My Dad passed away last May and left my Mom with his PC. She is not computer literate - but we're trying to train her.

Being retired Dad surfed the web, did online banking, played games, had multiple email accounts and had all sorts of 'stuff' on the machine. While I'm home for Christmas I'd like to essentially wipe the computer clean and re-install Windows XP so Mom can start fresh.

I'm a Mac addict so I've no clue how to start to do this - other than just inserting the Windows CD and following prompts - and I suspect there may be more to it than that - although Dad used to say his machine had locked up and he had to start from scratch more than once.

I'm not worried about having to get every ounce of data off the machine - there are no privacy issues here, but I'd like to remove all programs, saved files, etc.

Then I'll want to set her up a free email account - probably thru yahoo or gmail or hotmail - one of those.

Dad obviously had some form of internet connection via modem - ATT.Net I think. I do not want to lose that ability.

So - if any of you PC guys - and I know there's a bunch of you here - can give me some easy to follow step-by-step directions, I'd appreciate it. (No, I don't want to buy or download any software please!)

 

Moved from Group Purchases forum.

 

you can do a whole system reformat, pretty easy its time consuming to do if the computer is older and slower, im talking several hours.

If you do a full HD wipe and start over and reload windows, you loose everything. So you will need to backup anything (including your internet PW and settings) before you start.

Boot the computer with the windows disk, follow commands, you want to wipe the NAT partition, and you can leave the FAT32 alone.
-Patrick

 

Google it. Pick the set of instructions that best fits your situation. Print out the instructions. Follow them step by step.

That's what I did earlier this year on a virus/trojan infected PC running XP. Worked great.

Basically, there are quite a few steps and things to consider. It's not hard, though.

While there is lots of computer knowledge among forum members and nice folks like Patman will give you genearl guidelines and tips, you will be lucky if anyone is going to take the time to write a step by step procedure for you when it's already available on the web.

 

Just restart the computer with the Windows XP disk in the CD drive. It's been a while since I reformatted an XP machine, but when you get to the step where you select the partition, delete the biggest partition to delete everything.

 

First go to your BIOS probaly F2 once you are in find Boot order and make sure its on CD for the 1st boot device 2nd hard disk. Save it and exit the Bios put the Xp cd in and when it boots you will see press any key to boot. when it gets to the part on the formating, just do a quick format on all partitions and keep going.

When it is done with Xp then the fun part starts. Have fun finding the drivers unless by chance you still have the drivers Cd

 

If this is a name brand computer, what is the brand and model? It may have a recovery partition, which will make it very easy and won't require the XP CD to reload it.

 

It is pretty self explanatory if you have moderate computer knowledge.

 

I was able to find all my drivers and then some on my computer manufacturers website

 

Yea, just takes time to find them,download them, then install them

 

XP drivers are very easy to find.

 

and actually i recommend downloading them to a thumbstick ahead of time since one of my drivers was my ethernet port, so i couldnt even get on the web to go download it. talk about chicken and the egg scenario.

 

Thanks - I think. I'm still pretty confused but I'll Google for some help - and hopefully find a step by step guide. I'm fairly sure we have the Drivers disk - as I say, Dad did this multiple times, so I'm 99 percent sure we have all the software and driver disks.

Good suggestion though Patman about downloading to a thumb drive - didn't think of that.

By the way this is an e-Machines desktop - I've no idea of the model.

If you reload Windows will it not then walk you thru a set up to establish internet access?

 

It should as far as setting up a network and all that, but if you have missing drivers, or if you have a specific password already set then it would be good to know that head of time.

 

Well I've found several step-by-step guides via Google so I'm a bit more confident. Fortunately Dad kept all his disks so I think I'll be good with loading other software - he didn't use much - and drivers. In truth my biggest concern will be to get the Internet connection and modem back up and running.

If it gets screwed up then we can always take it to a bonafide repairman.

Thanks all for the help. Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Flight!