How do I wipe back my computer system clean to how it was origionally when I bought it?

Question

Please help!

Answer 1

If you have your CD that came with your computer, All you have to do is put it in your CD drive after your computer is off and then reboot computer and follow the instructions asked.

Answer 2

Hello. My ID is Dell Tech, and I am please to respond to your inquire...

With most operating system you can perform a symantec restore, which brings back your computer to factory state... Unfortunately, I do not know the brand of your computer, so I basically can’t provide an accurate instruction for this feature.

Answer: It's pretty easy. In fact Microsoft has done a nice job of taking all the pain out of wiping the hard drive and reinstalling XP. Pop your Windows XP disk in the CD ROM drive and wait for the installation menu to come up.

Choose "Install Windows XP" then it will go into a new screen that lists a bunch of steps. From the from the pulldown menu choose "New Installation (Advanced)" and let the software do the rest.

It will wipe out all the data on your hard drive and put a fresh copy of Windows XP on the system.

If you are starting from an empty hard drive, here's how to proceed:

Unlike it's predecessors, Windows XP can reformat and reinstall directly from the CD. No boot disk required. This is because you boot directly from the CD.

Ideally, you put the Windows XP disk in the CD-ROM drive and restart the machine. When the system boots it will read the CD-ROM drive with the Windows XP disk in it and go into setup mode. This is because most computers built since around 1999 had the ability to boot from a CD drive.

The problem is that most computers are designed to restart in a sequence where they check the floppy drive first then the hard drive (C:) then the CD-ROM drive.

So to make your reinstall work from the CD you need to pop into the BIOS, which is the setup area that has all the configuration information about your computer. Some computers will tell you how to do this when you first boot up. There will be a line that appears on the screen during the boot process that says to Enter Setup hit XX, where XX is usually a function key like F1 or F10. On Dell computers and some Compaqs its the delete (DEL) key. On others it's F10. To figure this out you're going to have to find your manual (horrors!) or look up the information on your computer makers Web site - search the manufacturer's support area for "accessing the BIOS".

Once you figure out how to get into the BIOS look for a "Boot" menu or boot settings that references the boot sequence. It will likely show that your computer boots to the floppy drive first then to the hard drive then to the CD ROM. Change it so that your CD ROM boots first and the hard drive next and the floppy third.

Ok, save your settings by getting out of these and agreeing to save the changes.

Now put your XP setup disk in the CD ROM drive and restart the computer and take it from there, you may be prompted to "Hit the Space Bar to Boot From the CD".

One note, if you do this and nothing happens you may have a keyboard that is connected via a USB connector. USB keyboards aren't always enabled during boot process, so you may have to find a keyboard that is connected via the PS/2 port to achieve this.

You have a blessing day.

This message was from Dell Tech.

Answer 3

This is easy, and requires some other steps before the formatting and restoring begins.
1- backup all your personal files, because if you don't they will be forever lost.
2-If your PC was supplied with a "Restore CD" or a "Recovery CD" you will need it.
3-If it was not supplied with this CD, then verify if your machine displays a message for system recovery when you power up the machine. example 'Hit F12 for recovery or restore".
4-Remember all files and programs will be destroyed, so be sure you can locate the backup CD's or files that you wish to reload into the machine after the restoration process is completed.

Answer 4

All you need to do is go to the reboot settings(when you turn on your computer), and follow the instructions on how to crash the whole system. after you crash your computer you have everything in order exactly the way you had it at the begining. You usually crash a computer if your PC runs slow or if you have a virus that can't be deleted.!

Answer 5

Start>accessories>systems tools>system restore Then you pick the date for the restoration.

Answer 6

the easiest way is to format and reinstall your OS to have a fresh copy. becuase running many clean up (disk, registry clean up etc.,) is very time consuming. but save you files first before formating.

Answer 7

Well, if it didn't involve nasty licensing issues, you would
simply re-install from the distribution ...

But ... your dealing with OEM Windows, right? Well ...

Your operating system is defective. I recommend replacing
it with one of:

http://fedora.redhat.com
http://www.opensuse.org
http://www.debian.org
http://www.ubuntu.org
http://www.slackware.org
http://www.freebsd.org
http://www.opensolaris.org

Answer 8

format it. just put in your recovery disk or windows disk and let er rip. Much easier than you think.

Answer 9

reformat