Reformatting?

Daric

So I've never reformatted a computer before. But my laptop is acting really weird lately and I think this may be my only option.

This is my system information. If it's even needed, I have no idea.

OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium
Version 6.0.6000 Build 6000
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DARIC-LAPTOP
System Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
System Model F3Sv
System Type X86-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7300 @ 2.00GHz, 2001 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 201, 4/17/2007
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.0.6000.16386"
User Name Daric-Laptop\Daric
Time Zone Central Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 2,046.63 MB
Available Physical Memory 1.09 GB
Total Virtual Memory 4.21 GB
Available Virtual Memory 2.93 GB
Page File Space 2.29 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

There's my main issue right there. When I started typing this post I had 7 gigs available on my C: drive. I haven't installed anything, I haven't done anything but type this post and I'm already down to less than a gig of memory now. I can't figure out what's going on.

But, I've never done this before. When I bought this computer, it came with Vista on it, but it didn't come with a copy of the software, so I'm going to buy it from my school's store for like $30. But is there any way to save my Firefox settings before I do it? I really just need the saved passwords. About how long does a reformat take? I have a few hours until my next class, will I be able to get it done before then?

Help me, guys, you're my only hope.

amateurhour

Not to be an ass, but are you sure you're checking your c drive there? and not some other setting? All I see in that spoiler is ram and vram settings, not hard drive space.

Daric

Yeah when I click computer it says I have 7gb on my C: drive and like 50gb on my D drive. When I checked it again 2 minutes later I was down to 935mb on my C: drive. Right now it's at 91mb. It's really pissing me off because I can't figure out where it's all going.

RandomEngy

You need Spacemonger to figure out what's eating your hard drive.

amateurhour

It sounds like your laptop was partitioned and the partition is being removed... the only problem is that it's going to , which is going to fuck up a lot of daily applications. I would let it run for about an hour, at this rate, and then come back and check it to see if it removed C: completely. I don't know how it could, since windows is working.

Who did you buy it from? Was it new?

Daenris

Daric wrote: »

Yeah when I click computer it says I have 7gb on my C: drive and like 50gb on my D drive. When I checked it again 2 minutes later I was down to 935mb on my C: drive. Right now it's at 91mb. It's really pissing me off because I can't figure out where it's all going.

Well, it's possible that there is something malicious and/or crashed running in the background that it constantly writing to disk. Does this happen all the time, even immediately after a fresh reboot?

It's also possible (though probably not likely judging from your virtual memory size) that you have Windows managing your virtual memory size, and something is really swapping like crazy and causing that file to be increased repeatedly. You should set your virtual memory file to a fixed size, if you haven't already. I'm not sure how to set this in Vista, but if it's similar to XP you need to go to your System settings in the control panel, Advanced tab, Advanced again, click the Change button under Virtual memory, and set it to a custom size with the initial and maximum size the same value (2GB is most likely more than adequate).

Also, you could try searching your computer for very large files that were modified very recently to see if there's a single huge file somewhere that's being written to and taking up space.

Daric

I downloaded that SpaceMonger thing and used it. That helped a lot, got rid of 40gb of shit I didn't need. Most of it was my temp folder. I bought Star Wars Galaxies yesterday from Direct2Drive and when I went to install it I would double-click it and it would just sit there. Apparently it was opening in the background multiple times or something. But I still need to know how to reformat for the future in case it continues to act weird. How do I go about doing that?

Daenris

Daric wrote: »

I downloaded that SpaceMonger thing and used it. That helped a lot, got rid of 40gb of shit I didn't need. Most of it was my temp folder. I bought Star Wars Galaxies yesterday from Direct2Drive and when I went to install it I would double-click it and it would just sit there. Apparently it was opening in the background multiple times or something. But I still need to know how to reformat for the future in case it continues to act weird. How do I go about doing that?

Stick in the CD, boot from CD. It will tell you what to do. Since you have two partitions, you will probably want to move anything you don't want deleted onto the D drive (including anything in your My Documents folder, since this is stored on the main windows drive by default). When you boot from the Windows CD it should give you the option of repairing, reinstalling, or repartitioning. You don't want to repartition, but just reinstall (there might be an option to do a full reinstall which wipes the original data first).

Daenris

amateurhour wrote: »

It sounds like your laptop was partitioned and the partition is being removed... the only problem is that it's going to , which is going to fuck up a lot of daily applications. I would let it run for about an hour, at this rate, and then come back and check it to see if it removed C: completely. I don't know how it could, since windows is working.

Who did you buy it from? Was it new?

I assume (though not positive) that he actually meant he had 7gb free space, and then later it was down to under 1gb... not that the actual partition was changing size as this would cause all sorts of problems, and windows would crash (since I doubt 1gb is even enough to hold a default Windows install anymore).

Daric

Daenris wrote: »

Daric wrote: »

I downloaded that SpaceMonger thing and used it. That helped a lot, got rid of 40gb of shit I didn't need. Most of it was my temp folder. I bought Star Wars Galaxies yesterday from Direct2Drive and when I went to install it I would double-click it and it would just sit there. Apparently it was opening in the background multiple times or something. But I still need to know how to reformat for the future in case it continues to act weird. How do I go about doing that?

Stick in the CD, boot from CD. It will tell you what to do. Since you have two partitions, you will probably want to move anything you don't want deleted onto the D drive (including anything in your My Documents folder, since this is stored on the main windows drive by default). When you boot from the Windows CD it should give you the option of repairing, reinstalling, or repartitioning. You don't want to repartition, but just reinstall (there might be an option to do a full reinstall which wipes the original data first).

Do you know about how long a full reinstall takes? I'm thinking I may go to the store before I leave and let it reinstall while I'm at work tonight. I just need to move the Firefox folder over to the D drive right? It'll have my saved passwords in there?

Daenris

Daric wrote: »

Daenris wrote: »

Daric wrote: »

I downloaded that SpaceMonger thing and used it. That helped a lot, got rid of 40gb of shit I didn't need. Most of it was my temp folder. I bought Star Wars Galaxies yesterday from Direct2Drive and when I went to install it I would double-click it and it would just sit there. Apparently it was opening in the background multiple times or something. But I still need to know how to reformat for the future in case it continues to act weird. How do I go about doing that?

Stick in the CD, boot from CD. It will tell you what to do. Since you have two partitions, you will probably want to move anything you don't want deleted onto the D drive (including anything in your My Documents folder, since this is stored on the main windows drive by default). When you boot from the Windows CD it should give you the option of repairing, reinstalling, or repartitioning. You don't want to repartition, but just reinstall (there might be an option to do a full reinstall which wipes the original data first).

Do you know about how long a full reinstall takes? I'm thinking I may go to the store before I leave and let it reinstall while I'm at work tonight. I just need to move the Firefox folder over to the D drive right? It'll have my saved passwords in there?

I'm not entirely sure where Firefox saves passwords. The bookmarks are kept in the Documents and Settings folder, under your username, Application Data, Mozilla, Firefox.

Also not sure about a Vista install as I haven't done one, but I suspect there's a lot of interaction involved (there is in XP) so you can't really easily start it and walk away for awhile and expect it to be done when you get back.

Personally I think it would make more sense to do some legwork on finding/correcting the problem then doing a reinstall.