It seems like it's slowed down since I first bought it. I upgraded from 512MB RAM to 1.18GB RAM, and now it seems to be going a lot faster, but still sometimes has speed issues. I also bought a 500GB SeaGate FreeAgent Desktop, and used TrialPay to get a license for BackUp4all Standard edition for free. I've been thinking about transferring over many of my settings, files, and excutables to reinstall programs to the external hard drive. Then I'd use the factory CD to completely reinstall Windows XP on my notebook (it would completely format everything). Then I would use what I transferred over to the external hard drive to build up to where I was from before, but by scratch. I would also create an image of my current C and D drives just in case if everything doesn't quite work out for me with the new plan.

Does reinstalling Windows and building up from scratch again affect PC performance by much?

[webbwbb]

It can but that does depend on how you maintain your system. If you rarely defrag, do not use any program like registry mechanic and have alot of worthless programs installed (including spyware/adware) then a reinstall will greatly increase performance. I have ran XP on a system for over two years without worrying about performance problems; then my hard drive died and I had to start over.

[Paul Komski]

With that amount of RAM on even a fairly recent laptop you should have a pretty fast system. "Slowness" can affect (1) startup times (too many programs and services - notably including malware - set to run at startup), (2) the startup time of particular programs (bad defragmentation affecting that program but OK once loaded in RAM, (3) faulty hardware (in particular a hard drive beginning to fail), (4) inadequate disk space or excessive use of the page file.

Defragmentation on NTFS volumes is unlikely to have a significant impact "across the board" unless it is particularly extreme but can occasionally help out one particular program's start-up time dramatically.

Do, as suggested, scan for malware and cut down on running unnecessary programs. Would also check the hard drive with the maker's diagnostics. No harm in defragging but strongly suggest you first do a full chkdsk (including a search for surface errors) prior to defragging.

If a clean reinstall doesn't run nice then double-check your hardware. Otherwise remove bloated software and any malware. My own main XP system with 1GB has been running just fine (with no specific housekeeping) for nearly two years now.

[saphalline]

As has been said, it depends greatly on many factors.

The slow-down of your system as you have described it does indeed sound like standard Windows bloat, but I agree with the others that the source of the slow-down must first be determined before you make any wide sweeping changes to your system. If you've got a problem like a failing HDD or bad RAM, a reinstall of Windows isn't going to fix that! Likewise, if the problem is merely software-related, reinstalling Windows is kind of like dropping a nuclear bomb on a house as a form of pest control! :eek:

Now, all this being said, as a gamer I do use the nuclear bomb method. It's guaranteed to work and it wipes everything on the HDD! This is extremely important for games since even a 1% drop in speed on the Windows desktop can easily translate into a 10% drop in gaming performance. And if the Windows desktop is noticeably slow, then games could be up to 300% slower! :eek: But here again, gamers are in a particularly unique situation in this regard - my main gaming system, for instance, is used only for games and nothing else! How many other people can dedicate an entire uber-system to just games?...

Also, your ideas on moving installed programs are not likely to work. Windows relies on the installation procedures of programs straight from their CD's or DVD's in order to "know" about them. Moving the files and folders around won't magically "install" them on a fresh Windows installation. You will need the actual install CD's for any programs you need to reinstall.

[ComputerQuestio]

Also, your ideas on moving installed programs are not likely to work. Windows relies on the installation procedures of programs straight from their CD's or DVD's in order to "know" about them. Moving the files and folders around won't magically "install" them on a fresh Windows installation. You will need the actual install CD's for any programs you need to reinstall.

I was actually meaning that I was going to make sure I had a copy of every excutable file that installs a program, then I could reinstall that program later as needed. I would also copy "files" that had important data on them, such as My Documents, RoboForm data (but not the whole program itself, IE/Firefox/Opera favorites, etc.

My computer is still a lot faster than it was before when I had 512MB RAM. It's probably about as fast as I had it a year and a half ago (I think I mentioned I've had it 2 years), but it's not as fast as it was 2 years ago. I defrag once a month, diskcheck, file cleanup, use CCleaner for the registry, msconfig for startup items and CCleaner if I absolutely know I don't want that startup entry in the future. I'm just wondering if there may be certain registry pieces missing or corrupted or certain files I missed after uninstalling, etc. I think I also heard somewhere that reinstalling IE and Firefox on occassion make them run faster, but I'm not sure.

[mjc]

I'm just wondering if there may be certain registry pieces missing or corrupted or certain files I missed after uninstalling, etc.

Definitely...

Windows have never been really good about cleaning up the bits and pieces. It is something of a pack rat. XP is better than previous versions (no idea how Vista is), but it still isn't all that great about it.

In general, unless you never uninstall/update any software, a two year old install has a fair amount of clutter that is nearly impossible to get rid of with any kind of 'cleaner' program without causing more harm than good. A good rule of thumb, when dealing with Windows, has always been a year is about as long as an install lasts...

If you don't change hardware very often and want to have a 'base' to work from, after you install and configure your machine, before you you start with your software of choice, you make an 'image' of the hard drive to restore from. Then after you've installed your software that you can't live without, updated/configured it you can make another image. The first image I save until I get the second one done...the second one I burn to disks and save until I make enough hardware changes to make it invalid. This way, it is only a matter of minutes to get back to that 'new car' smell. The first image is basically insurance in case something goes pear shaped during the software install phase...

[ComputerQuestio]

How good is the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard? If I were to do a clean install and then import using that wizard, would it restore many lost and corrupted registry settings without having to go through all the trouble of reinstalling everything else again? Or would it be worth it just to do a clean install and then build up from scratch where I was before just to get rid of certain files, etc, that may not have been cleaned off? I don't know much about the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, but I know that it does copy a lot of stuff over.

[mjc]

If you are going through all the trouble of reinstalling Windows, why not do everything from scratch?

[saphalline]

I've never used the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard". In my experience, those so-called "wizards" merely obfuscate the inner-workings of their respective procedures and settings, adding more layers of unnecessary scripted confusion. Case in point, the set-up wizards for wireless routers/AP's. Crummy software!

I agree with mjc. Installing Windows from scratch is a big deal anyway, what with all the driver installs. It's a good couple hours of babysitting right there. Why not do it all from scratch and dedicate an entire afternoon to this project? Add in the imaging of your finished efforts, and you've got a great investment of time as it relates to your computing enjoyment and productivity!

[SkyTrax]

And on the subject of imaging...

How can i do that easily and with wich software? Is there some good free software for this task ?

I have a computer that had been reinstalled 2 weeks ago, and would like to make an image in the state that is it in the moment.

I've have tried in the past Nero BackItUp that came with my DVD Burner drive and made an image of the entire C: drive. But how can i restore that if i have nothing on the HDD to start with. The image needs Nero to be installed to be able to restore the image!!! and Nero does'nt backup the registry files like ntuser.dat because the files are in use at the time of the backup

So, wich program can do all this tasks and be easily restore on a new hard drive ?

Thanks a lot

[mjc]

The 'good' ones aren't going to be free...sort of.

If you look around you may find a slightly older version of something like Acronis TrueImage (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/) for a discount price (they are at version 11, but some places are still selling 8-10 at discount prices) or if you have a Seagate hard drive, the disk utilities have a built in disk imaging utility. All the good ones will work outside of an OS...you create a boot disk to run the imaging software and then you can make/restore images by booting to that disk.

[SkyTrax]

Thanks,

yes i have a Seagate hard disk, i will have a look at the utility.

[Paul Komski]

There are complete freebies but they tend to be a bit geekish. I repeatedly and unashamedly recommend ImageForDOS (http://paulski.com/zpages.php?id=1917) (or its cousin BiNG) - if only because the trial version is functional and easy to use. It is cheap to buy if you later decide you want to acquire it. If you decide to try it I would stay with version 1.9x since version 2.0 is only on the verge of coming out of beta.