Thinking of reinstalling Windows

I am having some problems with my DSL connection speeds, and I am thinking of reinstalling windows as a possible fix. See here for info on that specific problem.

However, I have never done a complete reinstall before and I have a few questions on the subject. I have a BitWare Voice/Fax/Data disc that has Modem drivers, IE, Adobe Acrobat and a few other things. Plus I have the Windows Pro disc itself.

1. Do I need to completely erase the HDD, and then do the reinstall as if it were the first time the OS was being put in?

2. I don't have any discs for most of the system components. Should I make back ups of all the system and peripheral drivers?

3. Will I need to reinstall the mobo drivers?

Please help...

basically you need to know what driver (usually the newest but not always) every single piece of hardware in your compy needs to run on.

esentially you boot from cd rom with OS disc in and its pretty much a straight road from there.

first thing I do when I format is once i get into windows I install my chipset drivers then update windows, then video card rivers then my sound card drivers.

After that I usually defragg.

then antivirus and antispyware, then the rest of programs.

your going to need to do some research if your not familiar with the components of your machine, to find out what drivers you need.

Also there's many step by step guides on the web for reinstalling windows.

GL

1. This is recommended. Installing over Windows brings nothing but problems (I know from experience). You can format the drive in Windows Setup or otherwise.
2. I'm pretty sure that all of the hardware in your sig (correct me if I'm wrong) has drivers that are available for download off the manufacturers' respective websites. Alternatively, you could download all of the required drivers and burn them on to a cd so you have them right there when you're configuring hardware.
3. To regain complete functionality, yes. If you have onboard LAN, these will need to be installed before you can connect to the internet.

Also, a note of advice, install antivirus software and a firewall before you connect to the internet because an unprotected Windows XP system can be compromised within minutes.

Good luck to you, reinstalling is a snap after the first time. Hope everything goes well. Just make sure you know where to get all the drivers before you format.

If you are having slowdown issues, reinstalling on top of it or repairing is unlikely to help matters. If you were having driver compatibility issues or changed hardware and it wouldn't boot anymore, then that could be an option. The problem is that anything that preserves all your programs will preserve all the spyware you got from using IE too much as well.

intox said:

3. To regain complete functionality, yes. If you have onboard LAN, these will need to be installed before you can connect to the internet.

Click to expand...

At minimum you just need the LAN drivers. You could download everything else that you need AFTER your reinstall, as long as you can get online. I had the bright idea once to put all my different LAN drivers on the server, only when I needed them on a reinstall, did I realize they did little good in a location that I could NOT get to from the PC I was working on.

I have good news of a sort...I am not going to have re-format or reinstall windows to solve this problem. I spoke with some techs at CompUSA and I spoke with AOL tech support. The folks at CUSA suggested having AOL release my I.P. addy, and though they didn't end up doing that, I've zeroed in on the issue. The problem lies in my AOL browser. AOL had me go into IE and hook up right from the DSL modem, and I got raging speeds (for once). I then went back onto my router while in IE and got the same results. When I tried it in AOL's browser, I went back to the much slower speeds.

So it is a software issue, but it's specific to AOL. Now I just have to see if someone at Browser Support can help.

And I thank all of you very much for your kind advice.

Wow, people still use AOL's browser? =p