Lost the OS

lostsoul62

lostsoul62

Member
I have an old laptop that I lost the OS so my question is could I take an old OS I have laying around and put it in the laptop after I zero it out. It's about 6+ years old so the manufacture might not have the drivers. I'm not sure but this I might have to throw it away after zeroing it because it still has a workable OS but it's my EX-wifes and she doesn't want it so I thought I might play with it. I just don't want any hidden data to be on the Internet and that's why I want to zero it out?
 
What laptop model is it? A lot of those systems are still very usable (my laptop is a decade old).

At the very least you can easily throw something like Ubuntu on it.
 
Windows Vista. Satellite A215-S5850. I think I can get the drivers so I guess I'll just zero it out and install Windows Vista that I'm not using anymore. I've never did this with a laptop so I did image it first.
 
Just insert any modern Windows dvd and recover the existing OS.

That is what I don't want to do. The OS works just fine. I want to zero the drive for reason I mention in my original post.
I'll just re-do the OS and I'm sure it will work and I do have an image. I guess it makes me nervous with someone else computer, but it's mine now and she said there wasn't anything she needed on it.
 
lostsoul62 said:
Just insert any modern Windows dvd and recover the existing OS.

That is what I don't want to do. The OS works just fine. I want to zero the drive for reason I mention in my original post.
I'll just re-do the OS and I'm sure it will work and I do have an image. I guess it makes me nervous with someone else computer, but it's mine now and she said there wasn't anything she needed on it.
Click to expand...

Boot into the DVD, repair OS. Restart.

If it doesn't work, reboot into the DVD, when the Install Windows page appears, click Install now to begin the installation process or click Repair your computer to access system recovery options. Go to the command prompt option and type:

System-Recovery-Options-300x223.png


Type:

bootrec /rebuildbcd

hit enter

then type:

bootrec /fixmbr

hit enter

then type:

bootrec /fixboot
 
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