How shall i return my laptop to original setting?

wazza

Have a compaq laptop which i purchased new in 2007. It came without any restore disk. There is a program installed which one uses to create a backup/restore disk which i used.

Now i think my laptop may be infected. Currently running Avira to find any virus.

Was thinking of wiping everything off and restore to factory setting.

I have two options :-

1. Use restore disks

2. reformat harddrive to wipe everything off (think the program is called madboot) and install xp and then locate drivers.

I know option 2 is a sure way of making sure everything is wiped off the harddrive and the drawback is finding the drivers.

With option 2 will it wipe the harddrive and reinstall the programs making sure there is no virus lurking around the corner?

closed

If avira was installed when you got it, it's unlikely to find anything, try malwarebytes and kaspersky

CoolHotCold

Some Compaqs may have a built in recovery partition usually accessed by pressing F11 on startup.

wazza

CoolHotCold wrote: »

Some Compaqs may have a built in recovery partition usually accessed by pressing F11 on startup.

True but will that help wipe the C drive clean?

jayme1

here is a quick rundown on how to full restore your computer:

• copy everything off your computer to an external hard drive
• deactivate itunes or any other similar software.
• find your system restore discs you either got with your computer or burnt yourself in the first start up (if not find the utility and burn them now)
• start up the pc and place in the factory restore disc
• turn off the computer and restart it
• follow the onscreen prompts to begin the reinstalation of the OS
• wait for a while (have a cuppa) but be near because it may need you to swap discs ect.
• come back and you will be greated by the standard start up screens you got when you first got the computer. (you will not even have to activate the computer)
• install some antivirus such as the free microsoft security essentials (or avast) also a great time to uninstall the crapware that came with the computer (free trial of antivirus, toolbars, trial games ect.)
  
• run windows update and let it get on with that
• then start installing your programs (windows live essentials, itunes, office ect.)
• copy all your data off the external hard drive to the relevent folders.
• keep an upto date copy of all your data on the external hard drive as a backup (common sense)

you will not need to install any drivers if you use wither the HDD revovery partition or the restore discs you burnt when you got the computer.