Start 2005 with a refreshed old PC
Zatni Arbi, Contributor/Jakarta
Now that Christmas is over and work pressure must be a bit lighter, it is perhaps the best -- and the last -- opportunity to restore your PC to its level of performance when the operating system was first set up and before all those downloaded trial software programs were installed and uninstalled.
Some people may choose to tweak the system to recoup the lost snappiness. Sure, it must give them a lot of fun, but I prefer the much easier way: I simply use brute force and reformat the hard disk and reinstall everything. I do not usually have the time to decipher and clean up the Windows Registry.
But, first and foremost, if you have been doing it on a regular basis, you must back up all your data. This should include backing up all the contents of your My Document folder, your Favorite links and all the e-mail messages that you want to keep.
And, oh, forget those files, such as winzip.exe, which took you hours to download.
If you use Outlook, you will have to clean up each of the folders and then archive all of them. In Outlook, click on File and then on Archive. You can specify the location of the archive file by clicking on the Browse button in the dialog box that appears. By default, the name of the archive file is outlook.pst; it's best to leave it like that.
Then choose the option "Archive this folder and all subfolders" and select "Personal Folders. This will back up all your Outlook folders and all their content, including the extremely indispensable contact data.
If you are an Outlook Express (OE) user, you will have to first find the Store Folder, which is the location where this program keeps all its data. We went through this process in one of my past articles, but we can do it again.
In OE, click on Tools, Options and then on the Maintenance tab. Click on Store Folder to find out the path. Usually the path is very long (C:WINDOWSApplication DataIdentifier . . . ), and therefore you may not be able to write it down correctly.
The best way to copy the entire path is to first place the I- beam somewhere in the middle of the long path, hit Home, press and hold Shift and hit End. When the entire path is already highlighted, you just have to copy it (Ctrl-C, or Ctrl-Insert).
Then start Windows Explorer, paste the path in the Address box, and then click on Go. You will see a list of files with the extension .dbx. These are OE's data file. Press Ctrl-A to select all of them, and Ctrl-C to copy them. Paste them in a separate folder in your backup media.
Now, if you run Windows XP as I do, remember that you may have to check out the CD-Key. It is the string of characters that you must enter each time you install Windows XP from its setup CD- ROM. It will be necessary especially if you have misplaced the box with the CD-Key label. The easiest way is to download Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder from www.magicaljellybean.com. The utility will even get the CD-Key for your Microsoft Office suite.
Once all the important data is backed up, you are ready to clean up the entire hard disk. Be 100 percent sure that you have a backup copy of everything that you need, though, because once your hard disk is formatted, it will take a rocket scientist to retrieve it -- if you're that lucky.
How do you reformat a hard disk that already has Windows XP on it? Windows XP does not have a boot disk, but you can use the boot disk of Windows 98 or Windows ME, if you have it. Otherwise, you can download the boot disk from websites such as www.bootdisk.com or www.support.microsoft.com. In fact, you can also use PartitionMagic's boot disk if you happen to have it.
Do not panic if you cannot boot from the floppy diskette. Chances are that your PC's BIOS is not configured to boot from the floppy drive. You will need to reboot the PC and hit Delete before Windows starts to get to the BIOS configuration menu.
Go to the Boot menu and make the Floppy Drive the first choice. Keep in mind that Microsoft is not going to support setting up from floppies in its future operating system products.
By the way, if you really want to start with a truly clean slate, you can low-level-format the hard disk. This will turn every bit on the platters to "0". All traces of viruses will be gone, for sure.
Again, before you place your Windows XP setup CD-ROM in the drive, don't forget to configure the BIOS so that the system will boot from the CD-ROM drive instead of the floppy disk. Remember to choose NTFS as the file system, as it is the most efficient way to use the space on the hard disk. The rest of the reinstalling process should be smooth sailing.
Here are a few things to remember while you are reinstalling all the applications: First, make use of the System Restore tool (click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools and then System Restore). Right after the Windows XP is fully installed and running, you can proceed by installing your antivirus software and then the Office applications.
Create a restore point after you make sure your latest installed application works smoothly. This will allow you to roll back to the previous working state in case you encounter problems after installing a piece of software.
And, of course the job is not done yet until you download and install all the latest Service Pack and updates from www.support.microsoft.com. Get the latest version of Internet Explorer and OE, if you use them.
By the way, my PC has been acting funny for some time. I guess I must also do all of the above right away before saying goodbye to 2004.