Where to get Vista from?

0james0

I've decided to start a fresh with my PC, my Vista is buggy and programmes crash constantly. I guess the viruses and gernal use has finally taken its toll.

I want to wipe everything and start again, I have a 1tb external drive to transfer everything to, however my PC came with Vista pre loaded and no Vista disk.

Where would I get one from?

HP or Comet don't seem to want to know.

If I can't get anything I'm going to have to get a torrent which I don't feel comfortable with.

any ideas?

totalsolutions

It should be built in to a hidden partition, activate the factory restore function.
I have a new Vista Ultimate DVD if you get stuck.

oliver321

Do a factory restore before updating/cleaning.

0james0

totalsolutions wrote: »

It should be built in to a hidden partition, activate the factory restore function.
I have a new Vista Ultimate DVD if you get stuck.

Found it, looks pretty simple. Just trying to work out what needs keeping, I'm sure there will be loads I'll forget.

Thanks, wouldn't have even thought of that!

JABWootton

You can actually create a boot disk so that if the hard drive needs replacing then you have the vista os on a disk and only need to enter the COA which is somewhere on the outside of your pc.

Figment

0james0 wrote: »

Found it, looks pretty simple. Just trying to work out what needs keeping, I'm sure there will be loads I'll forget.

Thanks, wouldn't have even thought of that!

The factory reset will (as the name suggests) put the computer back to the way it was when brand new. This will be followed by hundreds of Windows updates. You will also need to uninstall any unwanted bloat that came pre-installed, and re-install any programs that you need (so you will need product keys etc)

You may also need drivers for installed devices from the HP web site. Ironically one driver that is often needed is the one for the network adapter, and you cannot get onto the internet until you have installed it. If you have access to the internet on another PC you can download and them across using a USB memory stick.

paddyrg

Alas a stupid spammer has rehydrated a 2-yr-old thread

Figment

:doh::doh:

Do you think the OP has finished doing the updates yet? :rotfl:

closed

Create a set of recovery discs from hp recovery manager

If you are worried about missing something in the backup or the reinstall failing, create a full system image backup using disk imaging software http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx and create a macrium boot cd

factory restore - F10 or F11 at boot.

install light av - eg avast free and malwarebytes free, both available from filehippo, disable windows defender.

patch - windows update.

put your data back on the c: drive
create a clean image backup so this process is much faster in future.

Figment

closed - see post #8

closed

!!!! Too many !!!!!s about.

It's probably due for another reinstall by now.:)