Need help with winXP

Hi,

My computer is a Dell 640 and it have windows XP on it. Lately, I'm having a lot of trouble with it like:

- Not able to do a scandisk or a defragment disk.
- Sometime, I'm not able to open the control panel
- At some point, the computer closed and I was just able to restart with a restore of the system (1hour earlier)
- I installed a virus software with cd but it look like it don't keep the configuration of it each time I restart the computer

What I should do? Do if I reinstall XP (if I found my cds), I will be losing everything? If I don't found the XP cds, what can I do?

Thanks for the help.

 

The best thing to do would be to copy or backup all of your documents (the ones you don't want to lose, at least ), and then format the hard drive and do a clean installation. If you cannot find your CDs, you should be able to obtain replacement CDs from .Dell for a minimal charge.

 

Your Paging file is probably to the point where it's almost maxed out. You can check and try to increase it or use Diskeeper to defrag it (see my link below).

Shyster's got an excellent point -regardless of whatever you do, it could be a sign that your HD or system is having problems, so if you haven't back up all of your critical files (just personal documents and media files - don't worry about program or system files which can be loaded again). You can get a 750gb Maxtor for just over 100 bucks. Stay away from Western Digital unless you like to waste your money. Seagate or Maxtor.

You can also do a Repair Installation from the Dell System Disks - while it won't affect your files, nothing is guaranteed, so the best option is to backup everything now to an external while you can and before anything to try and fix the problems.

Alternatively, try Diskeeper to defrag your drive. Most native defrag programs aren't that good, and over time your drive can become so fragmented it will cause the problems you're having. Native defrag utilities also don't defrag paging/index files, which are critical for XP operation. Diskeeper does both.

You can get it as a full trial version, but it only runs about 100. It's the top defrag utility used by most of us in the IT industry, and you can't go wrong with the latest version - it runs as a background process.