Daft PC question

I have a Packard Bell PC for a few years and its not running correctly.

What I would like to do is restart the thing from scratch ie: boot it up like the day I got it. How do you go about doing that?

Does this get rid of all the crap I've installed and deleted over time?

Get yourself an external hard drive,copy all the files you want to keep on to that. Then you want to dig out the emergency recovery cd. You'll put this in on startup and it will delete your entire pc, and reinstall windows. Your PC will run like new

[Bluepete]

I thought this was going to be about me

Originally Posted by gettin2dizzy

Get yourself an external hard drive,copy all the files you want to keep on to that. Then you want to dig out the emergency recovery cd. You'll put this in on startup and it will delete your entire pc, and reinstall windows. Your PC will run like new

Excellent, thank you

Originally Posted by BluePete

I thought this was going to be about me

PMSL

I tried this last night without much success.

I followed the instructions by putting the red floppy disk in the drive and booting it up. It goes to MS-DOS with Abort/Restart/Retry or something.

If I type anything it keeps repeating it until I type A to abort and it then continues. It then ask's me to insert Master CD into the Drive ( the manual say's DVD drive )

I have 2 old Back Up discs I created ages ago which I presume its asking for as I have f*ck all else. However it doesn't seem to do anything from there. It says it will take time to do its thing but not 3 hours surely?


See instructions:
Recovery Disk Recovery

Note: All Data will be lost make sure you back up

• Insert the red Packard Bell boot floppy disk into the floppy disk
• Restart/switch on the computer.
• If you have created the backup CD’s then insert Disk 1 NOW
• The computer will load from the disk and display the following message:

1. Standard System Restore: this will return the computer to its "out of the box" state.
2. Advanced Options: this will allow you to restore Microsoft® Windows® XP without the additional software (this can be installed later if required).
3. Tools: this option allows access MS DOS utilities such as FDISK and Format.
4. Cancel and return to DOS: exits the program and returns to an MS DOS prompt.

• Select “1” on the keyboard to continue
• The recovery will take 30 mins to 1:30 hrs.
• Change CD’s as prompted
• Once complete don’t forget to remove the floppy disk before you reboot.

Have you tried XP's system restore
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...w_03may19.mspx

yep +1 try restoring it to a date you know it was working ok otherwise it could be a hardware prob such as Hard Drive secters gone bad or even motherboard or memory

[peterco]

Have you tried here....
http://forum.packardbell.com/en/

http://support.packardbell.com/uk/

pete

Get a bootable copy of windows XP go into bios and set the CD to first boot device (or above the HDD at least). Let the comp boot up.

It should go to a gray screen with blue boarders, once all the drivers are loaded (along the bottom) it should come up with a list, there should be a option something like 'new instalation'. Click the letter corresponding to that.

Then (if i remember right) there should be an screen asking which partition to install it on. right when this comes up delete all the old partitions and format the disk. Then go on and install XP, the comp will restart, when this happens go back into the bios and set the HDD back to first boot device. Then XP will start installing, this will take between 30-60 mins!

When its installing and it asks you to setup the language make sure you select UK for keyboard and things! (otherwise @ will be where " is and visa versa ).

Then when all this is done, fresh comp!

Its been a few months since i did it but thats the basics of it. Pretty streight forward.

P.S. DO NOT try to install XP throught XP, it has to be done through the boot menu! Trust me the auto run in windows doesnt work.

Hope this helps.