PLEASE HELP! How can i delete everything and bring my computer back to factory settings?

[lordofericstan]

Hi, well since I'm moving out and buying my own notebook, I would like to completely wipe everything on my dad's old Dimension 3000 Desktop and bring it back to how it was when we first bought it so he doesn't have to deal with any of my stuff on it. I called dell support and they want to charge me a fee because the warranty ran out! That is so ridiculous! Can anyone give me step by step directions how i can do this?

[joshuaLX]

Reinstall windows

[elscottomagnifico]

If you still have the restore disk the computer came with you can wipe the drive and do a complete reinstall.

[blahdude84]

Do you have a restore CD? (I'm not sure if your PC came from that era)

If not, you will have to format the computer to DOS using a boot disk (usually floppy) then install Windows XP (and all the drivers included on any of the CD's you have).

[lordofericstan]

it didnt come with a restore cd, and im pretty sure i didnt get any cds with the OS on it.....

dell said i could do it without using any cds, but they would charge me if they told me how.

[lightflux]

Step by step guide:

1) Backup all your important data onto a CD or DVD or an external hard drive so you can later copy it onto your new laptop

2) Place your original Windows installation disk into your computer

3) Turn on your computer, and within a few moments it should say hit a key to run Windows Installation (so hit a key) ... sometimes this doesn't happen because you need to make sure your CD drive is set to boot first in your Bios so try that if it doesn't give you the Press Any key option...

4) After loading Windows Setup, choose Install Windows

5 Next choose delete partition and delete your current installation of windows, and then format it for the new installation (quick format will do fine)

6) Just follow the rest of the instructions as windows sets up!

Hope that helps...

[PR0DiGY]

I was going to tell him that, but is the optical drive the first bootup device by default? Do dell make it like that? Because they look their BIOS don't they?

[lightflux]

It depends on the Dell...these things vary but it's not that hard to get into the Bios and no dell doesn't lock their Bios. They only prevent you from accessing things like adjusting the FSB of the CPU and other very technical things that could harm your computer if you don't know what you're doing. But yeah, like I said before...if the CD doesn't boot when u start up your comp, just get into the bios (usually you press F2 or F7 or the DELETE key (not backspace) to get into it) and move the CD drive to the top of the line so that it boots first. Later after windows is completely set up, you can move CD drive back to the position it was at originally in the BIOS.

[PR0DiGY]

Ahh ok, I thought they locked it all, but the FSB and CPU only? :P They don't like overclocking

[lightflux]

Yeah most brand name manufacturers lock those kind of things such as FSB...especially on laptops...if you like OCing u gotta build yourself a custom system from scratch (which is fun on desktops...but I've never built myself a laptop)