Advice on OS Recovery Windows Vista

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threeputtpar

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Hello All -

Our 5 year old HP Pavilion is having some issues with long boot and shutdown times, and generally runs quite slow for a machine that has a 2ghz processor and 5gb of RAM so I'm looking for advice on how to use the system recovery to set it back to factory settings. Task Manager shows the when running in regular mode, 10% of the CPU is being used and 95% of the memory, for whatever that means. Right now, I'm running in safe mode so that I can actually use the machine and that brought the memory usage down to 45%. HP says that there is a partition on the HD that has all the factory info, so that part I can handle. It's all the programs and files that I want to keep after the recovery that has me seeking advice.

We have many pictures that we don't want to lose, along with a viewing program that my wife really likes. There is also tax documents and the tax programs that I want to keep, iTunes and all the music, and a couple of others that I cannot think of right now.

I have an external HD with 500G of space, so there's plenty of room to save everything if I wanted to. Would it be best to just save everything on the external and just move back the things that we wanted to keep? Can programs be saved that way, or would I have to find all of the old disks and reinstall all of them again? Would the backup function in Vista be good for doing all of this, or are there other better programs that I should look into? I guess I'm just looking to find the best way for someone with a some skills to do this without losing anything important.

I know I'm not asking all the pertinant questions, so please feel free to make other suggestions. I appreciate all the help.
 
you have to reinstall any programs that were "installed".


copy all the data to the external drive.

go find installers for all your programs online, dvds etc

run the hp recovery partition.

reinstall the programs

copy data back.


You can also try copying the programs directories

reinstalling.. then overwriting the directory with your copy.
may or may not work well depending on the exact programs.
 
Copy all the data to the external drive - do you mean that I should just copy all of the contents of my internal HD, or are there things that I shouldn't copy over?
 
I wouldnt use the recovery partition, it has all that junk on there and you will probably have to install TONS of updates.

I have a OEM DVD that will use the COA on the side of your computer. Then install the latest drivers.

I see your in Appleton, I can give you a hand if you would like, I do this stuff all day.

Copy all pics, music, docs, favs, desktop, check your tax programs and check where they save so you can also back that up. Indiviual programs you will have to re install, but can usually be found online.

I work right in Depere so if you need a hand let me know.
smile.gif

Bryan
 
Just to add, since you have lots of photos and other data you don't want to lose - make another set of this data and store it someplace safe and off-site. Maybe burn a bunch of DVD's or get another external drive.

If there ever was a fire other disaster you'd still have all those items and not lose them forever.

You can never have too many backups of your data.
 
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I would install Crustal Disk Info and verify your HD is not going south. I have seen a HD doing lots of retries (near its end of life) cause a system to slow down.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
I would install Crystal Disk Info and verify your HD is not going south. I have seen a HD doing lots of retries (near its end of life) cause a system to slow down.


Donald, that's something that I've never heard of or found in many Google searches. I'll give it a try tonight.
 
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Originally Posted By: zzyzzx
Is installing something other than Vista an option?


Yes, my first thought was to upgrade to Windows 7 because my work PC is running it and I really like it. On the other hand, I'm cheap and don't want to buy it for a 5+ year old computer that may be replaced in the next 12 months.
 
Here is what my HDD is looking like. Can anyone pinpoint what the problems may be?



Also, after downloading from the Crystal Disk page, I have so many popups now it's driving me crazy. Any suggestions on that?
 
HDD is probably going bad.

Possibly not worth replacing

what processor does it have etc


You can get a refurb with core2duo processor and windows 7

for around 99$-120$(gets you away from vista too)
 
Well, I've decided to replace the HDD with a new unit. I have Macrium Reflect installed and so far I have an image of my C: drive on an external HD.

When I install the new HDD, can I just use the image on the external to put the entire contents of the failing HDD to the new one? I'd like to have a computer with a new HDD with exactly the same programs and files as what I have now.

Or do I need to have both HDDs in the tower at the same time and clone the bad one to the good one? What would be the easiest route for a semi-noob in the computer world? At this point, I feel I've learned just enough from Google to be dangerous. Thanks.
 
Depending on the failure, there is a chance your OS was corrupted by the failing drive. You're always better off starting fresh if you don't take backups regularly.

I've had to go back as far as a month on a home laptop that had a hard drive failure. None of the backups before that point led to a stable environment (and had the added effect of making me suspect something else was wrong)
 
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