wipe hard drive

[lor]

I have a Sony vaio PCG-F801A 4 years old .it came with 3 x cds
Do these cd's contain Windows XP.
they are labeled as follows;

1, product recovery vol 1

2,product recovery vol 2

3, documentation

due to virus problem i would like to wipe the hard disk and start afresh, but wish to ensure i have the cd's to do this first !

thanks alot.

 

[JohnD]

Suggest you buy a new hard drive and try to rebuild on that. Then, after you have installed your antivirus and Spyware tools, you may be able to re-fit the old drive as a Slave, and recover some of your data from it.

Your disks may be inted to restore factory settings from a hidden partition on your disk, in which case they will not worl on a new disk, or if you wipe ypur old one.

Have a look at the disks and see if they have a setup.exe in the root directory.

What antivirus tool are you using? There may be a way to recover from your problem.

Have you got data backups?

 

[lor]

thanks for the prompt reply

i have no back up. no cd writer

anti virus is PC GUARD from Telewest (came with the Broadband)

cheers

 

[Expertboy]

To recover your pc:

All you need to do is put the first recovery disc into your computer.

Restart the computer with the disc in and allow the pc to boot up from the CD, then follow the on-screen instructions.

Very simple to do.

 

[homertimpson]

Bear in mind of course that a recovery cd option will return your PC to the day it was 'bought.

i.e. All files/documents/photos etc will be erased taking this option.

If no cd writer, can you transfer important data/photos etc onto USB stick?

Also, as it's 4 years old, [and I'm assuming its XP you have on it] - you will have a huge amount of Windows Service Packs / Critical Updates etc etc to download once the recovery has finished.

Homer