Reformatting HD

[mikeb]

It's been such a loooong time since I've reformatted any pc that I've kind of forgotten what to expect. haha

 

My basic question is about my cable internet service. When they came to hook it up I don't remember the guy using an "install" cd. In fact, I don't remember him messing with any settings really. He just hooked up the modem took down the serial or whatever and used that on some screen that popped up and it sort of took care of the rest. When I go to Internet Protocol TCP/IP Properties all the selections are "obtain "IP/DNS/Private IP" address automatically....soooo, I'm taking this to mean that if I reformat if should be pretty straight forward.

 

My question therefore is, if I reformat, and I understand there are a number of variables, but getting my cable modem to work again...you think that will be a hassle?

 

I've gone and downloaded current builds to a lot of the software I use and put it on my 2nd hd so I'm hoping to make this as painless as possible.

 

Thanks.

 

Oh, SP3 is it recommended?

[Viennas]

I hope I can help... but I'm sure it will work, Windows should install any drivers needed, if he did not use a CD I'm sure there would be no hassle, did very little it seems other then made sure it was set up right which is pretty easy, possibly give him a call or google such, also, you could note down any info that you believe may be needed for the next install.

 

XP SP3 is recommended, yes

[ishan_rulz]

If it is "Obtain Automatically".. shouldn't be much of a problem. If you do (which I'm sure you wont), you can call him, yes.

 

SP3 has the latest Security fixes and is a tad faster than SP2.

[mikeb]

Thanks guys. I guess there's really only one way to find out. I'll probably format sometime this week.

[aqua]

make sure to backup your drivers..justin case.

[mikeb]

Well, I did it...all went well. Did have a minor issue with the internet setup but took care of it after a few minutes of head scratching. Funny enough for some reason, my internet connection is faster! I mean when I mouse over "connection status" it's now 400mbps and before it was 100mbps! WTH? Ok, I can't say it is indeed faster...feels about the same, but what's with that change? I'll take it though. haha

 

 

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After posting this I opened up "connection status" and there's no "activity" no details of packets sent or received, but my internet is working fine. What's up with that??

[mikeb]

After posting this I opened up "connection status" and there's no "activity" no details of packets sent or received, but my internet is working fine. What's up with that??

Disregard ^ completely. I don't know what I did when I originally configured my internet cause the thing was showing no activity, but it was working. So I'm over at windows update and I see one for NVidia network something or other and so I decide to install it. It didn't work. I shut down and later when I reboot my internet isn't working. It shows connected and no activity. I guess the "update" screwed something up. I had no idea what to do. I tried a bunch of things and unfortunately/fortunately, since there wasn't much on my pc I reformatted again. This time when I installed my NVidia drivers and went to configure my internet it came back "normal" and the speed reads what it was before. Weird...I don't know.

[fireryone]

Yea you have to be careful with the drives WU suggests, I've done that to a PC I was fixing up once ...oops no internet.

 

Though I haven't noticed the same sort of driver issues with WU for Win 7 RC.