How Can I get my Dell Desktop back to the way when I first bought it?!?

Question

I've had it for about 3 years, and it's got a ton of viruses on it. How can I restore my computer to the way I had it when I first bought it? (i.e. no files, no extra programs, just the basics that came with it) And I've tried system restore in my control panel, and that doesn't do anything really.

Answer 1

do you have the  manufacter cds that came with computer ? if not find someone with a retail windows xp installation disk or you can buy one for hundred buck if they are still avaliable,  sounds like you need to format and do a clean install, microsoft was discontinuing sales for that os

Answer 2

re-install windows or upgrade it to a new windows IE: vista

Answer 3

Once it has viruses thats pretty much it.

You may need a new computer

Answer 4

when you go to start your computer hit F10 and it should bring up a window to restore your computer follow the instruction it should work good luck

Answer 5

Get all your Dell CDs and DVDs with drivers and Windows software and Office. When you are ready start your computer and hit F1 or whatever to get into the BIOS setup. Go to the startup options. Make sure you have your Windows media in your optical drive. Select your CD drive as a boot device. Save and exit BIOS setup. It will restart automatically. Press a key to boot from CD. Follow the on screen prompts of Windows setup. Delete the old partition. Then create a new partition. You can use Partition Magic if you are having trouble formatting the partition. Then after Windows is set up, install all your Dell drivers again.

Answer 6

First if you use windows xp, you an restore it all the way back when you first bought it, if that didnt do much of a help, you have to clean out your viruses like how it was when you first bought it. but getting rid of the viruses wont be an easy task, i would use spybot to get rid of the bad spyware, and for the viruses, i would use AVG or PC tools, or any other virus checker they have available, there is a way to kill the viruses in DOS, but that I do not know.

Xp is not dos based, NT based, so is Vista.

Answer 7

Try to find the Dell System Restore CD that came with your computer. It will restore everything to the way it was. If you can't find it i would look for the Dell Service Tag on your computer(probably on the back) and contact dell and see if they can send you another one.

You could buy a Windows CD but its costs alot.

Answer 8

First, make sure you have all the software for your computer ( Windows CD, Drivers ..etc). If you've lost these, call dell and get another pack of them. Once you make sure you have those you are going to Re-install Windows. To do this you are going to go into the BIOS( by hitting F2 at the intial Dell screen). Should be F2, if not itll say at the screen. In the BIOS look for an option regarding boot order ( the order in which everything loads up). Edit this so that the CD DRIVE boots first before the hard drive ( by default itll show as last). put in the Windows Re-installation Disc and restart the machine. It will automatically load up Windows from the Disk. First it will ask you if you want to Partition your hard drive for the installation. Say Yes- as this will clear the hard drive along with any viruses you may have accumulated. After that , follow the instructions and allow windows to load ( it should take about 45 minutes to an hour , any shorter , you didnt do it properly). Once that  is done the machine will restart and you will be now set to your basic settings.Re-Install the drivers by putting in the disc and following the instructions. If the drivers are sensitive to order it should be video cards and sound cards first then mouse..keyboard ..etc. That will put you back to the Desktop as dell Ships it out- hope this helps.

Answer 9

If your NOT going to sell it,just reinstall your operating system ( XP ).

Boot with your CD/DVD and fallow instructions,but have your Win: key ready,you will need it.After that install all drivers,you should have a support CD/DVD that came with your computer.

Now if you want to sell it,you will need to download "dban",it ( program dban) will overwrite your hard drive so NO data can be found.Look in the link and download it to use latter.Download it as needed on CD or Floppy.

Answer 10

Well if you have your windows xp install disc you can use a program called dban which can be downloaded at dban.org which can be mounted to a cd using magic iso or another iso file mounting program then booted to and it will over write your hard drive with zero's and you will have a fresh clean hard drive then you can just insert your windows xp install disc or vista if you have it and install it and you ready to go. If your not confident that you know how to do this or you just didn't understand what i told you to do feel free to message me about it or you could find another way. Good luck.