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big eck

Member

Registered: 20th Apr 03
Location: Tullibody. Drives - Audi B8 S4 & Fiesta Zetec-S
User status: Offline

9th Jan 04 at 11:09

How do I put my computer back to factory spec??
I mean clear every bit of history on it, wipe everything from its memory and hardrive.

sunnyb

Member

Registered: 21st Oct 03
Location: Kent, near Bluewater
User status: Offline

9th Jan 04 at 11:12

is it a time or tiny thing or someone built it for ya?

big eck

Member

Registered: 20th Apr 03
Location: Tullibody. Drives - Audi B8 S4 & Fiesta Zetec-S
User status: Offline

9th Jan 04 at 11:15

Its a Packard bell comp, bought it brand new had it for about 4 months.

MULLER2

Member

Registered: 3rd Jun 02
Location: LONDON
User status: Offline

9th Jan 04 at 11:18

format the hard drive - that will erase everything

big eck

Member

Registered: 20th Apr 03
Location: Tullibody. Drives - Audi B8 S4 & Fiesta Zetec-S
User status: Offline

9th Jan 04 at 11:20

How do I do that, sorry bout all the questions but I aint got a fukin clue bout computers.

mjw_2k2

Member

Registered: 18th Sep 03
Location: Anglesey, North Wales
User status: Offline

9th Jan 04 at 11:20

u got win xp? if not just reinstall windows, but it will delete all your work etc

[Edited on 09-01-2004 by mjw_2k2]

Tim

Site Administrator

Registered: 21st Apr 00
User status: Offline

9th Jan 04 at 11:27

Manufacturers like Packard Bell usually supply a CD which says "Reinstallation CD" or something on it -- boot up from that CD, then just follow the setup prompts which will do it's thang...

[Edited on 09-01-2004 by Tim]

big eck

Member

Registered: 20th Apr 03
Location: Tullibody. Drives - Audi B8 S4 & Fiesta Zetec-S
User status: Offline

9th Jan 04 at 11:51

I've got Win XP Home, dont knoww bout the disc but i'll have a look when I get home, what are the steps for formatting the hardrive??
Will this wipe everything out and make it untraceable??
I know it sounds dodgy

[Edited on 09-01-2004 by big eck]

mjw_2k2

Member

Registered: 18th Sep 03
Location: Anglesey, North Wales
User status: Offline

9th Jan 04 at 11:58

k m8 if youve got xp home you should be able to restore it to the day that xp was installed on your comp, if this doesnt work then you can reinstall windows xp with the cd and you get a choice wether to just reinstall over your old xp which will keep some of your files and a choice of a fresh copy which it will format your harddrive and install xp

thekemp

Member

Registered: 8th Sep 03
User status: Offline

9th Jan 04 at 12:12

if its a pack bell you will get a red floppy disk that you boot from, put it in the floppy drive then turn it on it should boot from it, there will be no cd's as the windows files are held on the hard disk on a hidden partition. follow the on screen promps and after a while you should have a clean machine!

big eck

Member

Registered: 20th Apr 03
Location: Tullibody. Drives - Audi B8 S4 & Fiesta Zetec-S
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 15:36

Right folks, i'm gonna go ahead and do this, i've also got the Red disc that came with the machine.
What do I have to do exactly?? and remember I want to erase all hisory and folders and start with a fresh machine.
All help would be very much appreciated.
Oh bear in mind I dont know alot about computers,
Cheers folks

DanielJ

Member

Registered: 21st Nov 01
Location: gwent, south wales
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 15:40

i usually go to ms dos an do it from ther but i have win 98

big eck

Member

Registered: 20th Apr 03
Location: Tullibody. Drives - Audi B8 S4 & Fiesta Zetec-S
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 15:42

I've heard i've got to go to DOS but thats just a word to me, how do I do that??
come on peeps help plz

DanielJ

Member

Registered: 21st Nov 01
Location: gwent, south wales
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 15:43

prob gobna be abit technical 2 do dos for you then pop the cd in and see if it has the reinstall function on the cd

big eck

Member

Registered: 20th Apr 03
Location: Tullibody. Drives - Audi B8 S4 & Fiesta Zetec-S
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 15:54

Come on folks someone must know exactly what to do and how to do this??

Space SXi

Member

Registered: 21st Apr 03
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 15:56

Noooo tbh. If you aint sure what you are doing you really shoudnt format a pc lad.

Trust me ;p When it comes to hunting cds to find the right drivers for hardware you will wish you aint done it ;p

Take it to someone with a clue

m-dot

Member

Registered: 17th Aug 03
Location: Warrington
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 15:57

ive got a packard bell laptop, got a cd which restores to factory settings, done this a few times now

Tim

Site Administrator

Registered: 21st Apr 00
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 16:00

quote:
Originally posted by m-dot
ive got a packard bell laptop, got a cd which restores to factory settings, done this a few times now

Yeah that's what I was talking 'bout...

Space SXi

Member

Registered: 21st Apr 03
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 16:01

Bah . If hes got a cd liek that then fire in tbh. Do you format using like a windows admin tool or the old fashioned way of a start up floopy and going into DOS?

[Edited on 11-01-2004 by Space SXi]

Paul_J

Member

Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 16:01

Even if you reformat it you can see what used to be on your hard drive... using file recovery programs...

Drew

Banned

Registered: 24th Nov 01
Location: County Durham
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 16:01

if ya have the 2 restore discs - 1 floppy - and 1 cd

put both in pc - reboot - follow instructiosn - and wipe pc

will start up in a couple of hours the same as how ya bought it

big eck

Member

Registered: 20th Apr 03
Location: Tullibody. Drives - Audi B8 S4 & Fiesta Zetec-S
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 16:03

quote:
Originally posted by Tim

quote:
Originally posted by m-dot
ive got a packard bell laptop, got a cd which restores to factory settings, done this a few times now

Yeah that's what I was talking 'bout...

Will this erase everyting from the hard drive, i've got all the discs for re-loading the cartain packages that I want.

m-dot

Member

Registered: 17th Aug 03
Location: Warrington
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 16:11

It stores it back to FACTORY. Just like you bought it from new, everything EVERYTHING is gone!!!!!!

Paul_J

Member

Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 16:11

it'll clear it - but won't make stuff unfindable that was on there before.

Basically the way the hard drive works is its comprised of loads of little sectors, when u write a file to the hard drive it fills these. When you delete a file, it doesn't actually remove the file thats on there - but sets it as 'writeable again' - i.e. you can re write onto it again.

thus, if you format - you will be allowed to write on it all again, so in normal explorer mode you won't see any files. However if you have a file recovery program you can find all the old finds that are on there.

Just saying this coz you said about files being traceable ...

The only way to clear stuff completely is to write over everything with something else first. So format it - copy a huge file many times till the hard drive is full again then reformat.

Drew

Banned

Registered: 24th Nov 01
Location: County Durham
User status: Offline

11th Jan 04 at 16:32

or fit a new harddrive and dump the one thats in