I think I screwed up...please help

They don't give me access to their accounts, they do however provide me with an application that has their social security number on it and bank statements that shows their account number.
 
I just went to format my drive and it says you cannot format this volume it contains the version of Windows that you are using formatting this volume could cause your computer to stop working and then there's an okay button to hit. I don't have a disc, when I bought the computer the windows software was already on the computer. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
You cannot format the disk you are booted from.

You need to have an OS installation disk or USB Thumb drive. You will need to boot from the disk or thumb drive then you can format the disk and do a fresh install of the OS.

Make sure you have a complete backup of all of your data. You will also need to reinstall all of your apps so have those install disks ready too.
 
Thank you Strollin, I backed up my data and I have downloaded and created a bootable thumb drive. Can you please give me some more details on what you mean when you say boot from the thumb drive?
 
fmonte said:
Can you please give me some more details on what you mean when you say boot from the thumb drive?
Click to expand...
In order to install windows from the usb, you have to boot to it. Usually depending on the computer you have when starting the pc you may the option of changing boot setting or you may have to go into the bios and change the first boot device to USB. You also may have to disable secure boot.
 
Thanks john, I will be trying to do the install this evening. Thank you for the link. I have one question about continuing to run my business. I have clean laptop setup for my business but I need to bring those client folders into that laptop because I need to use some of those documents (paystubs, bank statements, etc) to upload to the lenders so I do need to be on Wi-Fi. Am I going to be safe doing this? Thank you.
 
fmonte said:
Thanks john, I will be trying to do the install this evening. Thank you for the link. I have one question about continuing to run my business. I have clean laptop setup for my business but I need to bring those client folders into that laptop because I need to use some of those documents (paystubs, bank statements, etc) to upload to the lenders so I do need to be on Wi-Fi. Am I going to be safe doing this? Thank you.
Click to expand...

We can't say for sure, not knowing what was done. Sorry.
 
Working on a fresh install. I have an SSD drive that I'm reformatting. Would you recommend IDE or ahci? I've heard the ahci will run your computer faster. Is that true?
 
I know I have to insert the thumb drive before I start the computer and I know that I have to select to boot from the USB port but at what point in the process do I select the ahci? Thank you in advance.
 
It is not. I know this because this is the reason I got in the fix that I am in. This is the reason I contacted the computer tech to help me change my setting from ide to ahci because I had read somewhere that it will make your computer run faster. Although last night I was reading a contradictory post from someone saying that it made no difference and it might even hurt the performance. How ironic.
 
As I said, the AHCI setting is actually in your bios. I think all systems made from 2005 or so and newer are capable of AHCI.

This is the differences between AHCI, IDE, RAID it may not be noticeable but it does increase communication speed between pc and drive, not necessarily drive speed. It also allows for hot swap while pc is on.

ahci features.jpg
 
Thanks John, I bought this computer from Sears about 4 years ago and then I added the SSD drive myself(samsung ssd 850 evo 500 gb) about 2 years ago. I know now I did not set it properly. Yes, the comp does have the ahci option because with the technician over the phone we tried to change it but then the computer would not boot up so we changed it back to IDE. The reason I wanted to change it is because here are the performance records that I got when I ran Samsung magician: sequential: read 240 write 229 random: read 8056 write 15380. On the main page of Samsung magician it says the drive condition is good and the firm version is latest and the currently installed version is EMT02b6q then below that it says the interface is sata 3gb / s, ahci Mode deactivated, trim status enabled. Since the computer is kind of old and now it has been hacked, I was wondering if I should just buy a new computer because I do want to try the SSD drive at its full capacity so that my computer can run quickly. It's a business computer is not for games or anything but I would like to work as quickly as possible when I'm switching between programs. I watch a lot of YouTube videos and it appears that the speaker can switch screens and it's an instant switch where my computer has a 1 second or two second delay between switches. Can you recommend a reasonably priced desktop computer that already has the ssd drive installed and is set up for maximum speed. One last question, I understand that memory to make a lot of difference on speed also. What amount of memory do you recommend for max speed? Thanks again.
 
The reason why it wouldn't boot into window when you enabled the ahci setting is because it needed the ahci driver installed to properly boot. When you install windows with just IDE/SATA enabled, there will be no ahci driver installed. There are ways to get it installed at this point but since you need to wipe and reinstall anyway, its just easier to enable the ahci setting in bios and then boot to the usb install media, choose to format exisiting drive and then install windows.
 
Okay John, I think I got it. If I could stuck, I'll get back to you. Thanks again for all your trouble. Sincerely, Frank
 
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