F-this! Reformatting my HD in an hour or two and starting new. Advice?

[GilpinGuy]

My laptop has been acting really weird: very hard start ups, erratic behavior, inexplicably disconnecting from the network when everything else on the network works fine, needing to restart SEVERAL times a day, etc., etc.

Disk checker software stuff says very few "bad sectors" but another disk checker thing says I have several disk errors in the last hour. WTF? No Norton virus alerts ever. No Malwarebytes alerts ever. No porn (had to cut that off right away).

I give you computer guys A LOT of credit for dealing with this shit all day long. I can just imagine the asshats at some office freaking on your ass!

To be safe, I bought an external HD and have backed up my personal docs: everything in "My Documents", the entire "iTunes" folder and all of my photos.

I was hoping to make a "disk image" so I could restore all of the programs that I downloaded, some of which I paid for. Windows 7 won't let me make a disk image - it has failed repeatedly and I have spent many hours trying to figure out why. I have Googled the error codes that I get and done all of the fixes that I can find. No joy, just continued frustration and wasted time. I've been messing with this for 3 days now.

Therefore, I am ready to say FUCK IT! and reformat my machine to factory settings and begin again. I don't give a shit if it takes 2 days for all of the updates and shit to download.

Any advice from you sages of the ether-world?

(excuse any "incorrect" terminology)

[bogie]

export your web browser bookmarks... i always forget that one

[blacklabel]

export your web browser bookmarks... i always forget that one

That's why I love Chrome. All that crap is in the cloud.

I'd suggest using Belarc Advisor or another similar program to get your Windows key and then downloading the OS you need direct from Microsoft. No bloatware that way. You can install it from a USB device as well. Maybe screenshot and save the Programs and Features window so you have a record of the programs that you have installed. Other than that, double or triple check that you have all the stuff you want off the drive before you reformat it.

[theboomboom]

Windows 7 does a decent job putting everything you need in your profile folder in the Users directory (this includes your internet favs). Back that guy up and you should be good. Game saves sometimes go in different places (not sure if you play any games or not), so you may want to back those up as well.

After formatting, I usually just copy that junk in a "backup" folder on my desktop. It is conceivable that whatever is messing things up now would cause issues again if you simply copied all the data from your old profile into a new one. I also like the fact that it gives me a fresh start on everything. If I want to move certain files back into Documents or Pictures or whatever, I just drag and drop.

Some applications that you may have purchased a licensed for may need to be de-authorized. This might include photoshop, or iTunes. .

If you've already figured out how to create images, when you restore your computer, go ahead and create an image from there after you reload all your programs but before you copy your backup data from the external drive. Save this image file in case you need to re-format again, you won't have to hassle with reinstalling all the programs you use.

Others might have some more tips to add...

[th3w01f]

I'd give an online virus scan a try, try http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner/ I've had it find things that Symantec and Malwarebytes missed.

[Jackrabbit]

I'd run Rkill and combofix first. Wouldn't hurt.
Download them from bleeping computer.

[cfortune]

What error code is Windows backup giving you?

[Gman]

Replace the HDD before you start over and then have to replace the HDD.

You heard it from me in the last thread. You're wasting your time with that HDD.
http://www.ar-15.co/threads/86999-for-Computer-Guys

You're already 2 weeks in. What's your time and the frustration worth to you?

[Fromk]

A direct disk image probably isn't going to help you anyway since it would likely restore any software issues. Is this laptop old enough to need a new hard drive since you're starting over anyway? I'm just going off info in your post so maybe not.

It take one more pass to make sure you got all your data just in case. Go get your latest drivers for the laptop (network, wireless, touchpad, etc.) and keep those handy.

After you do a complete format and reinstall Windows and your drivers IMMEDIATLY start doing Windows Updates and don't stop until they're all done. Don't surf the web. Don't install anything else. This is the most time consuming part but they're there for a good reason. You may want to just install the basic programs and give it a couple days and recheck for bad hard drive sectors. That may be a sign of the drive going bad.

If you're comfortable with this suggestion I wouldn't put Norton back on. I replaced intrusive anti-virus programs by staying on top of my software updates and not doing anything remotely sketchy on the internet and it's worked great for 3 years if not more. Browsing with Chrome makes it even easier. My 2 cents.

Uh...I think that's the basics...

[Gman]

I'll just add that the more you work that drive, the worse it's going to get.