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

[elanya.livejournal.com]

so, wait, you are confusing me. I have never done a reinstall - do I need to defrag first, and then format? Or format and then defrag (I assume option 1?)

[autobuck.livejournal.com]

Sorry, bad phrasing. If you reinstall without formatting, you'll have to delete a bunch of stuff, run defrag, etc... but if you do a clean install, which includes a format, you don't need to defrag because the old file table is wiped out, and there's no extra deleting to do, since the format handles that. The downside is, if you forgot to back anything up, it's pretty well gone.

If you do format it, you should consider using the partitioning utility to make a "system" disk and a "data" disk, so that if you reinstall again it won't touch your data files.

[rumor-esq.livejournal.com]

If you format the drive, there's no need to defrag, because you've completely wiped and, uh, recalibrated it, for lack of a better word. A formatted drive is a fresh drive.