I've noticed when I run Photoshop on my computer that opening other programs take a little longer and the whole system becomes sluggish. I have Winodws XP Home running on a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 with 1022MB of Kingston dual channel PC3200 RAM. I would have thought having more RAM would help this issue, but obviously not. Recently I got a new SATA hardrive (SeaGate Barracuda 250GB) and I was thinking maybe I need to get a second one to act as a Photoshop scratch disc.
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Q: Programs get sluggish? 12
- Thread starter dcloud
- Start date
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1
- #41
OK guys, sorry I'm late to the party...I'm working 3rd-shift for the next few weeks!
dcloud,
I understand your concern and hesitation. It's the typical knee-jerk reaction a lot of us have when we hear that dreadful advice to reformat and start over.
However, consider this. Laa1erps is not documented anywhere on the internet. Now that should "scare" you most of all. Do a search on any other service in that list and you will likely find a ton of hits and info.
When an infection like this appears in that list of services, it's time to take serious action. You can fiddle around with spyware removal apps, antivirus scanners, etc., but in the end you probably will have wished you just formatted and started over to begin with.
Here's my last 2¢ :
Formatting by deleting all partitions and starting over with a blank hard drive is probably going to be enough. It's rare for spyware/worms to get into the MBR, though it is possible. You'll know right away after going through the reinstallation of Windows if the MBR is infected and would have wasted very little time to find out. Using the RC isn't going to help because even if that clears an MBR infection, you still have the infected service in Windows and lord knows what other infections embedded. It's best to scrap what you have and start over by backing up data (personal files) and formatting.
Good Luck!
![[thumbsup2]](/data/assets/smilies/thumbsup2.gif "[thumbsup2] [thumbsup2]")
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
dcloud,
I understand your concern and hesitation. It's the typical knee-jerk reaction a lot of us have when we hear that dreadful advice to reformat and start over.
However, consider this. Laa1erps is not documented anywhere on the internet. Now that should "scare" you most of all. Do a search on any other service in that list and you will likely find a ton of hits and info.
When an infection like this appears in that list of services, it's time to take serious action. You can fiddle around with spyware removal apps, antivirus scanners, etc., but in the end you probably will have wished you just formatted and started over to begin with.
Here's my last 2¢ :
Formatting by deleting all partitions and starting over with a blank hard drive is probably going to be enough. It's rare for spyware/worms to get into the MBR, though it is possible. You'll know right away after going through the reinstallation of Windows if the MBR is infected and would have wasted very little time to find out. Using the RC isn't going to help because even if that clears an MBR infection, you still have the infected service in Windows and lord knows what other infections embedded. It's best to scrap what you have and start over by backing up data (personal files) and formatting.
Good Luck!
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
- Thread starter
- #42
Ahh, cdogg. Good to see you. I work third shift myself. So are you suggesting I use fdisk? Will I have to reformat after I use fdisk? I guess maybe I should get prepared to do this then if that's what you're saying. Do you have any advice on using fdisk to wipe the HD? I'm nervous about doing this.
Fdisk is nice because it's free, but there's not much to it.
I use PartionMagic to customize my partition setup. However, neither app is really needed here. Hopefully you have more than one partition already. If so, move as much of your important data to that partition as you can, then just format your C: drive using the instructions provided here:
(scroll down to the " How to partition and format your hard disk by using the Windows XP Setup program " section)
If you don't have a secondary partition to use for backup, then consider getting a USB drive or imaging to DVD.
As for FDISK, the disadvantage is that you're limited to the FAT32 file system. NTFS is the way to go these days, which is why using the XP setup is the preferred method.
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
I use PartionMagic to customize my partition setup. However, neither app is really needed here. Hopefully you have more than one partition already. If so, move as much of your important data to that partition as you can, then just format your C: drive using the instructions provided here:
(scroll down to the " How to partition and format your hard disk by using the Windows XP Setup program " section)
If you don't have a secondary partition to use for backup, then consider getting a USB drive or imaging to DVD.
As for FDISK, the disadvantage is that you're limited to the FAT32 file system. NTFS is the way to go these days, which is why using the XP setup is the preferred method.
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
- Thread starter
- #44
Ok, bare with me on this. I'm not sure about anything you said. You're talking partitioning my HD, but isn't it already partitioned? I haven't a clue how to move everything onto a partition on a HD. Going by your first post I got all my data saved onto DVD+RWs because I was under the impression I was going to use fdisk then reformat.
I read the page you linked me to and that sounds like a regular reformat with the Windows CD. Am I correct?
I read the page you linked me to and that sounds like a regular reformat with the Windows CD. Am I correct?
Yes, the point I was trying to make was to get your data backed up. Nevermind the partition business. That's another discussion for another time...
Bottom line is that the instructions should help you in formatting the primary partition (c
using the Windows CD. However, if you don't feel comfortable going through this entire reinstall process, you may want to consider getting help.
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
Bottom line is that the instructions should help you in formatting the primary partition (c
using the Windows CD. However, if you don't feel comfortable going through this entire reinstall process, you may want to consider getting help.~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
- Thread starter
- #46
Ok, reformat is done. If anyone would have said (in layman's terms, that is, lol) "just do a reformat" I would not have had a problem. I have reformatted many times. It was the jargon you guys were using that lost me.
Everything seems to be fine, although there was a strange thing that happned after the reformat when I was first on the desktop. I kept getting these message boxes (with MSN in the title) telling me I had viruses or that I needed to check for spyware. I got like three or four in a row, over and over, and I kept clicking to cancel them until finally they went away.
The same thing happened the last time I reformatted and I actually had a computer guy here when that happened and he said it was no big deal. It still seemed weird, regardless what he said. I have never seen those boxes before, and I've reformatted with this same Windows XP Home CD a couple dozen times now. Does anyone here know what that could be?
Anyway, I'm back in business. Hopefully. I'll reinstall Photoshop and the rest of my programs and see what happens. Thanks for all your help everyone.
Everything seems to be fine, although there was a strange thing that happned after the reformat when I was first on the desktop. I kept getting these message boxes (with MSN in the title) telling me I had viruses or that I needed to check for spyware. I got like three or four in a row, over and over, and I kept clicking to cancel them until finally they went away.
The same thing happened the last time I reformatted and I actually had a computer guy here when that happened and he said it was no big deal. It still seemed weird, regardless what he said. I have never seen those boxes before, and I've reformatted with this same Windows XP Home CD a couple dozen times now. Does anyone here know what that could be?
Anyway, I'm back in business. Hopefully. I'll reinstall Photoshop and the rest of my programs and see what happens. Thanks for all your help everyone.
- Thread starter
- #48
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2
- #49
dcloud,
If you end up still having problems later - especially the same problems, that b/c for whatever reason the MS Windows reformat didn't do the trick, then I highly recommend using DBAN - Darik's Boot and Nuke program. It's 100% free, and you can burn it to CD or floppy, whichever you choose. You can get it here, and read instructions, etc:
I've used this on many machines, if they had problems that we couldn't find or explain, or just were infected with viruses/spyware. You can't get a more formatted hard drive than this. The only way to possibly erase data better (from what I know of so far), would be to actually dismantle the hard drive, and do all manner of ills to it's disks.
Hopefully you'll be in the clear, though. I'd check to make sure you're not getting the same HTTP multiple connection errors again, first thing, to ensure that whatever virus or malware IS totally gone. If you're still not sure, just wipe with DBAN, and do a clean install of Windows. That's a garanteed clean, there! [WINK]
If you end up still having problems later - especially the same problems, that b/c for whatever reason the MS Windows reformat didn't do the trick, then I highly recommend using DBAN - Darik's Boot and Nuke program. It's 100% free, and you can burn it to CD or floppy, whichever you choose. You can get it here, and read instructions, etc:
I've used this on many machines, if they had problems that we couldn't find or explain, or just were infected with viruses/spyware. You can't get a more formatted hard drive than this. The only way to possibly erase data better (from what I know of so far), would be to actually dismantle the hard drive, and do all manner of ills to it's disks.
Hopefully you'll be in the clear, though. I'd check to make sure you're not getting the same HTTP multiple connection errors again, first thing, to ensure that whatever virus or malware IS totally gone. If you're still not sure, just wipe with DBAN, and do a clean install of Windows. That's a garanteed clean, there! [WINK]
So you've done this before and the same problem persisted?
I would be concerned about the messages you got after logging on. In fact I would use fdisk at this point and then format again after using fdisk. I havn't had any experience using the fixmbr or other commands, the one that I've used is, "fdisk /mbr" and that has always worked for me.
Keep us posted.
"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy"
Albert Einstein
- Thread starter
- #51
Ok, guys I'm going to give fdisk a try. I'm printing out all the info on fdisk so I can read it while I take the steps. Since I just reformatted and there isn't much installed on the computer I figure now is as a good a time as any to try this.
A couple questions for all you Uber Geeks:
It says that I should think about a partition strategy, as in the best way to divide up my HD. Any suggestions? I have a SeaGate Barracuda 250GB 7200rpm SATA drive.
I don't run any DOS apps or Linux or any of those things the more advanced geeks use. I just want a functioning HD for my system that I can run Photoshop/Dreamweaver on. I have seriously considered buying another HD for Photoshop to run on exclusively (as a scratch disk), but right now I just have the one HD.
So my next question is could I just make one partition for this HD? Or I should say would I be all right with just one partition? I don't want to get involved in anything overly complicated. I just want to get rid of whatever is troubling my PC and get back to using it.
My last question is how is my HD normally partitioned? I mean like right now, after reformatting, how is it set up? I don't know how to check that and I thought someone here would know. I'm just curious about this, because that would give me an idea how to re-partition mine; make it just like it was.
Thanks for all your help.
A couple questions for all you Uber Geeks:
It says that I should think about a partition strategy, as in the best way to divide up my HD. Any suggestions? I have a SeaGate Barracuda 250GB 7200rpm SATA drive.
I don't run any DOS apps or Linux or any of those things the more advanced geeks use. I just want a functioning HD for my system that I can run Photoshop/Dreamweaver on. I have seriously considered buying another HD for Photoshop to run on exclusively (as a scratch disk), but right now I just have the one HD.
So my next question is could I just make one partition for this HD? Or I should say would I be all right with just one partition? I don't want to get involved in anything overly complicated. I just want to get rid of whatever is troubling my PC and get back to using it.
My last question is how is my HD normally partitioned? I mean like right now, after reformatting, how is it set up? I don't know how to check that and I thought someone here would know. I'm just curious about this, because that would give me an idea how to re-partition mine; make it just like it was.
Thanks for all your help.
Boot from a bootable floppy or cd and from the c:\ prompt type fdisk and hit enter you will get a list of choices one of which is, "display partition information" I think its option 4 but I'm not positive, or something to that effect that simply shows you what partitions you have and general info about them. There is no worries in messing anything up as it is for dispaying the info only. the other options are for actually changing/deleting/creating etc.
As far as how to allocate there are many different ways to go about that but it typically omes down to personal preference. For 250GB I would probabaly go with a two partitions, the primary set to 50GB and the rest allocated to the other. I would load my OS on the 50 GB partition and use the other for data.
Some may suggest a partition created solely for the the swap file but again that is personal preference and I have no problems with XP's handling of the swap file by default so I leave it that way.
"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy"
Albert Einstein
As far as how to allocate there are many different ways to go about that but it typically omes down to personal preference. For 250GB I would probabaly go with a two partitions, the primary set to 50GB and the rest allocated to the other. I would load my OS on the 50 GB partition and use the other for data.
Some may suggest a partition created solely for the the swap file but again that is personal preference and I have no problems with XP's handling of the swap file by default so I leave it that way.
"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy"
Albert Einstein
- Thread starter
- #53
Thanks. Now I'm a little confused about the bootable floopy. On that fdisk site linked in the last post ( it says, "I posted a Windows ME boot disk on my Downloads page. You can either use this one [labeled "FDISK floppy"], or grab one from bootdisk.com. I suggest the one labeled "Windows ME" as this particular disk contains the latest version of FDISK, which supports hard drives larger than 64-GB."
Now I haven't a clue what this means. Why can't I just use my Windows XP CD? I'm a little lost at this point. Then to make it worse I read this.....
"Download your bootdisk of choice and put a brand new, formatted floppy into your A: [floppy-disk] drive. Extract the contents of the self-extracting executable file to the floppy. Leave the boot floppy in the A:/floppy drive and reboot."
Now I downloaded fdisk and it's not a zip file but an .EXE file, so I can't "extract" it anywhere. Do I just put this on the floppy?
This is why I didn't want to do this, because I don't understand anything this guy is talking about. I mean why do I need a Windows ME bootdisk? I don't get that. Can I just use that fdisk .EXE program on a floppy? Will that work?
Help, lol....
Now I haven't a clue what this means. Why can't I just use my Windows XP CD? I'm a little lost at this point. Then to make it worse I read this.....
"Download your bootdisk of choice and put a brand new, formatted floppy into your A: [floppy-disk] drive. Extract the contents of the self-extracting executable file to the floppy. Leave the boot floppy in the A:/floppy drive and reboot."
Now I downloaded fdisk and it's not a zip file but an .EXE file, so I can't "extract" it anywhere. Do I just put this on the floppy?
This is why I didn't want to do this, because I don't understand anything this guy is talking about. I mean why do I need a Windows ME bootdisk? I don't get that. Can I just use that fdisk .EXE program on a floppy? Will that work?
Help, lol....
Not sure about that site as its blocked here at my work. I'm pretty sure that XP doesn't have a dos version containing fdisk but I'm not positive. I think XP uses dikpart.exe or something. Perhaps others can advise there. You don't need to download or install fdisk. You need to create the bootable floppy, boot from it and the fdisk component will then be available from a c:\ so once you get to this, c:\ after booting from bootable floppy then just type fdisk and hit enter to view your options.
"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy"
Albert Einstein
"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy"
Albert Einstein
- Thread starter
- #55
Sorry, works getting busy and my typing time limited ao I'm gonna point you to a link:
Should anser all your questions, if not try this:
Cheers!
"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy"
Albert Einstein
Should anser all your questions, if not try this:
Cheers!
"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy"
Albert Einstein
- Thread starter
- #57
- Thread starter
- #58
Well I went ahead and just stuck the FDISK.EXE file on the bootable WinXP floppy I made, then I restarted the computer. I got the A prompt, and I typed in FDISK, just like it says in the instructions. However I got the following message: Incorrect MS-DOS version.
Does anyone know where I can find the correct version?
Thanks.
Does anyone know where I can find the correct version?
Thanks.
Thats because the XP boot disk does not support fdisk, instead it supports diskpart.exe that is why Windows ME was referenced to use for a boot disk. Create an ME boot floppy per the links listed, boot from it and type the fdisk command.
"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy"
Albert Einstein
"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy"
Albert Einstein
- Thread starter
- #60
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