What the F@#$%

[Izagaia]

If say in XP's case, when you are reformatting using the Windows CD, I would assume that by "reformatting" that one is wiping/deleting all current partitions (or the partition the current OS is installed onto), reformatting and then creating a new partition for installation. Otherwise all you are doing is installing one copy of the OS directly onto the previous. Which just makes for "wasted time", IMO.

[true_neo]

Once again I read of people formating their HDD and thinking that it clears everything from the disk. As far as I am aware it does not. Doing an fdisk, wiping all the partitions etc, then formatting, then creating new partitinbs should do a better job of cleaning a drive.

If this is true, then it would explain why this Windows XP setup is better and faster than all the previous reformats of the XP partition I did.
This time, I know Im getting a new HD soon so I am dedicating this 80 GB one solely to XP and its programs. I did delete all partitions, formatted and created one big instead.

BOT: I use Symantec AV Corp, and I managed to dload Windows updates, Java, Azureus, WinRAR and THEN this without getting any nasties. It is probs worth mentioning I have an SP2 slipstreamed copy, activating firewall at install. I know this is not the best firewall but hey this firewall + router is more secure than neither, ya?
I fing SAV Corp the best because it is basically Norton without the fat. Its fast, and the golden key is that it can override programs accessing the file.
Back on NAV2k3, I found it useless because Kazaa viruses would infect my system just fine, all Norton did was give me endless (!) popups of it not being able to delete/quarantine the file, because another program was using it. Closing Kaz did not work, because NAV hogged focus and gave me the dreaded "beep" whenever I tried to alter this focus. And by the time the dload was done, the virus was in and NAV would continue its reign of hell, while the virus was having a snack at my explorer.exe :p

Please note I have not tried 2004/2005, so I cannot say anything about them. All I can say that 2003 scared me away from the Norton branch of Symantec.


//peace

[peat moss]

I love reading these kind of posts .They change topics so fast ,but it's all related. At the end I read that you use Kazaa , part of the problem? But I like Jpaul, like fdisk or a program such as killdisk to completely clean a drive.