That thing which all PC nerds love. OS reinstall...right?!

Grall

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After installing my brand spanking new copy of Win7 on my new rig, I decided it was high time to fix up the old one, which meant a Vista reinstall. So I do it, then let windows update automatically fetch 99 (!) updates for me. It takes like 4 and a half friggin' hours to download and install the more than half-gigabyte of patches Vista thinks it needs.

Of course, once it's done, the OS locks itself into an endless bluescreen/reboot loop. I can't even get it to start in safe mode... What a monumental waste of time today has been!

After this happened, I remember I went through the exact same thing the last time I installed Vista, and at least that time it was the Nforce driver set that was the cause.

If this is still the case - and there's indeed an Nforce 5xx driver update amongst those selected for me, despite it's the 680i chipset in my old rig - I'm really surprised MS is still sending out motherboard drivers that completely wrecks the entire OS install. Then again, the rule of thumb seems to be to never ever install any driver delivered by windows update for hardware that's more complicated than say, a monitor or joystick...

So now I've reinstalled Vista AGAIN, turned OFF automatic updates, and downloaded the appropriate mobo driver package straight from Nvidia. Now I'll see if that fixes things. Of course I will double-check to see it's not still attempting to install the wrong mobo drivers for my system. Meh!
 
Rule number 1: Never, ever, ever let Windows update install stuff without you knowing what it is.

As you say, they have a particularly bad record on device drivers, often delivering drivers that are months out of date and have long since been superseded.

I learned this when MS update installed a version 3 network driver over a version 2 driver. The problem was that the version numbers referred to different hardware, so by "upgrading" to a higher version of network driver just because of the number, MS actually installed an incompatible driver that killed my network connection.
 
Problem is, I'm becoming increasingly lazy the older I get. :p Ten years ago I would use all kinds of little smart utilities and so on, use tweakui etc to set up my OS juuuuust the way I want it... Today, I even re-buy games from steam that I already own on disc, it's costing a crapload of money but I just can't be bothered to install and keep em patched up manually.

Problem is of course when the automatic system stabs a knife into your back. I'm now on installing patch 31 of 75, I guess it will be done in around 2 more hours or so, and then there's still 30 or so patches left, and then Vista SP2, and IE8... Holy friggin' hell!

I remember when my entire OS fit on two 880kb floppies (and a 256k mask ROM). Oh, those were the days...!
 
Problem is, I'm becoming increasingly lazy the older I get. :p

I've noticed this as well. Back when I first started playing around with PCs I'd spend hours tweaking my system getting it to run at the highest possible clocks, now I don't even care. Completely content to run at stock and buy new hardware if stuff doesn't run properly. I buy new HDs because I'm too lazy to burn my stuff to DVDR, I'm not even upgrading to windows 7 because vista is working fine and I can't be arsed.
 
Problem is, I'm becoming increasingly lazy the older I get. :p Ten years ago I would use all kinds of little smart utilities and so on, use tweakui etc to set up my OS juuuuust the way I want it... Today, I even re-buy games from steam that I already own on disc, it's costing a crapload of money but I just can't be bothered to install and keep em patched up manually.

Problem is of course when the automatic system stabs a knife into your back. I'm now on installing patch 31 of 75, I guess it will be done in around 2 more hours or so, and then there's still 30 or so patches left, and then Vista SP2, and IE8... Holy friggin' hell!

I remember when my entire OS fit on two 880kb floppies (and a 256k mask ROM). Oh, those were the days...!

You are not more lazy, just busier ;)

BTW if you download SP2 and install straightaway you can avoid many of the updates you are downloading now. I just keep the service packs on my backup drive and if I reinstall ever I just patch it with them first. Though I reinstall less than I used to by far. Only once in vista to swap the laptop to 32 bit and the desktop to 64 bit.
 
I'm thinking of calling up Dell and try to convince them to send over a Vista SP2 install disc to me so I get the most recent version right away. In theory they shouldn't complain since I've already bought a license from them and I won't need a new product key...
 
this is where a working* linux distro is useful. even mom can end up updating to the newest release, updating all and every software package, with no special knowledge or issue whatsover.


* working, as in getting 3D acceleration, wireless networking, the right resolution etc. without compiling kernel modules and editing xorg.conf.. Ubuntu can be both experiences. A complete no brainer, installable by a 3-year-old, but that can require you to deal with 1980s' garbage when things are wrong. and I've not talked about installing software not in the packages.

anyway you can give it a try. but then again, even I, willing to put up with it, have had quite a slack, after windows reinstall wipes the boot sector and hides your linux install away. I'm figuring I can maintain other people's systems but don't want to do it with mine that much.
 
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I love reinstalls, I find them a very relaxing time good for quiet contemplation....and lots of anime on the laptop waiting for it to finish. ;)
 
Yesterday was a fun day... Day before yesterday, I got IE8 delivered via windows update on the Vista box. Then yesterday I got some important updates (dunno, maybe 3 or so). Installed, rebooted.

Then I got around 5 more updates. Installed, rebooted.

Then I got some more updates. Installed, rebooted.

Then I got SP1. Installed, rebooted.

Then I got some more updates. Installed, rebooted.

...And some MORE updates. Installed... Well, you got the drill by now I guess lol.

After that, I got SP2. It was only 60MB, vs over 100MB for SP1... Holy crap, what IS it in all these files? I swear, code's so bloated these days, yuck.

Finally after that, I got another two sets of important updates. But only one of them required a reboot. Now it seems I am fully up to date on the Vista box, finally, because no more patches show up on windows update if I scan for them...
 
Whenever I do a fresh OS reinstall I always use the most recent service pack. I don't bother with the older service packs.
 
When installing windows the best strategy usually is:

- Download the latest service pack and all drivers for your primary hardware (mainboard, network, cpu, gpu)
- Install OS
- Install drivers
- Install service pack
- Update through windows update
 
Hmm,since I started running vista I've grown to dislike them, since the performance doesn't seem to degrade as much with use(especially with perfect disk) as older versions of windows.
I hate spending a few days (between watching hours of tv shows etc) to get all my apps installed just the way I like them etc.
Right now I'm currently slowly transitioning to 64 bit Win7, from 32 bit win7. Part of the reason is that I installed win7 on my fastest* HDD but forgot that I use that drive for getting compressed Linux distros off usenet and therefore will be extracting/repairing rar sets on there a lot, and whenever that's happening obviously the performance will degrade a lot, especially since I have an older mobo which doesn't support NCQ.



*STR...i.e I have a seagate :p
 
Why would anybody like installing the OS again? OS installs are a pain in the ass...

I understand the topic name is sarcastic, but I still felt I had to make that comment. >.>
 
Vista service packs are not cumulative. SP2 does not contain the fixes from SP1.
Bullshit! Microsoft Service Packs are always cumulative!

EDIT: There is another good reason to install the latest service pack without installing any former service pack or fixes: space. Windows Vista and later will keep the original installation files around (for uninstall). Vista SP2 contains a utility to purge some them files, but not all.
 
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Bullshit! Microsoft Service Packs are always cumulative!

Vista SP2 requires SP1 to be installed first. If it doesn't, prove it and report this to all sources over the Internet claiming this.

Since SP1 is much larger than SP2, how could SP2 contain the fixes of SP1?
 
Vista SP2 requires SP1 to be installed first. If it doesn't, prove it and report this to all sources over the Internet claiming this.

Since SP1 is much larger than SP2, how could SP2 contain the fixes of SP1?
You're right. I'm officially the idiot. :oops: I somehow missed this since I always download the newest images with (service packs already included) from MSDN, when I need to do a reinstall.
 
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