My computer, being slow and downright unco-operating, needed to have a makeover. Yesterday, I started on the task of reinstalling Windows Vista. I wanted to format my hard drive and start again from a blank canvas in order to get rid of all the accumulated detritus. That's a pretty easy task with Windows XP, and one I have successfully completed a few times before. But it is much harder with Vista.
Vista is happy enough to do a repair install, but a clean install (where the hard drive is reformatted) - no way. On my computer, the OS had been upgraded from Windows XP, and then I had done a repair install over the top of that about twelve months back. You can imagine the crapola (technical computer jargon) that had piled up as a result.
I finally found an article on the web that gave me some encouragement that it could be done. Brian Livingston's method mirrored my circumstances exactly - how to do a clean install with an upgrade version of Vista. However, as usual, there was a glitch when I misunderstood one section of the piece and went down a dry gully (more jargon!) that cost me two hours. Since I recognised the error and revisited the installation though, things have gone rather smoothly... so far.
Now I have internet access again; today I hope to restore my email settings, and with any luck, I'll have my images and music back on my hard drive pretty soon. There is no doubt that my computer is running more quickly, but I have yet to reinstall my programs, so I'll reserve judgement until then.
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