Advantage of re-installing Operating System without formatting the hard disk drive

What I experience a few days ago is related to corrupted windows operating system (OS) using windows 7 which cannot be restored or repaired normally. The problem occurred when the desktop was accidentally drop by a child which affected the hard drive. After a few try to repair itself (advantage of latest windows platform), or somehow tried to perform a restoration to an early stage to no avail, I decided to re-install windows 7 and solved the problem. 

What about the files? Most of us surely want to retrieve or recover those files as much as possible. There are two options in the installation process which are using Upgrade or Custom. Upgrade means replacing your current version with the latest one keeping your files and system intact. Meaning, you don't have to worry about you important files. While Custom means, according to Microsoft, replaces you current version with the latest one but not preserve you files and system which is considered a new installation. But, I found out that using custom installation using the same system drive and not formatting it will allow you to recover your files but not the programs.

During the re-installation it will prompts you that old files and folders will be placed in the Windows.old folder so you can copy it later (within in a short period) to another folder before they will automatically deleted. You can find the Windows.old folder below the Windows folder newly created in system drive - C drive. Then you can delete the Windows.old folder too. How long will it work is under observation since I found about 9 bad sectors in the drive which may cause the drive to fail.

Formatting the drive is only needed when we wanted to have a clean installation, meaning erasing all sorts of unnecessary files including some virus or malwares that causing the computer to slow down. If those files are not really important you can format the drive instantly. Otherwise, you need to re-install the OS without formatting the drive and recovers those files you needed. 

Kbdus.dll Error Not Solved

A friend asked me to install MS Office 2007. He had a 2003 version installed but not working so we tried to upgrade the said version. While in the process of upgrading, the computer suddenly restart and the upgrade did not work. So we decided to remove the 2003 version to fresh install 2007 but the problem worsen. We could not install anymore. And I thought there might something bad with either the hard disk, the memory, the processor, the board, the BIOS or a virus keeps the computer restart/shutdown when performing an installation.

Troubleshooting seems the hardest part whenever a computer got a problem. The worse if it is uncommon  which will take a lot of effort to resolve. It does not only takes an hour or a day and you might end up wasting a lot of time. That's how bad it be.

When you hear a single beep sound a computer boots normally it means the board is in good condition together with the processor and the memory. And so I thought the hard disk is the problem. To check, I tried the hard disk to another computer , formatted and installed fresh copy of Windows XP and it works. So there's no problem regarding the HDD. But, when I put it back again to its original case (hoping it will work) - it won't work. Right there, I decided to format it again and try installing windows but an error occurred of which it say's "Setup cannot load the keyboard layout kbdus.dll". Microsoft suggested two ways to resolve it but did not help.

I attempted many times to format the hard disk but I failed. I don't think there's an issue with the CD installer and CD ROM. So I guess, I got a serious issue with that keyboard error and need learn more about it.

How to solve kbus.dll error?

Let's make an experimentation. What about swapping a hard disk drive from another computer that completely work when the other don't work around? It sounds good and I guess it will work since I've done it several times before.  

So, I used another hard disk from another computer which had everything installed in it. I fired the computer on and finally, It work! After the windows open, it proceeded to update any hardware drivers and no need to install MS 2007 already since it was included there.

As a reminder, this post did work for me and I hope will work with you too. But I understand also, that it may not work with others due to differences in motherboard specifications or model.

20 Minutes Software Installation

Image via Wikipedia

Today I've installed an MS Office 2007 in an old computer. My first attempt went for 3 hours due to slow performance because the CPU speed wasn't configured properly. It was set at 366 MHZ prior to my installation. I did not noticed such setting until I felt that something is wrong with the setup. Beside, that thought never came into my mind because I supposed the computer is okay.

But when I configured the CPU setting at 733 Mhz, it performs a little faster than my first attempt. So I let the installation continue until it finish smoothly. I noticed that at the last attempt I've made, it only took 20 minutes to install an MS Office 2007.

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