Korean Job Discussion Forums

Underwaterbob · Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Location: In Cognito

So my home desktop has started to chug. Booting up takes nearly five minutes and things just aren't running all that smoothly anymore.

It's an AMD 2.51GHz dual core with 2gigs of ram running a pirated Korean Windows XP that whoever built the computer installed. 250GB hard drive with a 50gig Windows partition and a 200gig data partition.

Has anyone taken a similar setup and tried to install Vista on it? Will I have to install Vista in Korean first, and change the language later if I want to keep data and settings or can I upgrade into English directly? If I have to install in Korean, how difficult to understand is the installer? Are there any really good arguments for actually buying it and not pirating it?

Installing OSes stresses me out and always ends up taking way more time, and being far more destructive than I think it will.

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

You can go direct to English Vista.

Set the boot priority in the BIOS to boot from CD-ROM.
Restart the PC with the Vista Eng disc in the drive.
When prompted, press enter to boot from CD (DVD)
Follow the easy steps to format the C: drive and do a clean install of Vista.

Be patient. Some of the installing steps show a blank screen or not much happening for quite a while.......just give it time......it shouldn't take more than an hour in total.

You might want to get an x64 version of Vista and put an extra 2GB's of RAM in there.

Underwaterbob · Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Location: In Cognito

Is it possible to upgrade to English Vista from Korean XP, rather than the full reinstall/complete reformat of drive C? I know Vista includes the option to upgrade from XP and keep many settings and installed software, but I'm not sure how the language difference would effect things.

Is Vista 64 really that RAM intensive that I'd notice a big difference between 2 and 4 gigs? Will Vista 64 complain or run badly if I only have 2 gigs?

Sorta rhetorical: Why on earth do we still call the main drive C when A and B drives no longer exist?

ladron · Joined: 20 Feb 2006

I gotta wonder why you want Vista when so many people complain about it and pay to go back to XP. Can't you just install an English XP?

And why do we still say "dial a phone" or "rewind the dvd"?

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

A 2.5 dual-core Athlon should be plenty to run Vista. 2 gigs is the minimum you can run comfortably with Vista, but you should be OK. Keep in mind, that Vista has superfetch (?) which allows you to stick in a memory key and designate it as RAM to be used by the system. This is a great/cheap way to upgrade your RAM.

We just installed the 64-bit version, and I'm pretty happy so far. It's not slow (I don't play games) although I know XP would run really zippy with it.

Personally, although Vista has been OK, I'd just reinstall XP again to start from scratch.

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

Demophobe · Joined: 17 May 2004

Underwaterbob · Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Location: In Cognito

Lots of helpful advice here that has essentially left me more indecisive than ever and dreading upgrading at all.

Are there any good boot optimizers out there for Korean XP?

Demophobe · Joined: 17 May 2004

You can do most of it yourself.

Google "services" and start disabling what you don't need. Defrag, clean the registry (wise registry cleaner - free) and maintain adequate free space on your C: drive. Run Ccleaner regularly and manually clear out some of the folders in C:\documents and settings that Ccleaner doesn't do (can't see). Run a "chkdsk" periodically and remember to defrag at boot from time to time.

Most "tweak" programs are nothing more than, if even, this.

Bootvis (about, how to) can be useful in diagnosing a slow boot.

Typically, its the startup programs that slow things down. AV, Firewall....these and, surprise...a network connection.