Reinstalling Windows

[kittyciara]

OK, so my computer definitely has some corrupt system files and I'm going to reinstall windows.

I have a couple questions though.

1) I don't have the Driver CD's for my SLI video cards....is that going to cause problems?

2) I don't want to have to redownload steam and TF2...can I just copy the steam folder from my program files onto a portable harddrive and recopy it once I reinstall windows?

[RaptorIIC]

1) Download them from nvidia's official website. There shouldn't be a problem.

2) If you copy the registry entries associated with Steam/TF2, it shouldn't be a problem.

[Bret]

You can back up games in steam. Its under like properties of each game.

[kittyciara]

yeah, but backing them up online defeats the purpose of having to redownload it, wouldn't it?

[Bret]

pack up your computer and send it back

[kittyciara]

oh I see what you're saying now that I looked at it.....problem is that part of the corruption has gotten to my Disc burner drive :( So, I have to copy the whole thing onto a portable hard drive.

[Bronyaur]

downloading steam again is a non-issue. Backing up TF2 is the only way to not have to download it again (maybe you could copy registry keys, but if you get something wrong it might not work at all anyway and it's too much trouble, and there is still no guarantee since it runs through Steam).

As for video card drivers, you should pretty much always install all your drivers from the internet, not the CD's. The exception might be a motherboard that needed the CD installation to access onboard network ports to even allow internet access, but you should download the latest drivers immediately after anyway.

[Bonzo]

Open up your computer tower, take an M-80, light it, throw it inside and then close your tower.