quote:

Originally posted by Fir3start3r I agree with most of the above. No point in imaging a compromised OS only to carry it over. Clean your existing OS or bite the bullet and start from scratch (but save your personal stuff obviously). I always keep all my drivers and personal stuff tucked away on a different drive from the OS, perferably a different physical drive, not just a logical one as this speeds up a reformat A LOT and saves you from heartache if your OS drive dies. Good luck

When I buy the next HD (preferably a 250gb, might settle for a 200 though), I'll only be putting my media and docs on that one.

I'll leave my other HD (60 gigs) to be just progs and windows

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format

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quote:

Originally posted by loconet format

This is pretty much the correct answer for everything.

quote:

Originally posted by [NFC]Wave As for NAV, I would at least test using Avast! as like I said I had been a follower of Symantec for years without a problem. Withing 5 minutes of installing Avast! it found 2 virus'.

I'd like to know which viruses it identified. I noticed that the new version of Symantec AV Corporate has been getting incredibly paranoid and anal-retentive with respect to what it identifies, and I'm wondering if this is perhaps the reason why Avast seems to "detect" more than Symantec.

Fussing over virus detection is a wasted effort anyway. Just ask Marcus Ranum about "enumerating badness". Anti-virus, intrusion detection, signature-based firewalling... on a fundamental level, these things are not security, they are merely gimmicks masquerading as such and hyped as such by their manufacturers.

Real security is "default deny", not "default permit". Every program should run with restricted access unless specifically required and authorized to do otherwise. If this simple principle were at least applied to all web browsers and e-mail clients, nearly 0% of all spyware/malware/virii would actually be able to infect computers.

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also clear your startup, will free up some ram

Start > Run > msconfig > startup tab , then disable all (except the ones you acually wanna start up)

quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut Real security is "default deny", not "default permit". Every program should run with restricted access unless specifically required and authorized to do otherwise. If this simple principle were at least applied to all web browsers and e-mail clients, nearly 0% of all spyware/malware/virii would actually be able to infect computers.

Very much the truth. Too bad the majority of the public leave everything 'as is' and have no idea they're not protecting themselves.

quote:

also clear your startup, will free up some ram Start > Run > msconfig > startup tab , then disable all (except the ones you acually wanna start up)

With doing this you want to watch what you enable and disable though as well as some thing such as antivirus and spyware prevention should start when you boot up.

I sent Jamie to this page as you can run a search on items for the startup that may be unrecognizable.

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First off, I'll say do nothing drastic before you're at 1GB of RAM. Don't expect XP to run flawlessy at 512MB. It's too close too borderline to say otherwise. Get to 1GB and end the guessing games...it's a small price to pay. Find out what kind of RAM you have and search hardforum.com for it.

What's your protection schema right now, as far as virus protection/spyware scans/windows update? Only you can tell us what you need in this aspect by detailing your current regimen.

I would defrag with Diskeeper, and "set and forget it" to run while you're sleeping every other day.

It will be the same way after you apply the Ghost image.

quote:

Originally posted by [NFC]Wave 3. Download Microsoft Anti-Spyware, update it and do a full scan of the system.

how do you validate windows in order to download this program, when you have a second copy of windows pro from a friend?? lol
FACK!

quote:

Originally posted by Playa24_7 how do you validate windows in order to download this program, when you have a second copy of windows pro from a friend?? lol FACK!

haha

You don't, you message me for a copy of the software.

~j

You two are good friends with that man Juarez I see