Formatting C:/ on Vista

motherfunker

I have a HP Pavillion laptop running on Vista. Unfortunatly I managed to get myself a nice virus/malware, I have tried to get rid of it but with no luck. I have decided to just format my c drive and revert to factory settings, can anybody tell me how to do this please.

scotchannie

When you received your system you should of got a restore disk with it. Insert this disk and reboot your system you should then be prompted accordingly.

motherfunker

What if I havent got a clue where this disk is?

scotchannie

then you are going to have to contact the manufacturer and see if they will issue you with a new disk, this may be done at a charge to you.

motherfunker

A friend of mine has a similar laptop, not exactly the same spec but I think the same model. Could I use their disk if they still have it?

scotchannie

you could try it as long it's a hp oem disk it may work. best advice is to give the hp helpdesk a quick call

motherfunker

Thanks for the help, I'll have a root about the house first, it should be here somewhere.

J_Dublin15

You won't have a CD if it's recent, you will have a recovery partition, or a tool installed that allows you to make the CD's

motherfunker

I have a recovery partition, but am not sure what to do with it. Is there a step by step guide anywhere online?

motherfunker

Can I use this without having already made recovery disks when I set up my computer initially?

art

Yes - generally you have a choice when getting a new laptop, make recovery disks and therefore reclaim the space no longer needed by the recovery partition, or just keep the recovery partition and use that in an emergency. You should be able to boot into the recovery partition using a boot menu option, which will clarify anyhow.

motherfunker

Will doing this affect my broadband settings or connection in any way?