Program to restore, put back to original.

[stevenvaughan]

Here is my question. I have a gateway computer that I am giving away. I either do not have or threw away the restore disk that everyone is telling me is there. I have all the needed programs just want to wipe my hard drive clean prior to giving it away. Any help?

 

[jbrown456]

Well, the restore disk is your copy of windows, and without that, pretty much, you're outta luck. You can't format windows without a windows cd (unless you are putting on a different opeating system such as linux). You could always buy windows, but that is expensive, and if you're giving the system away, I wouldn't spend money on it

 

[jbrown456]

just read your other thread, if you are giving it to your mother, you might want to re-purchase windows, but if its your mother, you probabally aren't all that worried about her getting your online banking information are you???? So, basically you could just uninstall all the programs you don't ***think*** she will need, and then run spyware and virus checks, and you should be all good.

(for information on how to run spyware and/or virus checks, just search around the forum, beleive me, there is a load of information available here)

Edit: also make sure you run a registry cleaner, they help a lot. and another thing, you could use startup inspector (google it for download) to clear up the startup programs list, to make the computer start faster. (i notice that older people are less patient with computers loading )

 

[MrBucket]

i notice that older people are less patient with computers loading )

hehehe old people.... O ne way you can just go to Start>Run>"msconfig" to edit your startup list without any outside programs

 

[jbrown456]

yes, i know that. startup inspector is a bit nicer, it connects to the web and finds out the program and gives a description of it, say, maby its spyware or adware or somthing.