Putting a computer back to the factory default

Post by **spot** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 8:49 am

from Nomad's question elsewhere...Nomad wrote: HP Pavillion

I think Ive junked it up with frivolity. (might be my fg postings)

Id like to start fresh.

Can I wipe it clean w/ Window Washer then reinstall everything ?

Or are there operating systems that came with it that I would lose ?People seem not to be comfortable with the concept of "factory default". I'm not having a go, nomie, I'm being helpful here.

RESET. A new computer arrives with a manual or guide of some sort. Possibly with a rescue partition, possibly with a CD/DVD reinstall set. There will be instructions on how to reset your computer back to the state it was in when it left the factory. That will make the current content of your computer invisible to you.

BACKUP. That's why you need a backup of your own personal files. Your hard drive might fail at any moment. Assume you have a replacement hard drive fitted. Can you bring back your personal files from a backup? If you can't, you have no fallback and you're skating on thin ice. When you back up your own files, put a copy of the latest version of your virus checker on the backup medium as well. Consider whether you want to use http://www.drivermagician.com/ to help you stay current and clean. It stops you losing your outlook, outlook express, registry, desktop, my document files if you use those. If you use something else for email you might need to plan recovering those as well. Back up your browser favourites/bookmarks, write down all your passwords that the computer's currently remembering for you. Whatever you do you'll forget something, just make sure it's not a vital something. Maybe you ought to print out your address book for example.

WIPING. If you do the reset to wipe your personal files before disposing of the computer, it won't make your files invisible to anyone who's inquisitive. Going back to a factory default state resets the bits of the computer that must be reset but it leaves lots of the old space visible to scanning tools. So, to clean your files off completely you need to run something like DBAN. That's a secure wipe of the whole computer.

WINDOW WASHER. Presumably you mean the Webroot package. Think about it. That cleans the "unnecessary files", to quote the site. Are your personal files unnecessary? No? So will Window Washer clean them off for you? No. Window Washer isn't a partition wiper, it's a blank space wiper. It wipes space from which you've deleted stuff or where it knows the data is meant to be wiped.

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR COMPUTER.

If you're about to fix your computer, Take a BACKUP. Anything you don't back up (probably to CD or DVD or external hard drive) is going to get LOST FOREVER.

Assuming you have a complete backup of the files that weren't on the computer when it came out of the factory (maybe just My Documents, maybe not, it depends on what you did since you bought it), then you can find your manual and take the next step.

EITHER: If you want to dispose of the computer, consider WIPING it. Don't let the wipe destroy your recovery partition if you have one! That's why you need the manual!

OR: To reset back to the factory default state, do what the manual tells you to do. Maybe it's run a CD/DVD, maybe it's something else to do with pressing function keys at reboot time. You CAN wipe first if you want to be sure your disk is irrevocably clean but you don't have to. Stay offline while you do the reset, unless you have a router, or you'll be open to virus attack from the Internet.

When you're back to the factory default state, install the up to date virus checker you put on the backup CD/DVD.

NOW you can go online. You'll be offered lots of security updates to install. Install them all.

Now reload your backup.

Does that help, nomie? None of it's obvious but none of it's rocket science either. As for "what applications would I lose", everything that wasn't on the computer when you bought it. What have you added to it since? You'll need to re-add it anyway if you want to carry on using it, whatever it is.

along-for-the-ride · Post by **along-for-the-ride** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 10:48 am

I have an hp pavilion a305w. The front of the tower has an hp cd-writer (which I use), an expansion bay (which is empty), and an opening for floppy disk and 2 USB 2.0 ports. My problem is that I cannot back up onto a CD.

Is there something I need to put into the expansion bay?

Can I back up onto to a floppy disk...........or is this futile?

Thanks for any advice.

Post by **spot** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 10:56 am

Surely your problem is that you think you can't back up onto a CD.

It's what the CD writer is for. What's preventing you? I'm not being flippant, there's obviously something else I don't yet know but I can't work out what it is. You have files bigger than 600MB? You have 200GB of user files in My Documents? Do you have a particular program you equate with "backing up"?

I can think of no sensible use of a floppy disk on any computer made in the last five years.

If the CD Writer really is no use for your backups, buy an external USB2 hard drive for $100 and back up onto that.

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 2:32 pm

Jimbo I'm not Spot but hopefully I can shed some light on the subject. There are several ways you can start fresh on a PC.

1. Restore back to a point in time.

2. Re-install a clean copy of the operating system (windows XP).

3. Re Format your entire hard and reinstall the factory programs discs that came with the machine. If you don't have those disks you have to have complete and available copies of Window XP, Microsoft Office if you use it, and any other software you have that is you want back on your machine.

The tricky part of a re-format is having the drivers for all the hardware inside your PC. In simple terms sound card, video card, NIC card (which is how you logon to the internet). If you have all them safely on a USB drive or a CD(either one you make or the one that came with the machine) you good to go with a FORMAT OF THE C: DRIVE.

I know Spot can walk you through that with up most expertise. I have to go to a SUPERBOWL PARTY.. WILL CHECK BACK..

[QUOTE]spot any idea what i have to do to wipe everything off of drive c

i dont know whats gone wrong

but every time i try to go on the internet it opens page after page of other internet servers

eg i'm on sky broad band and it opened up 67 yes 67 pages of msn inernet ,the system just freezes and a message , system not responding comes up and if i turn on the pc again and go to try to get online it all starts again

so what i want to do is wipe everything off and start again [/QUOTE]

Post by **spot** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 7:24 pm

jimbo;770399 wrote: spot any idea what i have to do to wipe everything off of drive c

i dont know whats gone wrong

but every time i try to go on the internet it opens page after page of other internet servers

eg i'm on sky broad band and it opened up 67 yes 67 pages of msn inernet ,the system just freezes and a message , system not responding comes up and if i turn on the pc again and go to try to get online it all starts again :-5

so what i want to do is wipe everything off and start again :-3:-3
Jimbo, before you do anything at all - you have got an installed virus checker, haven't you? Which one is it? Can you see it in the system tray on the bottom right hand corner of the screen? Does it look happy? If you didn't put one on yourself, you probably haven't got one. Not having one is bad.

Do you think you have all the Microsoft Security Updates installed - the things that arrive every second week of the month? I'm not sure you have because you're still on Internet Explorer 6, and 7 was rolled out last month with the default Security Updates.

If no to either of those, we ought to fix those bits first.

Assuming YES and YES, write this down (or print it out) so you can do it without using Internet Explorer.

Start your computer. Run nothing.

Click Start / Control Panel and find the Internet Options control.

Change the Home Page, or Page to Load when Starting whatever it calls itself, to blank.

If there's an option on default search engine, set it to www.google.co.uk

Clear the cache.

When you've OK'd all of that, run Internet Explorer and see if it comes up with no pop-ups. If it doesn't despite your two initial YES checks then I agree, we need to reinstall.

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 8:42 pm

Brilliant Spot I had forgot about the last batch of Windows updates that set IE on a downward spiral to the point it wouldn't even open with MSN as the home page.

Yes all updates must be current and all file, cookies, history have to be cleaned. Then set home page to google. I had to do this to 50 machines at work it was a nightmare.

Also sounds like Jimbo may have picked up a virus as well.

Other route is to download FIREFOX and eliminate the IE browser.

Post by **spot** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 4:32 am

Nomad you blighted heathen, did you ever actually read this?

yaaarrrgg · Post by **yaaarrrgg** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:13 am

Also, if you need to wipe out Windows and reinstall... maybe it's not a good product. I'd recommend trying some alternatives first:

http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisub ... topedition

1. Burn Linux to CD

2. put CD in computer

3. start computer

Should give you a complete operating system in most cases.

K.Snyder · Post by **K.Snyder** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 10:09 pm

Yes, I wiped my partitions and started with new ones and now I don't have all of that crap that has expired on my computer and loads more space...

As spot has said, make sure you have a backup of your Windows installation you wish to use as well as anything else!

I haven't had any problems with wiping me partitions thus far. I rarely see end results so pleasing with the means being so easy.

Perhaps I just ruined me PUTER!

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 5:22 am

spot;770243 wrote: from Nomad's question elsewhere...People seem not to be comfortable with the concept of "factory default". I'm not having a go, nomie, I'm being helpful here.

RESET. A new computer arrives with a manual or guide of some sort. Possibly with a rescue partition, possibly with a CD/DVD reinstall set. There will be instructions on how to reset your computer back to the state it was in when it left the factory. That will make the current content of your computer invisible to you.

BACKUP. That's why you need a backup of your own personal files. Your hard drive might fail at any moment. Assume you have a replacement hard drive fitted. Can you bring back your personal files from a backup? If you can't, you have no fallback and you're skating on thin ice. When you back up your own files, put a copy of the latest version of your virus checker on the backup medium as well. Consider whether you want to use Device driver backup, restoration, update and removal software for Windows, drivers backup, backup drivers to help you stay current and clean. It stops you losing your outlook, outlook express, registry, desktop, my document files if you use those. If you use something else for email you might need to plan recovering those as well. Back up your browser favourites/bookmarks, write down all your passwords that the computer's currently remembering for you. Whatever you do you'll forget something, just make sure it's not a vital something. Maybe you ought to print out your address book for example.

WIPING. If you do the reset to wipe your personal files before disposing of the computer, it won't make your files invisible to anyone who's inquisitive. Going back to a factory default state resets the bits of the computer that must be reset but it leaves lots of the old space visible to scanning tools. So, to clean your files off completely you need to run something like DBAN. That's a secure wipe of the whole computer.

WINDOW WASHER. Presumably you mean the Webroot package. Think about it. That cleans the "unnecessary files", to quote the site. Are your personal files unnecessary? No? So will Window Washer clean them off for you? No. Window Washer isn't a partition wiper, it's a blank space wiper. It wipes space from which you've deleted stuff or where it knows the data is meant to be wiped.

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR COMPUTER.

If you're about to fix your computer, Take a BACKUP. Anything you don't back up (probably to CD or DVD or external hard drive) is going to get LOST FOREVER.

Assuming you have a complete backup of the files that weren't on the computer when it came out of the factory (maybe just My Documents, maybe not, it depends on what you did since you bought it), then you can find your manual and take the next step.

EITHER: If you want to dispose of the computer, consider WIPING it. Don't let the wipe destroy your recovery partition if you have one! That's why you need the manual!

OR: To reset back to the factory default state, do what the manual tells you to do. Maybe it's run a CD/DVD, maybe it's something else to do with pressing function keys at reboot time. You CAN wipe first if you want to be sure your disk is irrevocably clean but you don't have to. Stay offline while you do the reset, unless you have a router, or you'll be open to virus attack from the Internet.

When you're back to the factory default state, install the up to date virus checker you put on the backup CD/DVD.

NOW you can go online. You'll be offered lots of security updates to install. Install them all.

Now reload your backup.

Does that help, nomie? None of it's obvious but none of it's rocket science either. As for "what applications would I lose", everything that wasn't on the computer when you bought it. What have you added to it since? You'll need to re-add it anyway if you want to carry on using it, whatever it is.

Februrary, 2008...

I just now saw this. (I have ADD)

Thank you Spock for taking the time to write this.

Post by **spot** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 8:23 am

As a further note on backups, I've just for the first time tried an online backup service. I looked at DriveHQ.com (they have a comparison chart of some competitors which helped), Five Best Online Backup Tools and ended up going with Dropbox.

It's neat, clean, free for the 2GB maximum storage that they've handed me and it's behaving very nicely, doing everything it claims to do.

If anyone wants to give it a whirl you might go through my referral address and get yourself (and me) an extra 250MB on top of their standard free limit.