Computer woes! Help?

[elanya]

So... my computer is dying. At the least it needs a reinstall, and I don't have a Windows XP install dis. I do have the product code and such that came with the computer, but I don't know if I can just borrow someone else's install disc?

My other option is to install windows live, which I can get for $15 from the school, but not until Monday or so.

In case you are wondering, this is essentially my comuter. It is slightly different, buty I thik the specs are the same. I bought it in 2006. I'm making this post from work or I could tell you more :P "cause, you know, my comuter is dying -_-

what I man by dying is that everything is slow to load (like... 10-20 min to boot enough that I can run simple programs like the google chat program, more like 30 to try and get firefox up to snuff), and even when they open, things crash. Especially firefox crashes, but I've had problems with other programs as well (word, skype, VLC). This morning, nothing would load. I got it to boot in safe mode, and am backing up my fioles onto my external. I'll finish doing that tonight (right now it is just shifting over the stuff in the My Documents file, but there are some other things I need tucked away here and there - mostly irc log files).

I am fairly confident that part of thr problem is that i am running out of space. I ran the disc clean up yesterday/last night (i.e. I tried to open it when I got home at 5, and by the time I left for Houston around 5:45, it had actually managed to open enough that I could tell it what to do, and left it running while I was away. Ugh.), and that left me with about 6.5 gigs free. I will have to sacrifice some of my music for running space even if I get it reinstalled, but I really need a bigger hard drive, becuse I don't trust my external and can't really run things from it effectively anyway. This is also why I am a little wary of installing a newer operating system - for one thing I don't koiw if my computer could handle it, and also, I think it would take up more space (Y/N?)

So, yeah.... any help? Catherine said that she might have an xp install disc I can use, but I would like to know if I can at least actually use it before I get her to bring it over...

Some other notes: tis means I can only make calls to local phones, since I hve been using skype. So.... unless you have a 979 area code, I probably can't call you. Uuuuugh.

Any help = great! I will probably wind up going in to school this weekend to do computery/internet-y type work. And don't worry, come hell or high water, I will be at D2 on Sunday @_@

Comments

[wererogue.livejournal.com]

I don't believe in "normal windows build-up" (it's almost always a virus or a badly-written program/uninstaller that wrecks windows,) but I'd agree that running memtest and testdisk is a great idea. If your hardware is fine and your data is backed-up, a wipe can do wonders.

Having a full hard disk causes Windows problems, for sure. It really doesn't like it.

There's some cases where a particular edition of XP only works with keys for that edition, but usually you're good with any disc.

[autobuck.livejournal.com]

I would argue that badly-written install/uninstall processes and viral infection *is* "normal windows build-up." You can avoid it to an extent, but if you try out new programs frequently, and particularly if you're talking about downloaded stuff, the build-up is inevitable...

[mrpyro.livejournal.com]

What you're more likely to get is registry fragmentation, where various bits of the Windows registry are stored in completely different parts of the hard drive, so all registry reads end up taking ages. Combine that with the bad uninstallers etc and you can get serious performance issues.

[wererogue.livejournal.com]

The whole registry is read into memory when windows starts, so fragmentation doesn't slow down running times significantly.

There was a great article on this on lifehacker recently:
http://lifehacker.com/5482701/whats-the-registry-should-i-clean-it-and-whats-the-point