Computer Help

["W"]

I just got my new Dell in today and have all what I need off of it......SO were do I go to put my old computer to day one? I want to set it back to the 1st day setting when I bought it. Im going to give it away

[Jordan]

artificial reef in big lake ?

[bay_slayer]

Do you have your back-up discs for the old computer?

[jpeff31787]

just press f11 or f10 whenever you start it up and format the thing.

["W"]

Originally Posted by jpeff31787

just press f11 or f10 whenever you start it up and format the thing.

Whats Format? What do I do

[bay_slayer]

Originally Posted by "W"

Whats Format? What do I do

Make sure you have your boot discs before you do that...........but if you have your boot discs it will format it for you.

["W"]

Originally Posted by bay_slayer

Make sure you have your boot discs before you do that...........but if you have your boot discs it will format it for you.

Dont have any disc ....

[bay_slayer]

Then you will either have to order the boot (recovery) discs from your computer manufacturer or go buy an OS from the store.

["W"]

I just can't whip it out??? I just want to take all my stuff off

[bay_slayer]

If you want to get it back to its original state.........I think thats about the best way to do it. I guess you could just delete all your stuff off, but you can leave traces of personal information that way too

[Dink]

Exit to DOS and if I remember right its c:/format C

That should be it.........getting it to boot up after is another story.....you'll need a boot disk

[meaux fishing]

If you have a copy of windows, it can even be the copy that came with your new computer, just put it in then do a clean install it will probably take a couple hours

[ShadMan]

Originally Posted by Dink

Exit to DOS and if I remember right its c:/format C

That should be it.........getting it to boot up after is another story.....you'll need a boot disk

DOS hasn't existed in over 15 years. Get with the program, Tim.

Jeremy, there is no way to do it if you don't have a Windows CD. There are some utilities you can download to wipe the disk, but unless you have a Windows CD/DVD, you won't be able to reinstall Windows, which lowers the value of your computer for resale.

[Salty]

Originally Posted by "W"

I just can't whip it out??? I just want to take all my stuff off

WHAT??????????????

[Dink]

Originally Posted by ShadMan

DOS hasn't existed in over 15 years. Get with the program, Tim.

Jeremy, there is no way to do it if you don't have a Windows CD. There are some utilities you can download to wipe the disk, but unless you have a Windows CD/DVD, you won't be able to reinstall Windows, which lowers the value of your computer for resale.

Really? Didn't k ow that........I used to goto circuit city and format all the computers......that was a long time ago.....wish everything was DOS still.......it was easier

[jpeff31787]

so have you came to a solution?

If you don't want everything you can just go buy an external Hard Drive from walmart and move everything you want from your old computer to it and then plug it to your new computer and copy it on.

The external hard drives cost like 50 bucks depending on the size you want. I think you can get some 20gb ones for like 30-40 bucks, but they even have 100gb ones for 75-100 dollars. All it is, is a huge usb flash drive. I'd buy one about 10 gb and then just copy everything on it move it to new computer, dump it, then delete everything off of and plug it told old computer then put what you didn't put on it the first time and repeat, you know.

[Reel Bender]

Originally Posted by "W"

I just can't whip it out??? I just want to take all my stuff off

That would be considered illegal in some places.

[davethefish1]

Originally Posted by Dink

Exit to DOS and if I remember right its c:/format C

That should be it.........getting it to boot up after is another story.....you'll need a boot disk

Hold down Shift Key and right click Desktop.you should see"Open Command Window Here" on menu,just click and there's DOS

[jchief]

I believe Dell has a D: drive that will reinstall windows and fromat the hard drive. Check and see.

[catch_and_release]

If it's a Dell. You might have a "PC Restore Partiton". The easiest way to find out is boot up the computer and after the "Dell" Bios screen you should see a black screen with a blue bar at the top that says www.dell.com. If you see that reboot the computer again and at the Dell Bios screen slowly press CTRL+F11 that's the shortcut to launch the "PC Restore" utility, after that it's just a few clicks and it erases all your stuff and puts it back to the way it was when it shipped to you. If that's not an option and you don't have a Windows disk you'll have to download a DOS Boot Disk. It goes on a floppy disk and your computer will boot to it, from there you can do a Format C:.