Formatting a Hard Drive

[Dog--]

My girlfriends laptop is about 3 years old and runs like shit - like SHIT.

I want to format it, but not delete windows, because it didn't come with a disc. I heard that you can format computers in such a way that it basically makes it so that the computer is the way it was when you bought it. A fresh install of windows with no files on it, aside from the ones required to run windows.

Is this possible, and if so, how would I go about doing this?

 

[Vegeta897]

I'm almost certain you can't do this without a windows disk, unless the laptop came with a "factory" disk image that you could use to flash the drive back to. Otherwise where would it be storing this fresh windows install to jump back to?

 

[Krynn72]

Yeah, you can only do it if you have the recovery disk, or a recovery partition on the hard drive. If you have a recovery partition, you can usually boot to it by hitting F8 before windows loads, and choosing the "repair computer" option. Then just find the option in there to do factory reload.

If the windows COA is still readable (sometimes they fade) on the bottom of the laptop, you can just download an install disk from the sites that shall not be named and put in that key. Just find one that says its an untouched rip of the original disk.

 

[Dog--]

Ah dang, was hoping for a lazier way out lol, but I can do that. Thanks, guys!

 

[Stormy]