How do i reboot my computer?

Question

no restarting is not the same as rebooting
something happened to my friends computer. it froze so he shut it off. and when he tried to turn it on a blue screen came up then it shut off. now he can log on but nothing is on his computer. no icons exept the recycling bin. there are the games and other stuff but nothing he had before. i want my computer like that i want every thing off of it. like the way it was when i first got it. please help me.
i have restarted my computer before and that doesnt work

i have windows xp and i got my computer last christmas

in 2005...

Answer 1

Howdy Some Cal

The Moose of Yahoo is here to help you.

Now it seems to me that you are a tad confused, it's not your fault though as there are many computer jargons. Rebooting a system is the same as restarting it. No changes occur to the system, you simply shut it down and turn it back on again, it helps the system understand recent changes.

What you are referring to is formatting [ formatting of the hard drive ] where the hard drive is wiped to leave nothing but the original system BIOS [ Basic Input Output System ] and components.

This website will help you.
I adivse that if you are not very skilled with a system, you find someone who is. A format is hard to complete correctly.
http://www.ehow.com/how_6026_format-hard-drive.html

The easiest method of formating is to return to factory settings. When you purchased the computer system it should have come with an xp recovery disk. You can use this to reinstall windows.


All the best

Moose

Answer 2

oh my
you have all your original cds that came with your computer?
Then you could do a format of the harddrive - that WILL ERASE EVERYTHING INCLUDING WINDOWS XP
will need your CD/DVD drivers so that you can install.
Then reinstall Windows XP -
you should also have gotten a recovery cd with your new computer you could run that then you will have it back at factory settings. I would use this method first before reformatting.