Ever want to know how to really REALLY start out clean? I mean a clean fresh install of your operating system and all the programs such as office, antivirus and utility software that your normally use? Well, the following are the steps I do on each and every computer that I end up having to do just that to, start all over.
***NOTE***
The following procedure assumes several things. First and foremost, you've determined beyond a reasonable doubt that reloading your Operating system is the BEST and ONLY option that will fix or resolve your issue. Second, you've backed up all your personal data to a separate location away from the computer in question. Third, you own or have a copy of your Operating System that is compatible with the product key on your computer (Product keys found on the back, side or bottom in the case of a laptop are generally OEM keys and require OEM version of the Operating System to be installed. Or you have some type of restore / recovery CD that has a complete image that you can go back to. Generally Dells come with an Operating System Disk, all others have a restore feature built in. See your manufacturer's literature to find out what you have.) Fourth, you understand and accept that you will have to reinstall ALL your hardware and software again. Fifth, you have the time (minimally about 3-5 hours with ALL MS Updates and additional software and tweaks.) And lastly, you've backed up ALL your personal data, once the first part of the process is complete, there is NOTHING to salvage, save or recover. It's GONE.
***NOTE***
First and foremost, if you have the ability to do so, download either DBAN or BCWipePD (Disk formatting tools) and burn to disk. Using either of these tools is pretty self explaining, however, it should be noted, they reformat ALL physically attached drives on a system. So if you have a 16Gb thumb drive attached to your computer or any other type of external hard drive attached when you use either utility, you're going to lose everything. Don't say I didn't warn you ahead of time!
Insert your disk that has either utility burned to it and follow the on-screen directions, reformat your hard drive. Depending on the size of your hard drive and the options your choose, this could take a while (in some cases I've seen 500-750gb drives take 3 days to complete whereas a 40-60gb drive performing a DOD 7-pass wipe takes 2 hours). Normally two passes is sufficient, in more paranoid cases, a DoD 7-pass wipe will ease your mind, the choice is yours.
Once the hard drive has been reformatted to your liking, remove the disk and insert the Operating System disk and reboot. Follow the prompts to install a new instance of Windows. You'll be brought to a screen that shows your physical drive and how much space is available and three options. Select the option that says create a new partition and on the next screen it has a block with a pre-filled size amount. Now depending on how large your hard drive is will determine the next entry you make. IF you have larger than 60gb hard drive, in the field enter the figure 25600 and continue forward as it will make a partition 25gb in size. Create another new partition using the auto filled in remaining drive space amount. On the next screen you want to perform a Quick format. If presented with several options to include FAT32 choose with care.
FAT32 - Faster, no indexing on the drive, no file security or file/folder permissions, can NOT handle files larger than 4GB in size, file naming restriction, less secure but with a bit better performance
NTFS - consistant, redundant, file indexing can be turned off, file/folder security available, no file size or file name limit, more secure all the way around
Once you have selected your format options, the formatting process starts followed by the copying of files. Your computer will reboot and then Windows begins the graphical user interface (GUI) portion of the install, follow the prompts, put in your product key when prompted and complete the install. During this portion of the install, you'll be asked to create an Administrator password. This password is NOT the password associated with the normal everyday user account. This password is for the built in Administrator account. Whatever you choose for the password, make sure you write it down and keep it somewhere safe. If you or a technician ever need to do work after the fact, you'll need this password to access the Administrator account, without it you're up a river without a paddle. This overall process should take about 45 minutes or so depending on the speed of the computer, and finally the computer restarts.
Now that Windows is installed, you're going to walk through a brief user set up and then you'll be magically transported to your desktop. Take a moment to kill all the happy pop ups. Install all the necessary hardware drivers for you to get online if necessary, you should either have a disk that they came on or you went online PRIOR to starting and downloaded them all (depending on Windows and how old your hardware is, you may not need to install anything at all).
Click Start, Programs and at the top of the list, Windows Update. You'll be whisked off to the MS update site and, after installing a few mandatory initial updates, you'll be provided with either choosing Express updates or Custom updates. ALWAYS CHOOSE CUSTOM. Now, depending if your operating system disk came with Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2, you need to get all the available updates BEFORE installing the next service pack and continuing on. It will be a lengthy process. For example, you start out with SP2, MS Update gives you the option of jumping right to SP3 or viewing other updates, view other updates, install ALL. Reboot and repeat the process until there are NO other updates available except SP3, then install SP3, reboot as necessary, update again until there are no more available updates. This is the longest part of the process especially if you're on dial up!
Finally! No more updates. Now for the fun part. What follows is the exact process I use on "newly" formatted systems for XP. Of course if you don't want to use a specific software, substitute as necessary but follow the overall process for success:
1. Turn off system Restore
2. Change Visual Settings, All unchecked cept the last two
3. Change Recycle Bin Properties to 1% of total drive space
4. Change IE settings to 0 days in History and Update every time I visit page, Install Firefox 3.0 and import favs from IE
5. Create folder USERDATA on %systemdrive%
6. Create Appropriate Profile folders in C:\USERDATA
7. Redirect User Profiles MY DOCUMENTS to C:\USERDATA\%Username%
8. Mod registry entries for faster menu pop up speeds (Default = 400, Change to 20), wait to kill non responding app and hung time out (Default = 50000, change to 10 and 15 respectively) under HK_Users\Default User and HKEY_Current_User
9. Install Auslogics Disk Defragger, Malwarebytes, Spybot 1.6.2 and Spyware Blaster and CCleaner with all updates
10. Install UltimateDefrag 15-day trial, version .55 with Boot Optimizer
11. Install MS Office 2003 if requested (using Customer's software)
12. Install Antivirus Software and update/configure (using Customer's software)
13. Install File Unlocker 1.8.7, set systray icon to autohide
14. Install Systernals Tool Pack
Configuration:
15. Copy DELTREE to C:\Windows\System32 folder, Run %temp% to get local user path, copy path to MS-Cleanup.bat, copy MS-cleanup.bat to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Startup folder, run MS-Cleanup.bat
16. Right click anywhere in the open area of the desktop and on the drop down menu, click new, shortcut. In the location, type in the following (copy and paste the following to make it easier!):
%SystemRoot%\System32\Cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:35 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:35
Run above shortcut, select ALL selectable boxes. (Initial run will be fast, if never ran on system it could take a while)
17. Set Firefox Options to clear personal data upon close, select all data except saved passwords
18. Set background to either flat blue background or Windows XP Wallpaper.
19. Run CCleaner
19a. Run MS Hotfix Backup Remover
20. Run AUSLOGIC Defragger for initial disk defrag (This will speed up the secondary Disk Defrag Tool, Ultimate Defrag)
21. Adjust Pagefile.sys to appropriate size, reboot as necessary
Ultimate Defrag
Options:
Performance Section: Strict Placement, Custom IN ORDER = Windows, Program Files, Doc and Set, USERDATA, ADD Wildcards *.dll, *.exe, *.sys, *.ocx
Archive Section: Fast Placement, Custom IN ANY ORDER = Recycler, System Information, ADD Wildcards *.log, *.txt, *.tmp, *.hlp, *.chm, (*.rar, *.r0?, *.r??, - Only necessary if you have WinRar instead of Winzip) *.zip, *.bak, *.iso, *.dat, *.msi
BOOT Time Tweaking:
Drag Pagefile.sys OUT of top box and put in LOWER box by itself, check run at next reboot, close options window, go BACK into options\Boot Time Defrag to ensure run at next reboot is still checked (has a habit of not staying check, usually check twice and it's good), REBOOT
After pagefile.sys is successfully moved, Run Ultimate Defrag AGAIN, Boot Time Tweak,.....find the LAST sequenced box the pagefile.sys occupied, the NEXT box is the numbers you want, Enter appropriate numbers into the MFT Start field, check run on next reboot and confirm. REBOOT.
Run Ultimate Defrag, Analyze, your Pagefile should start at TDC of the outer ring, where it stops your MFT section should immediately start. The first 3-5 outer rings SHOULD be completely filled and solid. If any gaps exist check your MFT Start location and verify against where it should start.
RUN Ultimate Defrag:
Run Ultimate Defrag, select FOLDER/File Name, OPTIONS All checked EXCEPT Process HP and then quit.
Reboot
LASTLY, Install Pagefile Defragger and set to run on next boot, reboot. After last reboot, use UltimateDefrag to analyze drive, you should at 0%-0.1% drive fragmentation and 0 or 1 files fragmented. Insert boot disk with Ghost and Reboot. Create Image.