Wipe and Reinstall

Andy

Andy

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Andy
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My computer has broke for about the 4th time since I have had it so while that is away being repaired i'm on my laptop. Now I can't remember my laptop being so slow. It must have a lot of junk on it and I have tried my best to uninstall everything but its not really improved. When I first got it, it was pretty fast. Im running Windows XP Pro SP3 upgraded from SP2. CC Cleaner and Tuneup 2009 has helped a little but not much.

I am very tempted to wipe it and reinstall it however I have no disks nor the knowledge on how to do this. Could some very nice person tell me on how I should do this. :help:
 
Everything runs fast when new.:eek: have you thought of adding extra RAM. its the easiest and most cost effective way of speeding things up.
 
Without disks its very difficult as you can but the disk in to start the process.

Most laptops and PC's that have a brand name on the front will have a restore partition on the drive, have a look in drive manager, right click my computer and click manage, down near the bottom on the left is disk management click that and wait, most manufacturers now partition drives in 3 a system for windows, a data drive and a 3rd inaccessible partition they will all be shown in disk manager. if you have 3 partitions then you can use the system restore to revert your laptop back to as it was when you bought it.

Different manufacturers do it different ways so post more details of the laptop and we can find out the correct key press during boot to kick the restore partition in to action, Once it is running you just agree to it wipeing your data and away it goes very simple and takes about 15 minutes tops, a windows install takes 20-40 minutes + driver install.

The reason your laptop seems slow is you have probably been using a much faster PC and it makes the laptop seem slow.
 
sbowler579 said:
Everything runs fast when new.:eek: have you thought of adding extra RAM. its the easiest and most cost effective way of speeding things up.
Click to expand...

I have already maxed out my ram. :( 512mb. Not much is it.

Little John said:
Without disks its very difficult as you can but the disk in to start the process.

Most laptops and PC's that have a brand name on the front will have a restore partition on the drive, have a look in drive manager, right click my computer and click manage, down near the bottom on the left is disk management click that and wait, most manufacturers now partition drives in 3 a system for windows, a data drive and a 3rd inaccessible partition they will all be shown in disk manager. if you have 3 partitions then you can use the system restore to revert your laptop back to as it was when you bought it.

Different manufacturers do it different ways so post more details of the laptop and we can find out the correct key press during boot to kick the restore partition in to action, Once it is running you just agree to it wipeing your data and away it goes very simple and takes about 15 minutes tops, a windows install takes 20-40 minutes + driver install.

The reason your laptop seems slow is you have probably been using a much faster PC and it makes the laptop seem slow.
Click to expand...

I only have one partition, :( im on a Dell Inspiron 2650

2uot76b.jpg
 
Other than finding someone with an XP disk lying around the only thing you could possibly do is *cough*torrent*cough* the disk image, however I would advise against this as there could be all sorts of nasties added to the image.

If you can borrow a disk from a friend you should be able to use the key (usually on a COA attached to the base of the laptop) to activate it, perfectly legal and no problem for the friend you borrowed off if you use your own key. :)

Personally XP needs a reinstall every 6 months to a year to run well, it was one of the major issues with it (and subsequently sorted with Vista and Win7) because it would slow down drastically over time. Just make sure you back up anything you want to keep (inlcluding things like favourites and game saves if you have them) and then format and reinstall. Shouldn't take too long, but it takes a bit of time to set everything up the way you want it after. :)
 
512mb RAM OMG :eek: buy a new machine !!!!
 
Andy said:
May buy this when I find out what to do. - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BRAND-NEW-Re-..._Software_SR&hash=item35a8d244f5#ht_500wt_975

Can't afford to buy a new one so im stuck with it so far, its only a back-up so im not to worried about the ram.

How do you format / wipe it though?
Click to expand...

When you put the new XP disk in and re-boot your BIOS splash screen will present you with an option "boot from disc".
Follow this option and you will be taken to a blue screen asking if you want to install or repair XP.
Choose install and it will take you to another screen where you will be given the choice of deleted the contents of the hard drive and starting a fresh install.
After that its all plain sailing!
 
stupar said:
When you put the new XP disk in and re-boot your BIOS splash screen will present you with an option "boot from disc".
Follow this option and you will be taken to a blue screen asking if you want to install or repair XP.
Choose install and it will take you to another screen where you will be given the choice of deleted the contents of the hard drive and starting a fresh install.
After that its all plain sailing!
Click to expand...

what he said.

if you dont get prompted to "press any key to boot from cd" then youll need to either change the boot order in the bios or you can sometimes specify which device to boot from as a one-off. both option should be presented to you just as you power on, it'll say something like "press del to enter setup" or "press F12 for boot options".
 
Reinstalling that based on the fact the ram is maxed out at 512 and the hard drive is only 20GB, the laptop isnt going to perform anywhere near what your used to. It is probably already performing at its limits it is just that the limits are so old and out of date your not going to make any difference reinstalling windows on that.
 
Err I would go to the manufacurers website and make sure you can download all the drivers before you wipe it.

It's a pain in the derrier if you don't have them all.

Go to

Start / control panel / system / hardware / device manager

Note down all the driver descriptions you can for graphics, network etc before you even start.
 
With dell you just enter the service tag or the model number and it provides you with the drivers no problem, one thing Dell do right.
 
Little John said:
With dell you just enter the service tag or the model number and it provides you with the drivers no problem, one thing Dell do right.
Click to expand...

what he said. with dell kit there'll be a sticker on the tower/base unit/laptop with the tag on.

out of interest how do you know youre maxed out at 512mb ram, that sounds way too low for a maximum limit to me (unless its 5-6 years old)
 
It is about 5-6 years old, I used to play with a 2650. P4 1.8GHz cpu 256mb as standard and a 14" screen. Which back then wasn't too bad but things have moved on and we have all experianced dual core 3GB or ram and faster clock speeds so anything useing the old single core and 400Mhz bus speeds just seem slow.
 
ChrisH said:
Err I would go to the manufacurers website and make sure you can download all the drivers before you wipe it.
Click to expand...

Don't forget to check if the product key sticker is still legible. Failing that, you could Google Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder to get a free app that will tell you your product key for Windows if you can't find it. If you also have a large collection of favourites, its also a good idea to back them up too!
If it helps, Windows 2000 has a lower ram requirement than XP...
 
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