rebuild PC options

[JohnD]

I have got a new SATA disk as my old one has been giving disk errors since I moved the Pagefiles onto my secondary drive. I am taking the opportunity to fit a more memory and a faster processor as well.

As my old build has been getting quite slow I think I would do best want to make a new Windows build on the new disk and load all the s/w on from scratch.

So I don't think I should use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard or a Disk Copy utility or it will copy across all the old rubbish that is slowing me down, won't it?

But, on the other hand, I don't want to have to buy new s/w licences for XP OEM home, Norton and Nero (I think all my other apps are OK to reinstall).

Any suggestions?

Hmmmmm.

I am fairly familiar with IDE methods and have a couple of swappable secondary IDE drives that I use for backups. I could copy the whole of my old C-drive to one of these if it helps.

I could also set the old SATA disk as a Slave and use it to copy things from, onto the new disk. I have not used SATA except when I assembled this PC from a barebones in Summer 2006. I have built and upgraded PCs before. I do not want to put the old SATA at risk until I have finished loading the new disk.

The old spec is on http://www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=154935

I am very fond of the Norton one-button checkup, antivirus and the Password filler in Internet Security, so don't really want to take Norton off.

 

[Estrella]

Assuming you bought XP as opposed to the PC coming with a reboot/reinstall/repair CD you should be OK to do a fresh install.You may have to call MS to activate it but that won't be an issue if you are economical with the truth. And to be honest there really ist much of a subsitute for a clean install. A nice fresh install is always best if possible.

I assume you have all the required licence keys , if not Belarc / SIW will provide those for you.

 

[Softus]

As my old build has been getting quite slow I think I would do best want to make a new Windows build on the new disk and load all the s/w on from scratch.

You seem to be concluding that the cause of the slowness is the elapsed time since the date of installation. That's not very logical.

So I don't think I should use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard or a Disk Copy utility or it will copy across all the old rubbish that is slowing me down, won't it?

No. It won't.

But, on the other hand, I don't want to have to buy new s/w licences for XP OEM home, Norton and Nero (I think all my other apps are OK to reinstall).

The FSTW won't install any applications for you - you need the distribution media for that.

But you don't need "new" licenses - just use the ones you already have.

Any suggestions?

If it isn't broken, then leave it alone.

I am fairly familiar with IDE methods and have a couple of swappable secondary IDE drives that I use for backups. I could copy the whole of my old C-drive to one of these if it helps.

I don't think you mean "swappable", and I don't think you mean "copy".

What are you really trying to achieve?

 

[JohnD]

You seem to be concluding that the cause of the slowness is the elapsed time since the date of installation. That's not very logical.

I am concluding that it is getting slower because it is getting clogged up with heaps of old rubbish I have accumulated over time.

I don't think you mean "swappable", and I don't think you mean "copy".

What are you really trying to achieve?

1) swappable:
I have caddy-mounted IDE drives which I use for backups, I can take one drive out and put another one in. I usually do this about once a month. They are not "hot-swappable" like if I had an array of disks.

2) Copy:
In Norton Save and Restore I have a utility that will copy an old disk onto a new one. It is intended for when you buy a new, bigger disk (as it happens, my old and my new SATAs are both 80GB, and so is the backup IDE, but I don't use that much).
Apart from this I could copy all the visible files from the C-drive onto another disk if it would be any help. However I already keep periodic backups of My Documents and the data files from MSMoney and Outlook Express and a couple of other things that have data on I keep safe, and I have occasionally restored files from backup after things went wrong. In the past when moving to a new PC I have found FSTW does most of the data transfer for me after I have installed the apps.

3) Objective
My PC has been running slow, it is slower now than when I assembled it 2 1/2 years ago. In that time I have for example had two cameras and two scanners, so as well as their drivers they have loaded more picture handling apps than I need; I also have had a couple of disk recording and DVD reading apps, also Realplayer, Quicktime and Windows Media as well as Nero, I think I have some redundant stuff on it. I plan to only install the latest s/w and not the stuff I don't use any more. I have already removed stuff from the start-up menu that I don't consider I need but the machine is still running slower than my old spare machine that has a much slower processor and older mb.

Microsoft Money is particularly slow, and freezes for at least ten seconds for some transactions. It got faster when I moved the pagefile onto my secondary disk, but I have been getting Disk Write errors since then, and Windows advises me to back up my data because it thinks my hard drive is on the way out. in the last week I have had a couple of BSODs and I sometimes go away overnight and notice the PC has restarted when I was not looking (probably when it was defragging).

Ebay is also curiously slow and I notice Processor usage goes up to the high 90%s while I am moving round it.

I am sure I can improve the performance a bit by increasing the memory and the processor, and by doing a clean install, and I have a new drive I can fit as well so I think I will do the whole lot in one go.

 

[Softus]

OK, I understand where you're coming from now.

You might have a disk problem. Some disk errors are reversible, but others not. Whilst it would be relatively straightforward to design, from scratch, a multi-tasking operating system and machine architecture that is [more] tolerant of disk errors, we are where we are in terms of the de-facto commodity platform.

If a disk has errors, whether 'hard' or 'soft' ones, the effect is often as you describe:- slowness, lockups, bizarre application behaviour, random CPU resets, BSODs, etc.. Sector problems will lead to both data and file-system corruption, so the best advice in the case of a suspect disk is to not use it. Defragging is certainly a good way to exacerbate the problem, so you should stop doing that.

'Clogging' doesn't happen of course, but even when you're placing the minimum of demands upon it, Windows has a need for basic resources while it does the equivalent of breathing in and out. Context switching will increase when you load more applications at startup, and performance will die off sometime before it physically uses all available RAM; for both of the these reasons moving the swapfile almost always increases performance.

Anyway, there are many reasons why buying a new disk and installing onto it everything you want (and nothing that you don't) is a good idea. Not least because your disk might be about to expire, and in some scenarios the act of diagnosing and fixing is capable of doing more harm than good.

I would definitely not attempt to copy or clone your suspect disk, for example. Nor would I be defragmenting it ever again.

 

[JohnD]

seems to be working OK so far and going quicker.

Sadly I've lost the registration key for Norton Systemworks but I had a spare Internet Security which has upgraded itself to the 2009 version. Sound not working but the MB is the same so it must be just a setting somewhere

Files & Settings Wizard - the Settings alone carried all my Outlook Express mail logs, address books and mail rules, as well as Favorites and Cookies, which surprised me, so I haven't transferred the Files from the old machine, I just copied My Documents back from my backup disk.

 

[Deluks]

Have you installed the sound drivers and enabled the on-board audio in the bios? You may also need to config the speaker outs for your speaker type: stereo, 5:1, 2:1 etc.

 

[JohnD]

I don't know what it is yet

The MB has a disk that loads all the drivers (it has on-board sound) and I did not manually change anything to do with sound on the BIOS.

(I just had a look at the BIOS, it has onboard Audio Active. There was a setting for sound "PCI" and "EDB" bus, EDB was ticked so I unticked it and ticked PCI to see if that helps (it doesn't) so I';ve changed it back to EDB)

The sound driver install on the CD loads some kind of sound management software as well, but when I took it off, the Device Manager said there was no sound driver, so I reinstalled it but unticked the sound manager stuff.

I have three coloured sockets on the Sound part, blue yellow and pink. The papers do not say which is for the speakers and I forgot which socket I used before the rebuild None of them work though. My TFT screen has built-in speakers and amp, it is on, I get clicks when I plug the jack into the MB sockets.

 

[Deluks]

Every mobo I've owned in the last ten years has had a green socket for the main stereo speaker pair.

Open control panel> sounds & audio> audio tab. What is the listed default device for 'sound playback?'

 

[JohnD]

Soundmax Digital Audio

p.s. I have poked the speaker jack into the green hole now, and tried the MS help wizard thing that tells you what to do, without success.

Today I have also tried uninstalling the Soundmax device, reinstalling it, re-installing the drivers, all to no avail

 

[Deluks]

Try another set of speakers

Or plugging in at the wall and turning them on

 

[JohnD]

 

[TonyWarrington]

Have you had a look in device manager if any yellow exclamation marks showing against Sound device?

Might be worth having a look in Control Panel / Sound and Audio

Volume tab - make sure device volume set correctly. Check Advanced setting - nothing muted

Audio tab - Check that default device is selected for your Soundmax. Click on Advanced and check your speaker setup correct

 

[JohnD]

yes, I looked again at all the settings. I also re-fitted my old hard-drive to see if it was something I'd set differently.

I pulled out the MB illustration and noticed it has a sound outlet on the front panel as well as the back, I plugged the speaker cord in here and now it works. I can't think why the front socket works and the back one doesn't but at least it's going now.

thanks for your interest and suggestions.

 

[Deluks]

Could possibly be a jumper setting on the motherboard, which switches between the two outputs.

Glad it's sorted, sorry I made you mad