i want to format my hard drive but i want to keep vista

ok one day i had about 9 gigs of sapce on hard drive c then the next i
had 233 mb.....
so i decided to defragment but as ive done this its caused most of my
programs to not function properly.... not cool so ive decided to start
fresh and delete everythingbut the problem is i dont know how to....also
i dont want to delete vista itself....can anyone help?


--
lucky3

"lucky3" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> ok one day i had about 9 gigs of sapce on hard drive c then the next i
> had 233 mb.....
> so i decided to defragment but as ive done this its caused most of my
> programs to not function properly.... not cool so ive decided to start
> fresh and delete everythingbut the problem is i dont know how to....also
> i dont want to delete vista itself....can anyone help?
>
>
> --
> lucky

Save your important stuff to CD or DVD.. then use your Vista DVD or recovery
partition to start over..


--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default...help&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

"lucky3" <> wrote in message
news:...
|
| ok one day i had about 9 gigs of sapce on hard drive c then the next i
| had 233 mb.....
| so i decided to defragment but as ive done this its caused most of my
| programs to not function properly.... not cool so ive decided to start
| fresh and delete everythingbut the problem is i dont know how to....also
| i dont want to delete vista itself....can anyone help?
|
|
| --
| lucky3

How you do the task you want to do depends on the brand of computer you have.
Instructions for "re-installing" vista to factory status should be in your manual.

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

kk i dont have the manual but its an acer..also i dont have the vist
dvd sorry but am a very unorganized person..

--
lucky3

"lucky3" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> kk i dont have the manual but its an acer..also i dont have the vista
> dvd sorry but am a very unorganized person...
>
>
> --
> lucky3


Contact Acer and ask for instructions..


--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default...help&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

Acer Recovery Media Purchase Program
https://secure3.tx.acer.com/RCD/Main.aspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience -
Windows Vista Enthusiast

---------------------------------------------------------------

"lucky3" <> wrote in message news:...

kk i dont have the manual but its an acer..also i dont have the vista
dvd sorry but am a very unorganized person...


--
lucky3

> ok one day i had about 9 gigs of sapce on hard drive c then the next i
> had 233 mb.....
> so i decided to defragment but as ive done this its caused most of my
> programs to not function properly

You've had all the advice you need from the other respondents. But just for
your interest I would clarify a couple of points.

1/ Defragging is NOT designed to release any disk space at all

2/ Defragging does NOT cause any of your programs to stop working, or work
differently

Something else is to blame. But you are doing the right thing: vapourise
the whole installation and start again.

SteveT

On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:36:14 -0500, lucky3 <>
wrote:

>
>kk i dont have the manual but its an acer..also i dont have the vista
>dvd sorry but am a very unorganized person...

Formatting your drive means removing everything including Vista. If
you only want to remove programs you are sure you're not going to want
to use in the future you can remove those leaving Vista behind which
in effect would leave you with a "clean" (empty) drive other than the
operating system itself. If this is what you want:

Click on Start, Control Panel, Programs and Features. Wait as Vista
builds a list of icons. One by one select the programs you are sure
you no longer want and uninstall them. This will free up a lot of
space and virtually remove everything other than the OS itself.

This is generally a POOR way to proceed, but you asked. Especially if
you bought some box computer that came with pre-installed software and
they didn't give you actual CD/s/DVD's to restore from. So proceed
with caution.

If you are trying to free some room, a better approach is to use the
disk cleanup feature which can remove a lot of clutter,junk and dead
wood without removing actual applications you may wish you didn't down
the road.

On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:43:07 -0500, lucky3 <>
wrote:

>
> ok one day i had about 9 gigs of sapce on hard drive c then the next i
> had 233 mb.....
> so i decided to defragment


Why? What does defragmenting have to do with your having little hard
drive available?

Defragmenting rearranges the clusters on your drive to make the
clusters that each file uses contiguous. It does nothing to get you
any more disk space.


> but as ive done this its caused most of my
> programs to not function properly


Defragmenting can not do anything like this. What program did you use
to defragment? The Windows one or a third-party one?

Exactly what does "not function properly" mean? Which programs? What
are they doing wrong? If you get error messages, please quote them
verbatim.


> .... not cool so ive decided to start
> fresh and delete everything


That's likely way overkill, and certainly a premature decision to
make. Start by answering the questions above, and let's see if one of
us here can help you without your having to resort to the draconian
solution of reinstalling Windows.


> but the problem is i dont know how to....also
> i dont want to delete vista itself....can anyone help?


On the one hand, you say "start fresh and delete everything," but on
the other hand you say "i dont want to delete vista itself." Those
statements are incompatible. "Everything" includes Vista. Exactly what
is it that you think you want to delete?


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:11:48 +0100, "Steve Thackery"
<> wrote:

>> ok one day i had about 9 gigs of sapce on hard drive c then the next i
>> had 233 mb.....
>> so i decided to defragment but as ive done this its caused most of my
>> programs to not function properly
>
>You've had all the advice you need from the other respondents. But just for
>your interest I would clarify a couple of points.
>
>1/ Defragging is NOT designed to release any disk space at all
>
>2/ Defragging does NOT cause any of your programs to stop working, or work
>differently
>
>Something else is to blame. But you are doing the right thing: vapourise
>the whole installation and start again.
>
>SteveT

Actually it is overkill. Reformatting and starting over from scratch
is like imploding a six story building with explosives because a light
bulb in the hallway on the 3rd floor burned out.

I noticed a lot of "MS fanboy experts" always suggest starting over
rather then offering advice on how to actually fix what's wrong.

Some experts.

LOL!