Help with me formatting please~~

[h0raz0n]

First of all, im sure there are many similar thread out there and im sorry for asking over and over again. But its kind of messy out there im not sure where i should go and my internet is really slow so i guess making my own thread is the easiest way to do this.

I've got an Acer TravelMate 8100 laptop that i want to format it because it is really slow and buggy now. I'm a total newbie at this kind of stuff so i would appreciate it if anyone can give me a step by step ***** proof guide please. And all those drive installing and card installing stuff i read from other threads, how do i do them?

This is all I've got:
-My laptop lol
-Windows XP Professional CD original(my sis's)
-Windows XP Pro, Acer incorporated Product Key pasted on the btm of my laptop
-1 Acer CD: System CD Rev3.0
-2 Acer CD: Recovery CD(disc1 and 2)

Can anyone tell me how to go about doing this? Right from the start, how do i even go to the formatting page lol.. What other CDs do i need? I've got a portable harddisk i use to backup my stuff already too and btw, if my com have virus and i copied my games, MVs, projects over to my portable harddisk, will it be like polluted with virus? then when i copy the files back onto my laptop, will my laptop be full of them again.

Please if there is any other info u need just tell me where i can find them and i'll try to find it. Someone help me please ^^.

 

[T_C_]

Hello! Sounds you've got everything backed up, so you're ready to get to reformatting. The XP cd makes this pretty easy. Disconnect any external drives. First, insert the CD into the CD drive so it boots with it inside. If CD booting is enabled, it should say "press any key to boot from the CD..." Press any key to do so (and you can ignore the next paragraph). If it boots to Windows XP like usual, follow these instructions to change the boot device priority.

Chances are that Acer did not put the CD drive as the first boot device. When you first turn on the computer, it should have some sort of a splash screen with the company logo and somewhere on the screen "Press <key> to enter setup" On Dell it is usually F2, sometimes Del. Whatever the key is, press it. This will get you into the BIOS. On the top, there are tabs that say something like "system" , "boot" , etc. It varies by manufacturer. Under one of them (should be BOOT), there will be a submenu titled "boot device priority". If you enter this menu, you should be able to change the boot order so that the CD-ROM drive is first, the hard drive second. Get out of the submenu after changing and arrow over to "Exit and save changes" It should reboot with the CD as the boot device.

Once you have booted from the CD, it will be a blue screen saying "welcome to windows XP setup" on the top. It will load some preliminary files. Agree to the disclaimer. Next, it should confront you with a partition table and ask you which partition you would like to install WinXP on. If you want to completely reformat, select the partitions listed and delete them. The only partition should be C: if you disconnected your external drive. After deleting them, there should be a vast amount of unpartitioned space. Create a partition with the highest possible space (default behavior, I believe). It should automatically be labeled C:. Select to format it with NTFS (quick works fine). Next, select the newly formatted partition to install WinXP on. It will load a bunch of files required for it to boot in windows. It will then reboot and load windows (do not press anything if it says "press key to boot from CD"), and it will guide you through the process of installing WinXP. There are probably nuances between my instructions and things like your particular BIOS but I hope this is helpful! Your best bet is to find a How-to online and print it off for some help! --TC

 

[h0raz0n]

should i use acer recovery cd to recover my laptop back to how it was when i bought my laptop AFTER im done formatting and installing win xp?

 

[captaincranky]

Two Different Things, Are They, Said Yoda.....

I'm a little up in the air as to what you're trying to do. A "recovery Cd" contains (normally) all of the software that your machine shipped with and (usually) Bits and pieces of the OS. I can't speak directly to your box, but many manufacturers install the actual back-up copy of Windows on a partition say D/:
The "recovery disc" makes the call to D/: , which then acts as a Windows CD. Your sisters' Windows CD won't help you, because if you install it M$ will flag it as a counterfeit and refuse to activate. (According to the license agreement it would actually be a stolen copy of Windows). That said, if you install Windows from a Windows CD it will wipe the partition where your back-up of Windows is (or may be) residing.

If I missed the point, ignore this.

If you don't have a partitioned HDD, ignore this

(Save for the fact you still can't use your sisters' Windows CD).