Hardrive wiping

2193steven

New Member
ok i've got an ancient Thinkpad 600e, yeah i know its weak, but its still running (its unbelieveably durable btw), now i've got a number of viruses tht i cant shake off, so much unessersary software i cant beleive, etc, etc....long story short i just wanna start a fresh and completely wipe everything off of it, there's nothing on it that i cant reinstall from disc,s (windows, aol, etc). I'll just come out with it, you've probly already guessed i know nothing, how do i wipe everything, do i need to ajust hardware?
 
ok first off you need windows disks, do you have them? ill assume yes.
before we start, read the last paragraph.

done that?
good, lets begin

now, when the pc starts, it says 'enter setup hit del' or something like that, do that, and try and find something called 'boot order' or 'boot devices', usually under 'advanced settings', once you find it, change the first one to 'CD/DVD'.
now, insert your windows cd, then reboot again.
you will come to a setup screen, and just install! quite simple stuff.
the only thing you will need to do is make sure you format the disk, it should do it on its own if you choose 'format partition'
if it doesnt, delete the partition and carry on.

if all fails...

run setup, then quit setup, then type
fdisk
use this to delete partitions, then start setup again.

once you install windows again, you will notice its really slow, and scrolling is jumpy. this is because windows is using its own 'drivers'. these basically make hardware work.

before you do any of this you need to download every single driver for your laptop and put them on a cd.
to do this, just google your laptop model followed by 'drivers'
there we go, hope it helps
 
so basically i reintstall windows, and then reinstall the drivers so that it doesnt run slow? or have i got it wrong
 
so basically i reintstall windows, and then reinstall the drivers so that it doesnt run slow? or have i got it wrong


You need to make sure that you have a FULL version of windows not the upgrade version before you wipe out your HDD and then find out you made a $200 mistake. I almost did that with my IBM 600 6 months ago but was able to find an old Windows 98 cd full version I had laying around.
 
ok first off you need windows disks, do you have them? ill assume yes.
before we start, read the last paragraph.

done that?
good, lets begin

now, when the pc starts, it says 'enter setup hit del' or something like that, do that, and try and find something called 'boot order' or 'boot devices', usually under 'advanced settings', once you find it, change the first one to 'CD/DVD'.
now, insert your windows cd, then reboot again.
you will come to a setup screen, and just install! quite simple stuff.
the only thing you will need to do is make sure you format the disk, it should do it on its own if you choose 'format partition'
if it doesnt, delete the partition and carry on.

if all fails...

run setup, then quit setup, then type
fdisk
use this to delete partitions, then start setup again.

once you install windows again, you will notice its really slow, and scrolling is jumpy. this is because windows is using its own 'drivers'. these basically make hardware work.

before you do any of this you need to download every single driver for your laptop and put them on a cd.
to do this, just google your laptop model followed by 'drivers'
there we go, hope it helps

would i be able to put the drivers onto a flash drive instead of a cd, i dont even think my laptop can burn cds
 
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