help with os

[Grey!matter]

Hello

I've had this pc since around 2006, and since I upgraded to SB it's been in a box collecting dust. The pc just runs like pure shit and I was considering giving it to my friend, but yah, it runs like shit. I don't believe it's a hardware issue or something along those lines, it's just got a lot of junk and I've never reformatted it to factory settings in the 5 years I've had it. It was bought at future shop(irrelevant but still), it's an acer and it has a q6600 and an 8600 gt in it. The vista key is still on the case, but heres the thing, it never came with a disk to reformat.

I guess what im asking is, how do I reformat it without a disk? All I want to do is just wipe the system clean and have it reinstall the os at factory settings like day 1.

thanks

 

[stargazr]

A pre-built system like that often has a recovery partition that you can access when rebooting. I think it's Alt+F10 for Acer laptops, worth a try. If you format it the recovery partition would be deleted.

There are free tools for formatting. GParted would work if you need to start over.

 

[fastamdman]

Do you have ANY operating system discs? You can put windows xp on there, windows 7, whatever you have at your place. Otherwise you can use a free operating system like ubuntu

 

[Glagorx]

If you don't have any OS install disc, try to look on the internet, burn one and then here you are. Just put CD into your PC and then boot it. It should have reset option for you. When you'll have everything reseted don't forget to do defragmentation of your HD sometimes.

 

[Matt1970]

As far as I know there is no "Legal" download of windows XP or even Vista for that matter. The only legal downloads approved by Microsoft are from Digital River and from Amazon. They are only for Windows 7 and you still need to come up with a valid key and activate or they will expire in 30 days. That being said, I do not recommend you trust a 5+ year old recovery partition without backup CD/DVD's at your disposal. One corrupted file and you are stuck. Here is the only legal way to obtain a XP Recovery CD without purchasing one.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4797051_burn-windows-xp-recovery-disc.html

 

[discerning]

A pre-built system like that often has a recovery partition that you can access when rebooting. I think it's Alt+F10 for Acer laptops, worth a try. If you format it the recovery partition would be deleted.

That should work. Also, if it hasn't been uninstalled, within Vista, go to Empowering Technology, Acer eRecovery Management. There, you can burn the factory image to disc. Default password is 000000.

 

[Jetster...]

Unless you can find the Digital River downloads for Vista (yes they had them) your out of luck. Too old for recovery partition most likely