Topic: Heavy Fragmentation Problems What Does This Mean?

[Simon]

Someone more technical then me could probably explain it better, but Add / Remove programs is the conventional way to remove installed software, because it usually reverts things back to the way they were before the software was installed, and it often calls on the program's own uninstall utility for which to do this.  Your method would probably work in most circumstances, but when programs like Diskeeper integrate themselves into drives, partitions, etc, you do run the risk of it changing something that hasn't been backed up, or even altering the back up files themselves, assuming that the back up files are stored on one of the drives or partitions that Diskeeper monitors.  Reverting to a back up is fine, but personally, I would still use Add / Remove programs first, to remove unwanted programs.

[Kaz]

I understand what you are saying Simon, thanks I will keep this in mind

[Sandra]

I hope that I am not confusing things here Simon but I disagree with what you are saying about the Add/Remove program thing.

One of the reasons that PCs go wrong after an OS has been installed for a long time is that when you install a new program then it often replaces some of the original windows system files with its own modified versions.
When you uninstall the program it removes those files and doesnt always reinstate the original files which it replaced during the installation.
After you have done this a couple of times a month over 6 months or more you can get serious problems with the OS.
This can be rectified by running the SFC /SCANNOW command in the Run box in XP as it replaces the corrupted or missing files from the XP CD.
Or you can use System Restore to restore your PC back to how it was before installing those last programs which you installed then uninstalled.

The way Kaz is doing by restoring an earlier uncorrupted image of her drive is probably the best way of keeping an OS healthy, as long as it was working fine at the point the backup image was made 

 

[Simon]

Well, in this case, it obviously hasn't worked, Sandra, and I didn't have any problems when I removed Diskeeper with Add / Remove programs.

[Kaz]

Hi Sandra, Simon,
well I'm just in the process of putting everything back again.

Im no expert my self and I'm always open to suggestions and value all your expertise on any matter you have always helped me, and I do think the way I do thing is the best way for me a the moment I have spoken to others about installing and uninstalling and they pretty much do the same as me I like to keep my pc as clean as I can and everyday Im learning more and more, and if I install software one day and go back to a backup before the software was installed then surely there should be NO trace of it because it wasn't there in the first place if you understand my meaning
let you know how I go

[Simon]

It must depend on how complete your backup is in the first place.  I'm not saying using backups is a bad thing, just that it can't hurt to first remove programs with Add / Remove. 

[Kaz]

Yes I think you could be right Simon what do you do for backing up, do you test/try software ?

[Rik]

Hi Kaz

What software do you use to make the backups? As Simon has said, some apps do play with the partition table, so I would always use Add/Remove first, then restore an image if I felt the need.

[Simon]

I have to admit to being fairly casual when it comes to backups, Kaz, which I'm not saying is right, just that I'm a bit lazy about it.  I do frequently test programs, but have generally found either the program's own uninstaller, or a utility such as YourUninstaller to be perfectly adequate.  When I do make a backup, it's usually just my data, music, pictures, and other documents which I burn onto a DVD.  It's a poor method of housekeeping, which I wouldn't advocate, but it's got me by for about 6 years.

[Sandra]

When restoring an image it should format the drive, even if it only deletes the MBR so it shouldnt matter what you do prior to restoring from an image.
If it did then if you restored an earlier image, because you had a virus that you couldnt get rid of, then you would still have the virus in your system after you restored the image.
This clearly isnt the case so I stand by my earlier post 

[Baz]

MBR ?

 

[Sandra]

Master Boot Record.
Its like the index page in a reference book.
It tells the pc where stuff is on the drive.
Sometimes if you do a quick format it just wipes the MBR, this has the same effect as ripping the index page out of a book, the information is still in the book but its hard to find it.
This is why the data can be recovered from a formatted drive by recovery programs if they are not overwritten or zero filled.

[Kaz]

Ok
I have restored to my original xp disk I cant restore from my last backup at the moment it keeps telling me I have Hal.dll file missing I think I need to install this from the Windows XP disk, but Im going back one step at a time to see which backup works I don't understand this? maybe I'm wrong, but when I make a back up there is a Verification on the back up that I always use to check that the backup was successful which takes longer that the original backup most times Oh yes I use Acronis True Image

[Simon]

This might help, Kaz:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm

Scroll about half way down, to: HAL.DLL is Missing - Updated by MVP Alex Nichol

[Kaz]

Still trying to sort it out, but in the mean time what do you all think of Sandboxie?   http://www.sandboxie.com/ anyone use it got it?