Help with reformatting computer?

Question

My parents have completely messed their Dell Laptop up. When they bought it, it has windows XP installed twice. And they are both messed up and we cant get the wireless working. my two questions are

How do I reformat the computer (I have a disk, its just not recognizing it)

How do I delete that second XP ??

Answer 1

Use a recovery CD that came with your pc. Put it in and restart the laptop. Dont forget to save the stuff you want to keep as everything will be erased.

Answer 2

I have a Toshiba but you may be able to do a similar action....go to

start / control panel / add or remove programs

in add or remove programs you should be able to  delete the programs off of your computer - like the extra XP or both XPs to start again prior to reinstalling, check dates in order to select the one that you installed first or second

okay - I just read the other answers on reformating and they sound more expert than my response but I learnt something myself about the reformatting discs - so thXs all

Answer 3

Turn off the computer

when you turn it back on hit the f10 key repeatedly till the restore screen comes on

then try the restore system files first,  before you reformat the whole computer

Answer 4

First make sure it is Re installation Disk from Dell ,then make sure you have and other CD(blue) Divers and Utilities,

then you have to change the bios means make it to Boot from CD/DVD

drive First,

I think in Dell when it starts you hit F1 or F2 key then it open the Bios for you ,look  for Start up ,then read the screen it will tell you what to do,after you set the bios then you can Boot up from CD ,if you can start the laptop just put the cd in right click on cdrom drive and click on open then click on setup.exe ...

Answer 5

Don't worry about removing second XP just format computer hard disk.

Then install XP.

What do you mean by not recognizing disk?

When the computer boots up try entering the bios by pushing a key on the keyboard. Watch the screen for the button to enter the bios.

and changing the boot drive to the CD ROM DRIVE so the machine boots from the CD Drive.

Then restart computer and push the correct button so it boots from CD ROM DRIVE.

Then try formating and reinstall windows.

Answer 6

What is the size of the disk?  if it is less than 80 gigs, just buy a new one and then install windows on that.  You can then get a USB2 adapter for the old drive, format it and use it for backups.  Total cost about $100.

Answer 7

Upon entering the disk into the E: Drive, if it does not recognize the disk then use a very soft cloth to try and clean the laser. Do not use anything to hard because if you scratch the laser you will have problems in the future from it. I personally would suggest buying a laser cleaner which does work for your computer. After you clean the laser off attempt to try the disk again. If that still does not work then there is a problem with either the disk or the E: drive. Before you pull out your E: drive try using another disk that does not have any or very many scratches on it to see if that works. If not then there is a problem with your E: drive as i stated earlier. If that is the case then you will have to get another one, or buy another computer, and take out the old E: drive and install the new one. Just be sure that if you do it yourself, or if your partents do it, make sure everything is put back the same way you unhooked it so there is a less likely chance that it will mess up or not work

Answer 8

Reformating the computer will erase everything, so you wouldnt have to worry about unistalling the 2nd Xp...