System Repair Tools
Thursday, November 27, 2003 by dabe | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
I dunno if this was ever discussed before, but I am wondering what some of you really knowledgeable computer savvy people use as your preferred system repair programs. I've used Norton Systemworks, and a few others, but before I spend money, I'd like opinions from the best. 
One thing I've found, even though I love skinning, is that it sometimes creates really system buggy issues, which I don't quite know how to deal with. Thoughts and preferences, anyone?
Dabe
One thing I've found, even though I love skinning, is that it sometimes creates really system buggy issues, which I don't quite know how to deal with. Thoughts and preferences, anyone?Dabe
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digital_trucker
Reply #2 Thursday, November 27, 2003 10:55 AM
Reply #2 Thursday, November 27, 2003 10:55 AM
Spybot - Search and Destroy (spyware killer)
AdAware (for the very few things Spybot doesn't catch)
Defragment regularly
That's all I use, and I don't have any problems I don't cause myself
Everything runs nice and smooth.
AdAware (for the very few things Spybot doesn't catch)
Defragment regularly
That's all I use, and I don't have any problems I don't cause myself
Everything runs nice and smooth.
Stockholm Syndrome
Reply #3 Thursday, November 27, 2003 1:32 PM
Reply #3 Thursday, November 27, 2003 1:32 PM
I use GoBack for this and it works great. It sits on your system running like XP System Restore but it's much better. It just monitors changes to your system, and then if you install something funky, you can just roll back the changes to get your system back. I love it. 
If you get Systemworks, Goback is included.
If you get Systemworks, Goback is included.
Keith Perry
Reply #4 Thursday, November 27, 2003 8:02 PM
Reply #4 Thursday, November 27, 2003 8:02 PM
Digital_trucker, Get SpyWare Blaster. It's a nice little program that stops you from ever downloading certain spyware that Spybot or Adaware has picked up on.
Since i've downloaded, I receive from both Spybot and Adaware ( NO SPYWARE )
[Message Edited]
Since i've downloaded, I receive from both Spybot and Adaware (
NO SPYWARE )
[Message Edited]
digital_trucker
Reply #5 Thursday, November 27, 2003 8:46 PM
Reply #5 Thursday, November 27, 2003 8:46 PM
Actually, Spbot does just that...it's called 'Immunize'
Phoon
Reply #6 Thursday, November 27, 2003 9:31 PM
Reply #6 Thursday, November 27, 2003 9:31 PM
At the risk of being engulfed in flames.. here goes my 2 cents worth:
1. Forget repair utilities. Ie.. Norton Utilities, Systemworks etc..
instead, practice sensible computing habits like regular maintainence like defrag (diskeeper for that), anti-virus, and run adaware periodicly.
2. Keep your files organized. You wouldn't go to your office and just fling files on the floor.. so don't do it with your computer. Develop a system and use it.
3. Have at minimum, 2 hard drives in your system. One is primarily your operating system and programs. The other is for your files and any data that you have created with your programs. Anything that you don't want to lose, keep it on the second drive.
I have found that invariably, it is much easier to reformat and do a fresh install of windows as opposed to trying to find and fix a nasty issue that eludes me. The so called fix all utilites just hog resources, and I have seen them actually cause crashes which would then force you to re-install windows anyway.
Sisoft Sandra is a good utility for diagnosis however and can point to potential problems.
And last but not least... NEVER ever, add additional fonts to your windows fonts folder other than what programs that need them install. Place your extra fonts in a different folder and get a font mgmt tool like font explorer to load/unload your extra fonts. I saw a system with 7000 fonts installed that would absolutely drag until we moved the "other than default" fonts out of that folder.
1. Forget repair utilities. Ie.. Norton Utilities, Systemworks etc..
instead, practice sensible computing habits like regular maintainence like defrag (diskeeper for that), anti-virus, and run adaware periodicly.
2. Keep your files organized. You wouldn't go to your office and just fling files on the floor.. so don't do it with your computer. Develop a system and use it.
3. Have at minimum, 2 hard drives in your system. One is primarily your operating system and programs. The other is for your files and any data that you have created with your programs. Anything that you don't want to lose, keep it on the second drive.
I have found that invariably, it is much easier to reformat and do a fresh install of windows as opposed to trying to find and fix a nasty issue that eludes me. The so called fix all utilites just hog resources, and I have seen them actually cause crashes which would then force you to re-install windows anyway.
Sisoft Sandra is a good utility for diagnosis however and can point to potential problems.
And last but not least... NEVER ever, add additional fonts to your windows fonts folder other than what programs that need them install. Place your extra fonts in a different folder and get a font mgmt tool like font explorer to load/unload your extra fonts. I saw a system with 7000 fonts installed that would absolutely drag until we moved the "other than default" fonts out of that folder.
SelfExiled
Reply #7 Friday, November 28, 2003 5:15 AM
Reply #7 Friday, November 28, 2003 5:15 AM
Spybot Search and Destroy is great, and its free.
It can fix registry issues too.
The best all around utility for XP is TweakXP.
Norton is good, but these two take it a few steps further.
Good Luck.
It can fix registry issues too.
The best all around utility for XP is TweakXP.
Norton is good, but these two take it a few steps further.
Good Luck.
Leo the Lion
Reply #8 Friday, November 28, 2003 5:47 AM
Reply #8 Friday, November 28, 2003 5:47 AM
Phoon talks a lot of sense. Norton Systemworks though is great for picking up some of the problems though. I have had it for 3 years now and run Windoctor every week and Speed Disk every two to four weeks depending on how big the changes have been made to my system. Adaware is a big must as well. 
Jafo
Reply #9 Friday, November 28, 2003 7:12 AM
Reply #9 Friday, November 28, 2003 7:12 AM
Early Norton Rescue utilities that were supposed to save you from dramas actually created more of their own....hence system recovery proggies have a bad rep.
Basic education such as the 'what does this button do?' sort of thing will stand anyone in good stead....more so than once the proverbial horse has bolted attempts at recovery...
Koasati
Reply #10 Friday, November 28, 2003 8:54 AM
Reply #10 Friday, November 28, 2003 8:54 AM
Phoon, about the font thing.........I once asked about installing fonts, because I had heard of problems caused by installing too many. I got some interesting anwsers... here's a couple;
#1 by c242 - 7/15/2003 9:49:05 PM
1223 fonts installed here and no problems at all.
#6 by Admin Jafo - 7/19/2003 7:57:24 AM
2000 and XP can handle any number of fonts....but Win 9x has a limit based on the names [their total length], not a specific number of fonts...
digital_trucker
Reply #11 Friday, November 28, 2003 10:41 AM
Reply #11 Friday, November 28, 2003 10:41 AM
I had Norton Systemworks 2001, and it had the bad habit of trashing my computer to the point of unusability. Don't know if the newer version are any better. Phoon's method is the best, have a 40-60 gig HD for your operating system and so forth, and a nice BIG one for any updates and software you upload (preferably backing them up to CD...just in case). It really doesn't take that long to reformat/reinstall if you do something so heinous that it can't fix.
Always assuming you have a fairly modern computer, of course. One of the best things you can invest in is at least 256 megs of RAM. It's fairly inexpensive these days. My computer was reasonable state-of-the-art a couple of years ago or so, so it's pretty much out od date by now. I have all kinds of stuff running at once and don't notice any real slow-downs. Keep the spyware out and keep your HDs defragged...that's all you really need to do.
Always assuming you have a fairly modern computer, of course. One of the best things you can invest in is at least 256 megs of RAM. It's fairly inexpensive these days. My computer was reasonable state-of-the-art a couple of years ago or so, so it's pretty much out od date by now. I have all kinds of stuff running at once and don't notice any real slow-downs. Keep the spyware out and keep your HDs defragged...that's all you really need to do.
kona0197
Reply #12 Friday, November 28, 2003 10:45 AM
unless you own a mac. In that case do nothing because they defrag themselves. I wonder if ad awre runs on a mac?
Reply #12 Friday, November 28, 2003 10:45 AM
| Keep the spyware out and keep your HDs defragged...that's all you really need to do. |
unless you own a mac. In that case do nothing because they defrag themselves. I wonder if ad awre runs on a mac?
Phoon
Reply #13 Friday, November 28, 2003 3:22 PM
Thats what I used to think, until I saw the problem first hand. I then done some more research into "font issues". Heres is a good link.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/library/weekly/aa072099.htm
Reply #13 Friday, November 28, 2003 3:22 PM
| #10 by Wizop Koasati - 11/28/2003 8:54:13 AM Phoon, about the font thing.........I once asked about installing fonts, because I had heard of problems caused by installing too many. I got some interesting anwsers... here's a couple;#1 by c242 - 7/15/2003 9:49:05 PM 1223 fonts installed here and no problems at all.#6 by Admin Jafo - 7/19/2003 7:57:24 AM 2000 and XP can handle any number of fonts....but Win 9x has a limit based on the names [their total length], not a specific number of fonts... |
Thats what I used to think, until I saw the problem first hand. I then done some more research into "font issues". Heres is a good link.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/library/weekly/aa072099.htm
SelfExiled
Reply #14 Friday, November 28, 2003 4:31 PM
Reply #14 Friday, November 28, 2003 4:31 PM
I curious as to whether anyone here has reached that alleged font limit on WinXP? Then, I'm curious as to whether people with less than 1000 fonts have font problems. A corrupt font directory caused blue screens of death(BSOD) in my old windows98 machine. Then, I learned what to do to prevent this sort of thing from happening. I even see traces of the same problems in my WinXP machine, and I always fix it. It's fairly easy to corrupt the font directory when installing and uninstalling programs. A corrupt font directory is much more of a problem than reaching a alleged number of fonts.
Jafo
Reply #15 Friday, November 28, 2003 5:43 PM
Reply #15 Friday, November 28, 2003 5:43 PM
Phoon....that article DOES mention the name-length limitation/s that limit what you will get into the font folder [as I mentioned]....but it's about 98, not the later OSs....the give-away is a reference to Office 97.....bit out of date, lad...
IPlural
Reply #16 Friday, November 28, 2003 6:26 PM
Reply #16 Friday, November 28, 2003 6:26 PM
Yeha 98 had an issue with name space. 98SE addressed that I think didn't it?
Phoon
Reply #17 Friday, November 28, 2003 7:06 PM
Reply #17 Friday, November 28, 2003 7:06 PM
Jafo, the issue I witnessed is on Windows XP. The system had over 7000 fonts in the windows\fonts folder.
When opening Outlook express, it took a full 5 minutes from the time of double click to the readability of the inbox. Also system startup was awful among many other applications.
Once the font folder was cleared of all non windows default fonts, Outlook snapped open, windows started up faster, other applications were happier and it was like a new system.
I understand the that the article references the name-length limitations etc, and had I not witnessed the performance ramifications of 7000 fonts I would have been sceptical of such a yarn. But make no mistake, Windows XP does have font limitations.
When opening Outlook express, it took a full 5 minutes from the time of double click to the readability of the inbox. Also system startup was awful among many other applications.
Once the font folder was cleared of all non windows default fonts, Outlook snapped open, windows started up faster, other applications were happier and it was like a new system.
I understand the that the article references the name-length limitations etc, and had I not witnessed the performance ramifications of 7000 fonts I would have been sceptical of such a yarn. But make no mistake, Windows XP does have font limitations.
XX
Reply #18 Friday, November 28, 2003 7:23 PM
Reply #18 Friday, November 28, 2003 7:23 PM
Wow. 7,000 fonts? Not many needs that much fonts. I can think up possibilities however. Maybe something like publishing, etc.
kona0197
Reply #19 Friday, November 28, 2003 8:23 PM
I might be wrong but a majority of desktop publishing pros use macs.
I only have 50 fonts myself...
Reply #19 Friday, November 28, 2003 8:23 PM
| Wow. 7,000 fonts? Not many needs that much fonts. I can think up possibilities however. Maybe something like publishing, etc. |
I might be wrong but a majority of desktop publishing pros use macs.
I only have 50 fonts myself...
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Reply #1 Thursday, November 27, 2003 10:12 AM