Is wipe and reinstall the ultimate solution.
 

The laptop monster uses got to having a horrendous startup time after a bout 2 years, so I wiped it and reinstalled everything (at least I belive I did, I reinstalled from the ghost image on the recovery partition). Now a only acouple of months later it is worse than ever.

Is there stuff that could have survived a simple reinstall like this, or has it really aggregated crap so fast?

What did you use to make the ghost, Beest? In general ghosting preserves everything from the original so you may have preserved the viruses etc. with the rest.

If you really want to do a clean install, preserve only the datafiles - word documents etc. Format the disk and install from the original cds.

and then do the attendant 10,000 updates. In order.

Yes, rebuilding the PC is easier than trying to fix 1,000 problems. In a business, you'd have a standard image for your PCs, and if one of 'em gives you heck, re-image the ƒucker. Problem solved. Assuming you have a clean image, as mentioned above. The problem could be burrowed pretty deep in something you have backed up. As stated, backup your unique files, load the raw OS and chew through the updates. HAVE YOUR ANTIVUIRUS AND FIREWALL INSTALL EXECUTABLE ETC. ON A FLASH DRIVE. That way you can get the PC protected before you put it on the internet. Then go directly to microsoft update and don't do anything else until it is updated. Reboot alot. Reboot a few more times to let windows decide whether it doesn't want any more updates. I do this every few years.

Either "nuke 'n pave" it. Or cure the existing problem.

Malware can even hide in flash or USB drives. Restoring software from anything but the original program CDs may even restore the malware.

Meantime, a system is exposed until the long list of updates are downloaded and installed. This is not a significant threat, but another one.

Bottom line - yes. But most are not a significant threat. Better is to first identify why you have a problem – since it is almost as likely not due to malware. This is why only the better computer manufacturers provide comprehensive hardware diagnostics.

Go HERE to get all the updates and burn to cd or dvd. Thanks m park

Heya,

Wiping and reinstalling is only good if you low-level format the hard drive. If you reinstall on top of a partition that you didn't wipe, there will be problems.

In addition, wiping and reinstalling doesn't fix other problems which manifest themselves, such as hard drive issues, bad RAM, or other bad hardware. It's best to test the RAM on the machine, run a few hard drive benchmarks, and also some diagnostics if available.

The other problem with reinstalling is that you're going to have the bad vendor OEM drivers from when the machine was shipped unless you DL them on their own. Dell, I'm looking at you (they like to ship an older, buggy version of the Intel chipset drivers that causes Vista 64-bit to run like crap).

If you do this, make sure your BIOS and RAM are up to date, and that you've low-level formatted the partition and checked the hard drive. Get the latest drivers from the vendor web site, and make sure you install a known good AntiVirus first with the latest definitions before you copy your old stuff over. If you don't do that, you're going to have issues. Wiping and reinstalling, and reinstalling the old crap back on means more problems. You also have to check for hardware problems first, that may be the issue.

*cough* Ubuntu *cough* Easy to install and use. *buuuurrrrrp*

(My girlfriend's 70-something year old father likes it, and he's got Old Glory Robot Insurance)

I have Ubuntu. I dual-boot my work laptop (Dell Latitude e6400) with that and Windows XP. It is easy to use, don't get me wrong, but WINE is not all that it is cracked up to be, and let's be honest here, many web sites still cater to IE and Windows.

Additionally, I run an Ubuntu machine as a test machine at work running IE 5, 5.5, and 6.0 so that I can load a newer version of IE on the XP machines that our web developers test with.

I also put together a computer lab at a summer camp running Ubuntu. It works quite well for Facebook, YouTube, and Flash.

However, there is still a long way to go to have it work with what most people need. Unfortunately, most Windows users have programs or the equivalent that will not work in WINE/Linux, and they're not going to change unless there's a really good reason.

Still, for the huge percentage of people that simply use a computer for websurfing, flash games, email, basic photo touch-ups and a little word-processing it more than covers the bases.

Honestly, I keep a Windows VM around to do my taxes because I just haven't been able to find a suitable replacement for TurboTax.

But... all the popular tax software runs entirely online now, Perry. Why bother actually installing the program at all?

I didn't realize that. Just checked out the TurboTax online interface. Thanks for the pointer.

*shuffles Windows VM to the trash*

For what it's worth, if your taxes are complex enough to require a schedule C, H&R Block is way cheaper than TurboTax. But if your taxes are pretty basic then they're all the same.

You do realize that all the information you enter in online tax services is retained by them and is their legal property, right? :eyebrow:

I figure it's already the government's information, and I'm more scared of the government doing something wrong with it than I am H&R Block...

One word: iTunes

Get me that working on Linux and you'll have a ton of switchovers. I know that because of the low-level device drivers that Apple installs, Wine has a ton of issues.

Additionally, there's just so much software out there that people want and/or need, everything from Microsoft Office (while OpenOffice is good, it does not handle complex documents well, or allows you to read/write Office 2007 formats), Photo Editing (GIMP is no replacement for Paint Shop Pro), online games (one word: PopCap), or even some proprietary VPN software, it just isn't there.

Don't get me wrong, I really do like Linux (and am using OS X Leopard to type this). I have RHEL running my SMTP gateways, and RHEL, CentOS, Fedora, or other variants powering many embedded appliances in our shop at work. I trust Linux with many critical functions, and I have e17 running on Ubuntu 9.04 on my dual-boot Dell Latitude laptop with working drivers, which I use a slightly hacked version of easy_e17.sh to install (two of rasterman's libraries are in flux and won't build).

The point is, it's a Windows-centric world out there. I have attempted to get people onto Linux. However, it won't pass the "Wife Test" for anything more than using Firefox with Flash, Java, and some add-ons, and maybe OpenOffice for simple documents. It does work perfectly with the AEP Networks Netilla SSL VPN, and with a little work, will work with Citrix.

However, the first time someone sees something that doesn't work, and there's no hand-holding, there's a problem and they'll run back to Windows. That has happened to me. People don't accept imitations. They want their iTunes, to read and write the Office documents that people send them, to quickly edit pictures with a decent user interface, download games from their friends (even though they are .SWF files wrapped in an EXE, and WINE is utter crap at handling ActiveX, I know I have installed Flash Player 10 on IE6 under WINE and gotten it to work), their QuickBooks, and their third-party applications they can get at Best Buy (except games, where WINE and CrossOver kick ass, and so does DOSEMU).

Linux is the best low to mid-end server OS, purpose-built appliance OS (I know Bed, Bath, and Beyond and Burlington Coat Factory run Linux, and that a Linux-based appliance running Citrix would seriously kick ass), and best tweakable OS.

Would I recommend it to people who have less than a technical/scientific bent? No. It won't pass the wife test, and I can't give it to power users who are not technical and expect them to be productive. I could give it to people in the sciences (where Linux is by far the #1 OS for running scientific applications), and they'll have their LaTEX, R, and all their scientific applications running fine. I could give it to any software developer, especially Java developers, and they'll have svn, cvs, Eclipse, and any number of HTTP debuggers up and running (although Visual Studio is nothing short of incredible). I can give it to any appliance developer and they'll have a front-end to VLC, mplayer, Firefox, Flash/Gnash, Citrix, or any GPS application (like my TomTom GPS which runs Linux with Firefox libraries apparently) quickly. I can give it to our Oracle DBAs at work and they'll have it up and running with the DB running on the OCFS2 filesystem doing distributed computing in a day. I can give it to our web team and they'll have LAMP or J2EE applications up in a day.

I just can't give it to a standard end-user. Windows has made leaps and bounds of improvement in the past five years, especially with Vista SP1 and Windows 7, but Linux, while I think it is a great OS, and that Ubuntu has really raised the bar for a desktop distribution by making Debian accessible to many more people, just isn't there.

BTW you can export Quicken files in XML format. GNUCash will read them just fine. One good decision Intuit made back over 10 years ago was to use XML as the base for their data interchange format, OFX (Open Financial eXchange).

My old company built several OFX gateways for some customers a few years back. The last one we did as an example for a division of Deutsche Bank in Java, and our main developer faithfully brought his Powerbook G4 15" in to do the work :).

Don't get me started on Visual Studio. I have to use it at work every day. I've never seen a bigger piece of crap in my life. I'm not sure whether it's VS itself or the Refactor! Pro and other add-ins we use that make it suck.

Spacebar activated text macros are just the tip of my VS-complaint iceberg.

ETA: Yes, I agree. Linux is not for most people but it would be good enough for a lot of people. Since I don't know what monster uses on Windows, I figured it'd be worth a shot pointing out another option.

Is wipe and reinstall the ultimate solution?

I thought this was going to be a relationship thread...

Now that I have read it, I can only say, WTF are you people talking about?

I'll stick to simple things like quantum physics and macrocosmology, thanks.

Perry,

It has to be the add-ins. I've seen it run very slick with a very good debugger with one or two add-ins. Otherwise, it's a polished environment. The best add-ins that I've seen for it have been the security ones (WebInspect), and the worst are from Computer Associates. I've heard good things about the Intel plug-ins too, as their compilers use it as the front end for C/C++ and Fortran.

I've had to use Sun's developer tools from companies they have acquired before they were acquired by Oracle. Visual Studio is a vast improvement to say the least.

Did you really think this was going to be a discussion about bathroom ethics?

I did, to be honest.....

Its the reinstall that I have trouble with.

Just suck it up, ya wimp.

I thought computers were supposed to eliminate all this paperwork. Whatever happened to a paperless society?

That idea bidet the dust.