Im Re-doing a computer.....

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sirius

Registered Member
Dec 28, 2001
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Hello peeps.....

.....I have a system I built a few years ago. What I wanna do is reformat it and reinstall windows, and also re-divide my partitions. In January, I wanna order some extra RAM.

Ive done it before, the reformatting and partitioning, but Ive added another drive since then, and I dont want any mistakes. I run two SATA disks, an 80GB Samsung and a 250 GB Seagate Barracuda, and whatever happens I dont wanna cock up the second drive. Its the first one I wanna rejiggle.

Im thinking of unplugging the second drive altogether off the main board, then after installing windows, turning the PC off again and reattching the cable. Would this be okay, or is it better if I just left it in place whilst windows finds everything the first time around?.

I havent opened my case for ages, but I believe I have some spare RAM slots. How do I know which type they are so I can order another? Do I need to buy two or will one suffice. Im on 1gb of RAM using an AMD Athlon XP3200+ (2.19ghz).

I want to add another gb of Ram, in the hope that it will let me play more Virtual Instruments in Cubase etc, cos right now my PC is crawling (hence the reformat, its not usually so slow). But even when it does run normal speed, you only need to load 7 VST's and it starts flaking. Would RAM achieve this, or is it more CPU I need (I hope not).

Im not sure what Im looking for.

But anyway, the reformat and partition is the first thing. Plus, when Ive got all the essentials on for a fresh Install, whats the BEST program to save me doing it every time? Some sort of clone software you can work inside windows xp? Id need to get that before I start!


Just thought Id sound things out before I wiperooney the whole caboodle

ta

Sirius
 
T

turpieaj

Active member
Feb 15, 2003
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sunshine on Leith, via Watford
As for your hard drives, if your worried about accidently reformatting the non boot disk (has known to happen before), by all means disconnect it.
As for the memory, the stick of RAM will have a sticker with all the details on it Manufacturer MHZ,DDR ratings and Latency and so forth. so just try and get a match from there, or even better would be to buy a good make ie Kingston/OCZ and buy a matched pair kit (just remember to remove the old one though as this would hinder the performance of your new RAM).

Once you've got all your windows/updates/drivers and appz on and your happy use something along the lines of Norton Ghost to take a recovery image...

Good luck!

Andy
 
F

Forgetliner

New member
Jan 8, 2007
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Bolton
if its saving all the data, music info etc on 1 hard disk which is formatted then I can help ya, install windows over the top of the current application

I had the same problem, I had a diskpartitioned, 1 side of it had all my data,tunes on it etc and the other side needed completely reformatting, I was scared that I would lose all info if I formatted the one side.

How to do it!

Install windows as you normally would, but at the beginning it tells you that it will install to the C drive, choose the option that says - install to another location, it then asks for the file name - Call it WINXP2,carry out install as you normally would and this then puts all data, info into this new location and not over the C drive thats already installed

When installation complete, you will have all your old disk with everything still on it, eg music,data,files etc and a new installation of Windows, copy all the old files into the new folder WINXP2 and you can save all your old stuff on the other drive and save as a backup,,thats what I do anyway

Hope this helps
 


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