Reformating vista
 

Is there a way that i can reformat windows vista without the windows vista's cds? i am a bit of a nooby with computers
when i go to restore it says i have no restore points and it wont let me just restore from when i first bought it :confused:

Any tips/adivce would be nice please reply back to this

Roll back to XP if at all possible.

In order to restore a computer to the way it was when you first bought it, you either have had to have had the restore discs supplied to you by the manufacturer, or you made them when you first unpacked the computer. Most computers will prompt you when you first start it up to make them.

Now here's the bad news, unless you've made these discs or you have the Vista discs (which it sounds like you don't, and most out of the box PC manufacturers don't give them to you), you're kinda SOL. Looks like you may be buying Vista soon my friend!

1. Why do you want to reformat Windows?

2. Since you have legally purchased a license with your computer, I would have no problem downloading it after finding out where it is from this little Swedish website.

3. Since I use Linux, I have to say that this is one problem that I don't have anymore. If you are learning computers, you could just learn something that works the way you want it to. http://www.linuxmint.com/mirrors.php?id=15 Download it, burn the file onto a CD, restart the computer with it in and you can try it out. If you don't like it, take the CD out and nothing will have changed. If you do something, good or bad, it won't be saved when running off the CD. You will have to go through a setup phase to install it to the hard drive before it is easy to save files and settings.

i was thinking that i have the cds for that but wont getting the new drivers be a pain in the arse for a newb at pcs?

I don't know. I think many have done it. As long as your network card drivers work with XP or you have another computer you can surf with, it should be possible.

I have no experience with Vista.


You could always do what I did when I first got XP- make real good friends with a guy at the GeekSquad after hours.


However, some measures after you do get it up and running again. vLite is "a tool for customizing the Windows Vista installation before actually installing it." Requires you to have a clean install first before playing around to customize it. Or there is Partition Image, also called PING, which can "backup and restore whole partitions, an easy way." You do not need to worry about using PING, so long as you don't experience what happened in this thread.