time to reformat

[eg6sir]

well, its about time to reformat the computer... the thing is, i dont know how.. lol....

its a Dell i bought in '04 and i dont have any discs that came w/ it... so, i'm not really sure what to do.. any help appreciated, i'm sure this is an easy one for some of you

 

[TurboMirage]

easiest way is to call up dell and shellout for the discs, or download the windows7 RC and start from there

 

[eg6sir]

well, i've heard about a System restore.. ctrl+F11 at boot screen.... but i'm not sure

 

[klyph]

If it were a normal PC, you'd be in better shape, but with a Dell, you'll spend hours tracking down all the Dell-specific drivers. After spending hours on the phone with tech support, you'll develop a racist prejudice and wish the complete obliteration of India.

 

[TurboMirage]

you most likely need the system CDs to do the restore.

with 7, or even Vista you shouldnt need to track down drivers for a machine that old. it should have WDM drivers.

 

[cjvictoria]

I has a Dell Vista dvd... if I can find the cd key, It can be yours.

 

[eg6sir]

eh.. not sure if i want Vista ....

 

[cjvictoria]

lol but if its free...

 

[eg6sir]

tru.. lol

 

[cjvictoria]

would save you a good 115 bucks man, all i would have to to to send it is pay for a stamp lol

 

[eg6sir]

alrighty.. LMK then

 

[cjvictoria]

yeh just gotta pry the key out of my moms unorganised apartment's grip

 

[endlesszeal]

get vista and upgrade to windows 7 for 50 bucks. running a early birdy special until sometime mid july.

vista sp1, soon to be sp2, isnt very bad at all. its windows 7 candied up and optimised a bit.

 

[Briansol]

I would just install win 7 on it, honestly, it's a free RC and it seems to be pretty stable. If i were due for a format, that's what i would install.

you need a dvd burner though, as its a dvd, not cd, and obviously you need the physicall disc, as formatting it will kill it.

amazon does have the 50% off for the real one as a pre-purchase special ($50 for home)

 

[endlesszeal]

theres a possibility of it becoming avaible usb. i havent tried it, but cant just make a image and put it on a bootable usb?? im pretty you can do this on linux.

 

[TurboMirage]

you can boot 7 install from a usb stick. just gotta prep it properly,and pray your dell boots from that kind of media.

 

[eg6sir]

hmm.. no dvd burner.. i'll see if a buddy of mine can burn it to dvd for me..

 

[cjvictoria]

if you get REALLY desperate you could use linux for a little while..

 

[dveit]

Straight from yahoo answers:

If your computer came without an os disk and it is about a year old or so, chances are you have a recovery option built in. Dell PC Restore by Symantec.

If possible back up all data before you do this...

When you start and see the blue bar with dells website listed in it press <ctrl><f11> immediately. Then Click Restore. Then Click confirm.

 

[TurboMirage]

straight from the first post in this thread -

its a Dell i bought in '04