Windows Vista Wipe

[RobDimmock]

I'm wanting to do a complete system wipe of my Dell Inspiron laptop. I just wanted some advice so I don't do anything stupid. I have an external HDD where I can backup all my files I need etc. Can I do a complete reinstall without the Vista CD or can I do it directly from the computer without installing any CD's.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[Roddie]

Do you not have the Dell Windows Vista OEM disc that would have come with the computer?

[RobDimmock]

I have it somewhere, but it's to hard to get to at the minute. So I just wanted to see if there was a way of doing it without it.

[NemesiS]

I can't remember off the top of my head with dells, but most laptops have a hidden partition for reinstalling the OS to factory default without the need for the bundled factory reset discs.

Go to dells forum or the laptop forums like notebookreview.com with your model number and you will be able to find out exactly, if you can and the procedure.

Will be very straight forward tho. Also i would imagine with a dell you can more than likely just stick a vista disc in and format/reinstall from scratch and grab the drivers from dells website.

You can't do that with my Vaio as you need the discs that came with it or loads of **** doesn't work but i have never had a problem reinstalling an OS on a dell without the official discs.

[RobDimmock]

Thanks for your help mate. Ill try one of the forums for the procedures. Should have kept the CD's really, but if it's straight forward to do it without them than ill give it a go.

[Persocom]

you need the disc. ex dell kiddo here. You won't need an activation code, as that's all hard coded into your bios. To be honest though, I'd suggest installing windows 7. vista is bollocks.

[moonwhistle]

My Acer laptop which i bought brand new didn't come with a single disc. I really hope that when i need to format and start over in the future that everything will reinstall from the partition.

[RobDimmock]

Just read on the dell support site that it takes about 30 mins to do a restore from the partition if you have one
So gunna get an external HDD from work and back all my data up and give that a shot.

Cheers for all your help so far though guys.

[BaudAttitude]

My Acer laptop which i bought brand new didn't come with a single disc. I really hope that when i need to format and start over in the future that everything will reinstall from the partition.

It will, I've had to do a factory restore on an Acer and it went fine off the restore partition.

On the other hand, that won't help if the drive goes. Acer does have a "make discs" utility that you can run; it's somewhere in their management app.