Computer problems

joejoem

Is it difficult to wipe a hard drive and re-install the operating system?

joejoem

A guy has come to me to say he will do it for €80 which I dont have, I would like to try and do it myself if I could!

Beta2

Its fairly easy to wipe the hard drive and install a new OS. Particularly if its windows.
(But only do this if you have all the original drivers belonging to your PC)

The hard part is reinstalling all the drivers that are specific to your PC, but if you have the original disks that came with the pc, that’ll make it a lot easier.

It’s a time consuming job as you have to reinstall every piece of software that you have, office, anti virus, windows updates, games , etc….

SwampThing

No, it's not difficult, as long as you do a bit of background work first.

You'll need the OS CD obviously and the Product Key, and drivers for any hardware you have.

Personally, if I have to do this on anyone's machine, I go through the Device Manager, jot down the hardware they have (video card, network cards, modems, scsi controllers, sound cards etc) and then download the latest drivers from the web and burn them to CD.

Make sure you backup any data files you need to keep.

Then, pop in the OS CD, boot from it, format the drive and install the OS.

Sounds simple, but it can take some time and sometimes it isn't that straight-forward. But that's about the gist of it.
You'll see many posts on boards of people having trouble re-installing, but with a bit of planning, it should be easy enough, especially if you're re-installing the same OS - you're less likely to run into any issues.

joejoem

Great yea, I have the systems disks with windows XP etc which came with the computer. Is there anyways I could find a guide on how to do it on the web?

thetourist

anyone who will do it for 80 is either working for half nothing or else will literally do what he says - wipe hard drive and reinstall windows - which will leave you exactly nowhere - the hard work is in getting your pc back to normal - reinstalling your programs, email, internet, documents, addresses, reinstalling ms updates, antivirus setting it up the way you want it etc etc etc - i have done this many times and it takes a pro between 4 and 7 hours depending on the rebuild required - just my 10c

planning is key

1 - spend a good while looking through the pc working out what you want to keep and how to keep it - eg favourites - address book - desktop - emails etc

2 - download the driver backup utiltiy from driverguide.com - infact you might as will sign up as you'll prob need it later - you can make a backup of all your current drivers - the idea about downloading all the current drivers is also a good idea - whatever you do ; get the drivers before you do the remaster

3 - i dont know where you'll get a guide but - the key is to get into the bios (F2) and set it to choose the cd to boot from - then just put the cd in the drive and restart the pc - go through the options which are to reinstall windows - you will have to delete the active partition at some stage and then you'll have to set an active partition - after that it's mostly following the instructions - windows will install pretty quickly really - ( assuming that you're formatting the drive and deleting everything anyway you cant really go too far wrong - i mean if you make a mess of it you can always start again - it's a good idea to have some sort of alternative access to the net while you're doing it anyway just so you can get help if needed and get drivers if you need to; to get on the internet

4 the time consuming part - put back on all your software - set up your email internet etc - make sure to get all the securtiy updates andput on an antivirus

5 it's also a good idea to defrag your drive, fix and defrag your registry, error check your drive(s), take some backups, tweak your system etc


good luck

daywalker

heres a guide on reinstalling windows
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/articles/waystoreinstall/

joejoem

Thanks!

thetourist

handy guide

i would recommend this option http://www.windowsreinstall.com/articles/waystoreinstall/formatwindows.htm and make sure to use option 3 under how to do it

Wolverine_1999

Yeah, have reinstalled too many times....

Just remember to save everything that you need BEFORE you wipe the hard drive!!

You don't want to start Windows and the suddenly remember oh ****....