have definitely messed up my operating system. This is my computer Dell Pentium IV 1.8 gigahertz 512 MB Rambus memory 80 GB 7200 RPM primary hard drive ethernet card 64mb nvidia GForce2 MX with TV out cable modem Windows XP Dragon NaturallySpeaking software for speech recognition, version 7 preferred Maxtor 80 GB 7200 RPM hard drive for video editing and backup Pioneer DVR-105 DVD writer In the process of moving some files from one partition on my primary drive to another I messed up my computer. It is extremely slow, especially when trying to launch a program from a shortcut. I ran Norton disk Doctor and it found 138 registry errors which it repaired. Before I deep six this system, can you recommend some sort of software that can tell me what I did wrong. And no I did not have restore activated. I tried to install Norton Go-back, but it does not recognize my boot drive. Assuming that I cannot repair what I have I will go ahead and reinstall everything on a formatted hard drive. Is there an online guide someplace that can give me step-by-step instructions for redoing my hard drive.

Here are some things you could try: 1) Defrag all partitions since there were major changes made. 2) Try tunning the System File Checker in case there were windows system files that may have been damaged. Start > Run > cmd >sfc /scannow 3) Run Check Disk. Start > Run > cmd > chkdsk. 4) Check the performance and processes tab for certain resource hogs. These are only suggestions.

Omega Man: can't locate the reference at the moment, but one person who shared files among two HDs found that the slowdown arose because the shortcut went into slow "deep level search mode" on moving to the second HD. as an aside, if you want to reformat a hard drive that came with Dell it is classified as OEM and you should discuss the matter with their support folks before you do. can be lots of grief otherwise...