To re-install or not to re-install...

[Yamagata 1st MRB]

That is the question.

I've been having freezing problems, it looks like my CPU usage shoots up to 100% for a few seconds and nothing works, the mouse moves sometimes, but rarely. I've gone through all my non-windows processes to see if any of my programs were the culprit, but even with all non-essential processes off, I still freeze. Alienware has replaced my LCD, my videocards, my motherboard, and fans.... I know that I really should just rule Windows out and re-install, but that means re-installing EVERYTHING! I don't even know why I'm asking, maybe I'm just ranting. I've got an external hdd for files, any way to drop the games I've installed on there without having to sit through hours/days of downloading again?

[Magic 1st MRB]

Yeah you can.

3 solutions that I can see:

1. Copy your steamapps folder to your external HD. Very simple, but might take a few hours. Copies over all the accounts and ALL of the games.

2. 2nd time I reformatted, I didn't want to copy over all the games, so I just went into my C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common folder and copied over specific game folders onto my 2nd HD. Once I reformatted I just copied back into my folders and verified and (most) of the games worked.

3. 1st time I reformatted I just dl'd the games overnight, not a big problem as I don't really play more than 2 different games per day. Again, not a problem ~ just tough it out..... but thats not answering your question. Stick to #2.

[Lafy BAR]

I usually just buy a new hard drive when I want to reinstall. Toss the old drive in an external USB enclosure and get stuff back from it as needed after the reinstall.

That said, this might help you figure out what the problem is. You can get a chart of the cpu usage of every process on your computer, and then after the 100% cpu usage happens, check the chart to see which process is doing it.

Start, run, mmc, file, add/remove snap-in, performance monitor, add>, ok, performance (local), monitoring tools, performance monitor, green +, process little down arrow (not processor), % processor time, <All Instances>, Add >>, ok

you should now have a screen with a mess of little line graphs showing all of your processes and a list with the names associated to each line below.

[Pangilinan 1st MRB]

Idiot talking here: If the problem is the HDD and it's unrecoverable, buy a new one and fine an open field for uh...hard drive disposal. Make sure there is sufficient backstop. I don't think .45ACP cause that much trouble in permanently erasing data. Hell, go cheap, go with .22LR

[Yamagata 1st MRB]

My computer science professor took a HDD out to the range and unloaded his AK-47 on it, an electron microscope can still gather data from the parts that were still intact.

[Pangilinan 1st MRB]

Clearly beforehand you wipe it with DoD rated wipe and then shoot it, before bulldozing it into the berm. Or wonder if a common theif has access to that kind of stuff.

[Magoo]

My computer science professor took a HDD out to the range and unloaded his AK-47 on it, an electron microscope can still gather data from the parts that were still intact.

OMG I hope that none of my garbage men are computer science professors on the side.

[Lafy BAR]

Just microwave the drive on High until the microwave catches fire. Data disposed of.

[Dillon 1st MRB]

Wait a sec. Don't move your crap. Here is the best program known to man:

Steam Library Manager

However, have you checked your SMART monitoring? Are you sure it isn't just the HD failing? There has been some disconcerting things happening with some WD and Seagate drives. Who makes your hard drive? Every manufacturer has HD scanning software out there. If you have a failing HD, a reformat may cause some lost data.

If you like advanced stuff (and it sounds like you do if you are in school for this stuff, here is a guide I wrote up somewhere. Its cropped up in a couple of different places, but it utilizes Windows Junctions.

This guide is about folder junctions (aka symbolic links), and how to use them to move a folder to another drive without interrupting the operation of any programs that make use of that directory. It is designed to help solve the problem that has arisen with SSDs: using some games/programs on one drive and others on another, especially in (but not limited to) situations involving Valve’s Steam, Electronic Arts’ Origin, or similar services. The reason for this is because, at the time of writing, most SSDs aren’t large enough in capacity to support much more than an operating system, a collection of basic applications, and a few games, requiring the user to split the data to best effect. Given that Steam/Origin/others rely on having all their data inside a single directory, we need a way to do that. For best effect, you should focus on keeping your most-used games on the SSD.

And you’re in luck! Microsoft provides NTFS level support for folder junctions (which are a form of symbolic links, in Unix/Mac parlance) for individual folders. Think of junctions as file system level shortcuts - only the operating system knows that the affected file or folder is actually somewhere else, and it is presented to the application as if it is where the link is placed. For example, you can link “C:\Games\Call of Duty” to “E:\CoD”. If done correctly, which is the point of this guide to explain, the application remains unaware that the file or folder actually points to somewhere else, and continues to operate business as usual.

One thing Microsoft did not do for you, however, is provide a tool for creating symbolic links. While you can create them through the command line interface cmd.exe using the mklink command, an open source tool released under the GPL has been built to handle this for you called Symlinker, which will be the focus of this thread.

There are twelve steps (just like most alcohol addiction recovery programs – ed.) to creating a folder junction symbolic link with Symlinker.

1. Close whichever game manager, if any, is responsible for the game you which to move to the SSD.

2. Copy the desired game folder from where it’s installed to a spot on the faster SSD. Something simple like C:\Symlinked\ will work.

3. Delete the source folder when you’ve verified a good copy - you cannot create a folder junction in a location that contains a folder of the same name.

4. Create the folder junction in Symlinker. To do this, download and open the file as linked above, and:

5. Set the type of symbolic link that you want to create to Folder symbolic link

6. Under ‘Destination Folder’, in the ‘Select the type of link’ drop down, select ‘Directory Junction’

7. Under ‘Link Folder’, click Explore… and select the parent folder of the folder you deleted in step 2

8. Under ‘Destination Folder’, click Explore… and select the folder on the SSD that you copied in step 1

9. Select the name of the folder only, starting from the right and stopping just short of the first backslash, and copy to the clipboard-

10. Back under ‘Link Folder,’ paste the folder name in the field labeled ‘Now give a name to the link:’-

11. Click ‘Create Link’ at the bottom, and acknowledge the confirmation popup

12. If the link was successfully created, start up your game manager, and test the game in question!

Note: Symlinker will tell you that it was successful even if it fails sometimes - you will know that you used it correctly if:

a) There is a folder with a shortcut symbol on its icon in the original installed directory, named the same as the folder it replaced

By clicking on it, you are taken to the folder's new location.

This has been tested by the author with Steam, EA Download Manager and EA Origin.

Under Steam:

1. Day of Defeat Source

2. Civilization V

Outside of Steam:

1. Neverwinter Nights 2

2. Company of Heroes

However, how old is your copy of Windows? How bad is the registry? There is only 1 registry scanner I trust, and its Auslogics (also make a phenominal disk defragment program.

http://majorgeeks.com/Auslogics_Registry_Cleaner_d6499.html

Here is a regsistry defrag program that isn't horrible, made by the same folks.

http://majorgeeks.com/Auslogics_Registry_Defrag_d5668.html

[Dillon 1st MRB]

And for permament wiping of data: DBAN, accept no substitutes.

[McKenzie 1st MRB]

DBAN is a nice program, but I prefer BC Wipe when I am trying to hide illegal financial recor...I mean make sure my computer is properly wiped..yeah thats it.

[Pangilinan 1st MRB]

Whatever happened to good old shooting it and then putting it on fire and then blowing it up with tannerite?

[Maines]

Whatever happened to good old shooting it and then putting it on fire and then blowing it up with tannerite?

+1 for tannerite

[Yamagata 1st MRB]

Ran the process monitor that Lafy suggested, nothing went up during the freeze... I'm pretty sure it isn't my hard drive, but I guess I could run a HD scan. Not sure which manufacturer it is, I'll check when I get home...

[Goodwin 1st MRB]

Seatools is a good HD health test.

I've never found the registry cleaner in CCleaner to be too bad either.

Combofix dat bitch.

Also, I keep all my games/data on a separate internal drive, and run my OS/core files on an SSD. Nice part? The 'data' drive is plug & play (although I do create backups of my stuff should something go bad, on an external). If Windows is your problem, would be easy enough to reinstall if you had either 2 drives, or had partitioned out an OS partition specifically. In the future it will save you literally HUNDREDS of hours if you either A) start doing 2 drives, or B)Partition your existing drive so your OS sits on a separate partition.

[Yamagata 1st MRB]

My arsenal of tools.

I've never used Seatools, I might try it.