how do you reformat a pc/laptop from scratch?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by mallet, Jul 24, 2007.

  1. mallet

    mallet Kilobyte Poster

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    My Laptop is running really slugish as I know the hard drive is on its last legs, typical dell budget laptop.

    So I am getting my external hard drive very soon to export my files to a temp place and reformat the hard drive.

    But how do I do a clean install so it reformats the hard drive with a OS on the hard disk? As I remember doing this on one of my PC'S and it came up with a message saying it wont do a clean install.

    -Mallet
     
    Certifications: MCP
  2. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    if you have the origional windows disk then get the laptop to boot from cd and select the format/delete partition/create new partition options.

    if you dont have an origional disk (as some places dont provide them when you get a pc/laptop of them) then your are going to have to get one or do a backup of some sort so you can install the os again.

    You could install again from within windows but i dont think this would help your hard drive. Also have you tried defragging the hard drive or using a registry cleaner?

    I am not sure about doing it without an origional disk as I would never buy a pc or laptop unless it came with the origional
    disk(s)
     
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  3. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    You should have got a Dell recovery disk with the laptop. Use that and then restore files from the external hard drive. 8)
     
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  4. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    If you don't have the Dell restore disk then some more recent models allow (insist) that you make them. How you do this will be in the docs on the Dell.

    Trying to get a laptop back to its original condition without the restore disk is a difficult exercise, and not always possible.

    If the hard drive is failing then you should be getting hardware error messages. A sluggish performance could just mean that you have too much 'stuff' on it, and you need to trim it a bit!

    Harry.
     
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  5. mallet

    mallet Kilobyte Poster

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    I got the original OS cd. Yeah it defintly sounds easier using the format partition option

    I have used disk defrag regurley and disk clean up. Not sure about registry cleaner, is that built into windows or is a freeware?
    My hardrive space in total is 40gb and got 20gb spare free, not much to play with. but iam not using my space, its taken by from my updates, like the firewall and anti virus.

    I dont have dell's restore disk, but to be honest I am not keen on using anything made by dell :biggrin

    The reason why Iam formatting the drive is because I am selling it off soon and I would like to get rid of it and start buliding a new PC plan very soon.
     
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  6. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    Registry cleaners are freeware some you can buy.

    But if your selling it off then I would definatley reformat.

    As I said when your laptop is booting press del or f5 or whatever it is to enter your system setup change the boot option to cd, put your cd in and exit.

    You will get a blue screen which you will see some files loading of the disk then you will get some options, select install and format option and also select the one that says delete and creat new partition this takes a while but it will completley erase the disk and install windows as if it were new.

    Just make sure you have driver disks or copies of any programs you want to keep and re-install them later if you want
     
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  7. Boycie
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    Boycie Senior Beer Tester

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    you might want to take a look at Ghost or Image Drive for future debacle's!

    Boyce
     
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  8. mallet

    mallet Kilobyte Poster

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    I dont belive how bad the new install went :(
    What I managed to do in 10mins was mess up the laptop really badly.

    I do another reinstall, but when windows ask how much should I give wins parition? as when I said 5gbs its now givin me only 5gb of free space.

    The other prob is, the pci and video cards are all gone yellow marks on device manager.
    I did get the drivers from dell website, but it still doesnt work properly, my model is the dell inspriron 1300

    Thanks in advance.

    -Mallet
     
    Certifications: MCP
  9. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    If its a clean install then why not just start over and configure different partition sizes?

    If you put the service tag number for the laptop into the dell website that should give you a link for the drivers. 8)
     
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  10. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    What Harry said ^^
     
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  11. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    If its your first time doing this then I would suggest you let whatever the partition size thats already automatically selected be the one you use, so there are no more **** ups.

    Then when you get used to doing it you can decide yourself.
     
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  12. mallet

    mallet Kilobyte Poster

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    Awesome, I did the reinstall with the right partition size and got all the drivers working.
    There were some text problems but that was due to my screen size and some text zooming in firefox.

    Thanks guys :thumbleft

    -Mallet
     
    Certifications: MCP

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