System restore advice?

[taranaki]

IE6 has gone really slow on me[Even though OE still works fine.Thinking of using 'system restore' on Win ME to try and fix the problem.Is there any way of backing up my 'favourites' directory,so that I don't lose all of my recent links?

[Neutrino]

First of all my advice is to ditch ME since it is the second worse windows version after 95, i strongly recomend XP

that being said......go under bookmarks and click on manage bookmars.....then click on edit>select all and copy and paste them into a text file.....also maks sure you paste all the links including the ones in the submenus....


if anyone knows of a easier way please post


btw taranalki you should know that the restore system under ME is only skin deep(unlike XP) basically altering only the registry and it might not fix your proble

[TexasF355F1]

I say either XP or 2000. Both are very good. You could also just simply uninstall IE and reinstall.

[Neutrino]

Originally Posted by TexasF355F1

You could also just simply uninstall IE and reinstall.

actually thant can be quite dangerous...it might work but if any problems come up, explorer will be forever corrupted at will not reinstall....i've seen it happen a few times

[Graphik Styles]

if your IE is running slow then try to defrag your computer. As that helps alot, as it sorts out the corrupted files and such. Its under Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter. It helps out alot, i would recommend doing it overnight, as if you havent done it in along time, then it'll basically take about 3 hours.

[YogsVR4]

Also - stop off at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ and download the personal copy of adware 6 (if you haven't already). This will clean up a bunch of junk you may have loaded in IE without even knowing it.

[Plastic_Fork]

Grr.. I hate adware and spyware.

And yes, I'd kick ME to the curb and get Windows XP or Windows 2000. Heck, I'd even go back to Win 98SE over ME. And if you do, don't get the "upgrade". Those can be just as bad as ME and '95. Get the full version of the operating system, format, and install it from scratch.

[Neutrino]

Originally Posted by YogsVR4

Also - stop off at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ and download the personal copy of adware 6 (if you haven't already). This will clean up a bunch of junk you may have loaded in IE without even knowing it.

btw you should try spybot.....it finds stuff that adaware misses....curently i have both and used toghether they are amazing....not one piece of spyware left

[YogsVR4]

I've been considering getting spybot, but just haven't done it yet. Maybe this weekend I'll download a copy.

[Webmaster_Zeus]

Originally Posted by De$i Gank$ta

if your IE is running slow then try to defrag your computer. As that helps alot, as it sorts out the corrupted files and such. Its under Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter. It helps out alot, i would recommend doing it overnight, as if you havent done it in along time, then it'll basically take about 3 hours.

Defrag doesn't do this. When a software, or data is stored on the hard disk, it has to be placed physically onto the hard drive. In order for storage to begin, they have to be broken up into segments, this is known as clusters.

During defrag what u get is just a representation of those clusters. What happends when data is stored onto the hard drive, it is stored all over the hard drive, meaning it can be from one end of the hard drive to the other.

The purpose of defrag is to put each "sets" of data physically next to each other, thus improving performance. So the hard drive doesn't have to seek all the place just to load a piece of software, it doesn't do any form of "house-keeping" to ensure data integrity.

Windows have now gone to a more "whole" approach (during design stages this have been chosen), that they're all integrated into a whole program. So to "uninstall" ie is impossible, as it still exists, but merely just disabled, its still there.

Explorer.exe functions not only as your windows explorer, but your internet explorer, and it provides various operating system function for other programs and file management system, not just an interface.

So basically when your IE is at a stage of no return, its time for a rebuilt of the kernel, or what most ppl would say, format and reinstall.

[mynismo]

Originally Posted by taranaki

Thinking of using 'system restore' on Win ME to try and fix the problem.

used system restore couple weeks ago, i lost windows and all of my emails. lucky for me, i put all data on another drive so i didn't lose my precious info. im running xp.

me prolly works better with system restore, but i prefer a format. defrags dont work, uninstalling doesn't work. i do a format every two months. partition your stuff so all your data is on one drive, and keep the other drive just windows.

[Webmaster_Zeus]

Originally Posted by mynismo

me prolly works better with system restore, but i prefer a format. defrags dont work, uninstalling doesn't work. i do a format every two months. partition your stuff so all your data is on one drive, and keep the other drive just windows.

Your right, system restore doesn't work properly, a lot of administrators don't use system restore, as it doesn't do it properly. It was only implemented as an additional feature, but doesn't do the job properly.

The only way is to do it all manually, or create an image of the drive so there is no need for a reinstall.

I too format and install every 2months, as I find windows gets out of control because of the various web-sites installing things and effecting the way windows works.

[mynismo]

Originally Posted by Webmaster_Zeus

The only way is to do it all manually, or create an image of the drive so there is no need for a reinstall.

even if you create an image, you're going to have to somehow copy it over, and you will still lose most of your info.

i cut/paste over my favorites, my documents, store email on my d:, and everything else... when the time comes, at ANY time i wish, i can completely format c: and reinstall. all of my info is still on the other partition, including all of my installable exe's, so i just go and reinstall everything. every 2-3 months, or when windows just acts like a fat b****. takes me about 2.5 hours to do a complete format, reinstall, configure my settings and install everything. works great.

ive tried every possible way of doing it, and this is by far the best. when i've followed the above, i've NEVER lost data or anything, and it keeps your system running optimally.

[Webmaster_Zeus]

Originally Posted by mynismo

even if you create an image, you're going to have to somehow copy it over, and you will still lose most of your info.

i cut/paste over my favorites, my documents, store email on my d:, and everything else... when the time comes, at ANY time i wish, i can completely format c: and reinstall. all of my info is still on the other partition, including all of my installable exe's, so i just go and reinstall everything. every 2-3 months, or when windows just acts like a fat b****. takes me about 2.5 hours to do a complete format, reinstall, configure my settings and install everything. works great.

ive tried every possible way of doing it, and this is by far the best. when i've followed the above, i've NEVER lost data or anything, and it keeps your system running optimally.

With imaging the only data you lose is the data that is saved to the drive/partition your imaging towards.

Considering we partition our hard-drives to multiple partition, its not hard to save critical data such as bookmarks, anything that is saved under my documents (including pictures, received files and such), emails and anything saved under the drive your imaging across, to another directory.

I've saved all my files (like work, uni, etc) onto the partition other then my os, and then backup what-ever I might have accidently save to the drive that I'm imaging back.

My email are handled by my linux server along with a lot of stuff, so basically my drive is just c: and d:, c being the os and software drive (that gets imaged) back and d: containing whatever.

But there's not quick easy solution to fixing computer problems, just methods of saving time, as pcs were never meant to be for main-stream use.