Computer Problem!!?

Question

Ok heres the deal i have tryed to format my computer to erase everything but it will not let me do it, my laptop does not come with a disk so what should i do. I want to erase everything on it and have it be fresh, like when i bought it. help.

Answer 1

Hello,
you will need the drivers for the devices integerated into your laptop, things like sound, video, network card etc.., you will also need an operating system (OS) disk like windows xp or a linux based OS, (further info see link below). If you don't have the driver disk of your laptop then go to the manufacturers website and download the relevant files and burn them to a cdr. If they are zipped (the file name will end with .zip) then unzip them first using a zip utility, (see links).
If you don't have the operating system disk you should still have a sticker on your machine that has the serial number of the OS on it. Find an OS disk but use your own serial and not the one on the disk. If you cant get one you may have to buy one, OUCH!!!!
Save all of your data that you want to keep onto cdr or dvdr or external hard drive.
For linux go to the relevant site of the distribution (distro) and download the ISO file (.iso) and make a bootable cdr using nero or silmilar utility, here google is your best friend, there are lots of guides on how to do this but if you don't want to learn you can get various distros on magazine covers and buy them cheaply off amazon etc.
Insert the operating system disk in your cdrom drive and restart your computer, during the Power On Self Test (POST) press either F2 or Delete key on your keyboard and you will enter the Basic Input Output System (BIOS). Here you will need to change your first boot device to cdrom and not hdd (hard drive). This is so that the computer does not boot to the existing operating system installed, but will look for a new one on your cdrom. save the changes by pressing F10 (usually) and let the computer restart. Although the BIOS looks very primitive by modern standards it is what controlls your hardware and kickstarts your operating system. Don't change settings that you have no knowledge of.
This is where the various operating sytems have thier own installation routines and what happens depends on your choice of operating system. I will go through the generic windows nt based systems (i.e windows 2000 or win xp).
if all goes well you should see a blue screen with white writing. It will ask you if you would like to repair an existing OS or install new one, choose later option.
you will then have to accept the terms and conditions by pressing F8, next you will see a list of Hard disks and their partitions, choose c: and press enter. normally it will tell you that there is a operating system there already do you want to over write. go for the latter option.
then it should start to format the disk and after that you will be prompted to input various settings like time zone and languages etc. when installation of OS complete and computer has restartd( reverse the BIOS changes that you did before) itself then insert your driver disks and install the drivers for your devices and after that install antivirus and fire wall software before connecting to the internet. (I once did a fresh install of win xp pro and connected to the internet and it took 30-45 seconds for it to be infected by win32 blaster!!!!!!)
For anti virus I use avast as I like it very much, but AVG is also good these are free to use (avast you have to register it but it won't cost you any thing) for fire wall use zone labs. I have used this and would recommend it.
I would advise that you install antispyware detector like spybot s&d or adware se.
Hope it goes well for you if you run into difficulty then send me an email i will try and help you.

Answer 2

I assume your trying to format it from the windows explorer since you don't have the disks. It won't do that.

You need operating system disks in order to format and reinstall.

You can get a dos boot up format disk from the internet with the applications needed but if you don't have a copy of an operating system your computer will stay blank.

Answer 3

If you want to format, you will need some kind of OS to install afterwards. Without it, it cant be done.

Answer 4

oh no you need the windows xp .cd

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=windows+xp&image1.x=4&image1.y=9

when you buy that then you can
try this way
Installing Windows XP
http://www.geekgirls.com/windowsxp_install.htm#filesystem