liz.m said:
i need to clean my laptop, i have use others and i just want to clean it
and
start new from scratch. it kinda confusing, can you help? liz m.
It would be helpful if you defined what you mean by "clean". Do you mean
physically remove dirt and grime from it, or do you mean remove everything
from the hard disk and start over?
In either case, you should start by considering the data that is presently
on it. If you need that, and you don't have a backup, do one now.
If you are unsure of how to back up, and if you have reinstall disks (rather
than just a recovery partition), here's a tactic that can make this very
easy. Though it isn't the cheapest, it does ensure that you don't lose any
data at all.
Pop the hard disk out of the laptop, and see if it's a PATA (two rows of
pins, possibly with a push-on header) or SATA ( two small connectors, and
the drive will likely say SATA on it) drive. You can also google the
drive's model number and the specs you'll find will tell you this.
Now, just go to a store and buy a new replacement. For a pricing
reference, this week I purchased a 250 gig SATA laptop drive for $70.
Also buy an external drive case for the same type of drive; these start in
the $15 - $20 range and comes with the required special 3-ended cable.
This case will be what you use to restore your data.
Take the drive home and install it to whatever carrier your old drive has,
pop it into the laptop. Put the old drive for the moment into the
antistatic bag and set it aside. Now, do the Windows reinstall from the
disks. Make sure all of the drivers are installed. Create a user account
for yourself, and install whatever basic software you need. Once it's all
basically working, without data, defragment it. Be sure anti-virus
software is installed and updated.
As these longer processes take place, install your old drive to the new
case. When the laptop is ready, you can simply attach the two large ends
of the cable to separate USB ports, then connect the drive and turn it on.
You can now simply copy your data over to the new drive.
HTH
-pk
