NEED HELP! What Should I do After A Re-Format

[TannerStauss]

So, I have gone through just about everything trying to pull the potential out of my computer, with no luck. So, now, I am going to try a reformat all over again, and see if I can get it to run smooth.

Mainly I would like to know all the steps I should take on the reformat to make everything run EXACTLY as it SHOULD.

1. What kind of Re-Format is the best to do?
2. After the Re-Format, what steps should I take?
3. based on my specific hardware, what drivers SHOULD I, and SHOULD I NOT install?
4. ANYTHING ELSE i should do to have my computer running to its potential,(preferrably without spending more money)



My Specs Are:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ 2.21 GHz,
2.00 GB of RAM,
ATi Radeon X800XL 512MB video card,
Abit Fatality AN9 32X Motherboard,
Windows XP Pro, SP2


let me know if there are any other specs you need to know.


I hope someone can help me. I mainly play battlefield, and I am getting a lot of lag recently. I know that what my computer has now should easily be able to run BF2 and more. I would like to play some better games in the future without problems as well(Crysis).

Someone please help, ask any questions that may help you help me.

Thanks,

Tanner

[megawhompertoo]

Re: NEED HELP! What Should I do After A Re-Format

Download your motherboard chipset drivers (lan, sound, SATA, etc.), the latest version of ATI drivers (I've found the catalyst control center has gotten much better/faster), and copy to a flash drive.

Then, slap your windows XP CD in the drive, enable boot from that device, and go through setup. Choose a slow (not quick) format, and format using NTFS file system. Once that's done, update your drivers from your flash drive. If your disk is pre-service pack 2, consider making a slipstream install CD (google slipstreaming xp), or at least also copying SP2 to your flash drive so that you don't have to download that thing again. Ditto your BF2 patch and the install files for Euro Farces and Armored Furry if you downloaded those boostard packs.

There is a near-COMPREHENSIVE manual at www.tweakguides.com that will also give you some great info on how to do a windows install for best effect.

[LT_SE7EN11]

Re: NEED HELP! What Should I do After A Re-Format

You may also want to check in your system tray to see if you have any unnecessary applications running. If you do, you should be able to either close them before playing any games or totally stop them from starting.

To see what apps & services start up when your PC boots into Windows, type msconfig from Run on the start menu. ONLY remove the items that you know for sure you do not want starting.

Please post back when you get everything working so someone else may learn from your experience.

[signa]

Re: NEED HELP! What Should I do After A Re-Format

1. What kind of Re-Format is the best to do?

- I usually delete and re-create the entire partiton, and do a full format on it. I Keep windows on C: drive and all my data and programs on D: drive for easy reformatting. If your not setup like that, then you would have to backup everything important to you before reformatting. you may want to consider just re-installing windows over itself. Its not the best, but its easy and you wont lose important stuff (hopefully). make sure you dont format the partition if you do it that way.

2. After the Re-Format, what steps should I take?

- As Mega said, boot from your windows cd. you might want to look into slipstreaming. its very easy using Nlite and RyanVM. I just did a slipstream yesterday following an article in this months MaximumPC. I put in my orig XP cd, downloaded SP2 and it only took 30 seconds to integrate it. then using RyanVM I downloaded thier windows hotfixes pack and integrated that (10 min).
- After you have windows up and running, download Autopatcher and that will complete any fixes windows needs plus addons like .net framework, tweakUI, wmp 11, IE 7.0, etc. you'll need the Nov2006_full and Feb_07 update files.

3. based on my specific hardware, what drivers SHOULD I, and SHOULD I NOT install?

- I agree with Mega. download everything you need before hand and put on a usb drive or cd. you'll need all the mobo chipset drivers he mentioned. get those from your mobo manufacturer support website. also get the latest video and sound card drivers. you may also look into updating your bios firmware.

4. ANYTHING ELSE i should do to have my computer running to its potential,(preferrably without spending more money)

- check out tweakguides, and Blackvipers service configurations.

To see what apps & services start up when your PC boots into Windows, type msconfig from Run on the start menu. ONLY remove the items that you know for sure you do not want starting.

imo dont use msconfig for xp. use regedit and browse to this key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run

[TannerStauss]

Re: NEED HELP! What Should I do After A Re-Format

There is a near-COMPREHENSIVE manual at www.tweakguides.com that will also give you some great info on how to do a windows install for best effect.

Can you give me a link to the Comprehensive manual you are talking about. I couldn't really find what you were talking about.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: NEED HELP! What Should I do After A Re-Format

Can you give me a link to the Comprehensive manual you are talking about. I couldn't really find what you were talking about.

errr. hrrumph. err. <-- number of clicks (and pops) necessary to navigate to the necessary page.

No worries though. We'll try it one click at a time:

You click on this linky

http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html

and then click on the big round circle that says "download tweakguides tweaking companion", and when it asks you if you want to download or save, you click save. It's a 1.9mb file, so you may now go to the bathroom or fetch some water should you feel full or empty while the file downloads. When it's done saving you double-click on it to open it. If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader to read .pdf's, you'll need to snag a copy or grab an open-sauce reader clone.

Once you have it open, you turn to the appropriate section of the document, cleverly disguised as "Installing Windows" on an obscure page named 33. You then read and consider which suggestions are appropriate/worthwhile for your install and your time.

[Minicoop503]

Re: NEED HELP! What Should I do After A Re-Format

Yea, or you could right-click- save- as http://www.tweakguides.com/files/TGTC_XP_3.4.zip to download it.