Computer help

chris2222000 · #1 08/28/2006, 10:30 PM

I need to completely restore my moms computer which is a HP desktop. Shes the type that loves smilies

and all those fun page stuff and one thing lead to another and now the comp is almost not functionable. Tried adaware, spybot, zonealarm and a few others. Im frustrated with it so I just want to completely restore it, I have an external hd to put pics and stuff on. Which here is the problem, the startup disk for her computer has been misplaced

.
My brother has a HP notebook which is about 3 years newer than the desktop. Can I use his startup/driver disk to install on her desktop? Its the same name brand and both came with xp.

Thanks

spitefull · #2 08/28/2006, 10:41 PM

Hmmm what is the problem your having exactly?? have you defragged and dumped all the junk?

Ebmorri · #3 08/28/2006, 10:43 PM

Nope Drivers will be different. You could try but 95% of the it will fail since the systems will have 2 totally different motherboards.

bermudadiver · #4 08/28/2006, 11:20 PM

Make your mom buy a fresh copy of Windows and tell her its an expensive lesson about clicking popups, free smiley ads, free 3D wallpaper ads, and free toolbars.

And get her some decent anti-virus/anti-spam software.

Back up all her valuable data to your external hard drive, kill the partitions on the internal hard drive, format it, and reinstall Windows. And run a virus scan on the external hard drive before putting all the data back on the fresh OS install.

fat-tony · #5 08/28/2006, 11:51 PM

depending on the version you may have 2 restores built in. When the computer is turned on, some of those had a system recovery that could be reached by hitting F10. Nondestructive installs windows over itself saving all info and repairing quite a few problems

Destructive takes the computer to the way it came out of the box. You need a backup of important files.

If you want to wipe it out as bermuda stated, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BUY A NEW VERSION, you already have a licensed copy. You can use anyone XP home oem cd (not a restore cd because it's setup completely different) legally since you have a legit key.

You can also get the recovery cd's from HP for about $15 I believe I heard a customer of ours recently state.

chris2222000 · #6 08/29/2006, 07:42 AM

Oh wow thanks for the info you guys! Dont worry I already had the clicking stuff you dont know speech, lol!

Q-ball · #7 08/29/2006, 08:17 AM

If you don't have a restore point, or a disk, you can get a restore disk from HP for about $20.

Nykademus · #8 08/29/2006, 09:13 AM

How long has she had the problem? if it hasnt been a long time, you might want to try a system restore... (its like a time warp for your OS ) start/programs/applications/system tools/system restore.
Its a slim chance of fixing the issue since spyware and viruses normally have been coded to turn sys restore off. If it does work, its alot of time saved.

doh... sup call.. gotta run.. good luck!!