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General discussion

formatting PC

Dec 24, 2004 12:16AM PST

hello, I have a laptop that is old now and have so many remains of software that is deleted and it's windows XP now. it uses 2 hard drives, the main drive is almost full while the other one is still ok/empty. I have the cd's that most laptops have like, recovery cd, driver recovery, software recovery and a windows 2000 cd. how do I start making this like we firts bought it?

Discussion is locked

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Nanashi, Make Backups First....
Dec 24, 2004 1:17AM PST

With a Recovery CD, it should be fairly simple, but you need to make copies of all your important data, personal documents, pictures, etc. After that's done, if the Recovery CD for Windows XP came with your current computer, then place the CD in the CD Rom driver, shut down the computer, let it sit for 1 minute, then restart the computer. The Recovery CD should allow you to select the "reformat" option and then load the operating system and all of the drivers and programs as it came from the factory. You'll need to follow all of the prompts but it shouldn't be too difficult.

Once the Recovery is finished, then place all of the save documents and pictures back on the machine in the folders of your choice.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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ok, but...
Dec 24, 2004 2:31AM PST

can I use the other hard disk that is already in the laptop for back up?

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Is there another
Dec 24, 2004 2:57AM PST

hard drive or is there 1 hard drive and it is partitioned into 2 seperate drives?

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That was my question. . .
Dec 24, 2004 3:24AM PST

How many laptops have two physical drives? I think he/she has a partitioned drive.

In either case, saving "stuff" to the D: drive should keep it safe. But if the restoral CD does a complete format/restore, all data on both drives will be gone, especially if the D: drive was a recovery drive. Best to save on an external drive or burned to a CD.

Good luck,

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