I have an old Acer 40gb laptop that we are now giving to my son for schoolwork and itunes.
If I am able to trace the original Acer recovery disks, how easy is it to wipe everything out the computer and put it back to its original condition? There is nothing on it that I need.
It runs Windows XP, I did have Microsoft Office on it and I daresay I would be able to put that back on again.
Finally, it is partitioned 20GB each to c: and d: which is a bit of a pain, if I reset this back to scratch again will I be able to change the partitioning?
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Recovering to factory settings is usually fairly straightforward, although it may want to carry out significant downloads of patches and other updates, and you will need to install any software you may want (including a virus checker!)
Some machines have the recovery software in a hidden partition which is kicked off by a CD or suchlike.
Did you partition it or was it already done? You can probably re-partition it yourself using diskmgmt.msc - delete the D partition (all data will be lost) then extend the C partition - I *think* this will work but someone will be along soon who can confirm.
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Cheers Smokie - the disc was already partitioned - I bought it from Dabs or Ebuyer as a factory reconditioned thingy so the user name on it is the original owner as well!
Problem is that over the years, files, programs etc have all got mixed up so I might have , say programs in c: and d:, and files in both as well whereas I would prefer all programs to be together in the one place.
I will need to hunt to see if I can find the original Acer discs, if I can then hopefully its a case of putting them in and following the instructions?
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It is a good few years back that CDs came with the new computer - more often than not the disks were an option you bought from Acer/MS after you discovered you had a problem.
My old desktop is 2002 running Windows 2000 Professional and CDs were not supplied as std.
Bobby - thought I'd save you the hunting down of something you are unlikely to have.
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Dell have changed policy over the years, my Inspiron 6000 wasn't supplied with a Windows disk in 2005, but my daughters' Dell 1545s, bought about 12 & 18 months ago, were supplied with Windows install disks.
Having re-installed from an old XP disk in the recent past it does indeed take an eternity to download all the updates to take it up to SP3.
As suggested you can use the built in Windows utility to re-format the disk as a single volume, alternatively I use a free partition manager which is maybe a bit easier/different:-
www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm
If you're going to install a number of freebie programs on the wiped disk this utlility is useful for doing that unattended, as recommended by someone here ( smokie IIRC)
ninite.com/
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If it is the standard Dell Windows CD in the case of XP they are just copies of the original Microsoft OEM version. So you can change the partitions when you install it to one big 40gb one.
Before doing anything drastic have you checked the amount of RAM? Just been to look at a computer now, a local computer shop has told her it needs formatting as it is too slow and they will charge £80 for doing it.
I have had a look it, there is nothing wrong with it, but it has 192MB RAM with AVG and all the other crap. All it needs is a £15 512MB DDR1 stick.
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OK, home now and I have found he 2 Acer recovery disks.
But when I put the first in, I was kind of hoping it would just come up with a message saying "BobbyG do you want to wipe the computer back to basic"
But it hasn't, it does recognise the disc and lists all the files on it though.
It is an Acer Travelmate 4050.
RAM is 768, it originally had 256 and I added a 512 as well. Its not that its running particularly slow or anything, just that there has been so many things added and removed, or partially removed, over the years and the files are all over the place. As none of them are required, I thought it would be easier, and better, just to wipe things back to scratch and then I would be in control of what is being added.
Off to Google now but any advice on how to get this back to scratch would be appreciated!
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what size boots needed?
will size 9's suffice?
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>> Try Booting the disk!
>>
By which Z means during startup, press whatever button it is to get to the Boot Menu, and select the CD drive as the boot drive....
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OK, managed to get the laptop booted back to original status and with the help of Spamcam's suggestion, got the partitioning sorted. Thanks for your help.
Interestingly, for some reason the folder that was in the d: full of my music did not disappear. I thought it would.
Only one question left and thats to do qwith the itunes library........
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Wiping computer back to factory settings - smokie
