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10-30-2004, 07:45 PM
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#1 |
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Member (2 bit)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 3
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Reformatting Computer given to me
Hi everyone. I received a free computer and want to reformat it. But it did not come with any disks to reformat. How can I do this? I want to give the computer to a family member as a gift and want to make sure that it is nice and neat. It is running Win 98, Pent II processor and 256 MB Ram. I know its not the fastest, but hey it was free. It is a compaq presario. I have never reformatted before without the disk so I am ignorent in that area.
Thanks soooooo much Jen 
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10-30-2004, 08:25 PM
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#2 |
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Served with Pride
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Premium Member
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: near the left coast of Michigan
Posts: 14,565
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Reformatting means you will remove EVERYTHING from the hard drive. You will then need to reinstall Windows 98 and all the programs. Without disks, you have nothing to install. You'll need to purchase a copy of Win 98 (Second Edition recommended) before you can reinstall any operating system. Plus, finding drivers if you don't save them can be a troublesome task too. Why not just clean up the old system, update it at Windows Update, add a current anti virus and call it good?
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10-30-2004, 08:28 PM
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#3 |
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Member (2 bit)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 3
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Can I upgrade the OS to XP? I wanted to reformat to get rid of any extra "junk" files that may be hidden and did not fully delete off while the old users had it. I understand that everything will be lost. I have installation disks of OS and programs for it already. I was just not sure if I can upgrade to XP or how to go about starting the reformating if I cant upgrade to XP.
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10-30-2004, 10:37 PM
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#4 |
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Staff
Premium Member
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Cardiff, Wales. UK
Posts: 6,105
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I doubt very much if that machine could run XP. If you have an XP installation CD there is a compatibility utility on the disk that you can run before install, it will output all the results to a notepad file incuding hardware and software issues.
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Niwa no niwa ni wa, niwa no niwatori wa niwaka ni wani o tabeta. |
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10-31-2004, 02:29 AM
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#5 |
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Forum Administrator
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Premium Member
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Joplin MO
Posts: 37,777
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Pentium 2 and 256 ram is plenty good for running XP. My concern would be driver support - with Presarios, you really need the Compaq restore kit.
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10-31-2004, 06:57 AM
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#6 |
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Member (2 bit)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 3
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And I take it there is no way to get a hold of that?
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10-31-2004, 08:39 AM
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#7 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: lometa,tx.
Posts: 1,399
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don't claim to be an expert but i (like you) acquired a compaq presario 4230ES free from the local school which was discarding some old computers , i formatted and installed windows 98, i was concerned about drivers but luckely i did not have a problem all the drivers were installed from the disk (this was a windows 98 oem)and everything went great. i have had no problems and have had it on for 2 weeks now. i don't promise this will work for you but it did for me.
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10-31-2004, 09:49 AM
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#8 |
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Forum Administrator
Staff
Premium Member
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Joplin MO
Posts: 37,777
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If you reformat, do NOT run fdisk - a lot of Compaqs have a proprietary diagnostic partition that needs to be there for full bios access. Compaq/HP will have limited driver downloads available for the versions of Windows it was certified to run with.
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