How To Do A Full Destructive System Recovery?
My mom has an old computer (built circa 2001) that she’s using and its terribly slow, so slow to the point that its almost useless. It used to run fine until I downloaded a bunch of programs that slowed it way down, and even after I deleted all of those programs it performed no better. We eventually got another computer and set this one to the side, but now I would like to make it useful again since I have the newer computer with me away at school. I would like to do a full destructive system recovery to restore it back to factory settings, but I’m not sure how. The reason why I want to do a full recovery is that the furthest back I can go for a non-destructive system recovery is two months ago, but the computer has been like this for years so that wouldn’t fix anything. I don’t care anything about any installed software or documents. The operating system is XP, however I have no idea what brand of computer it is. All it says on the front is intel inside. Is there a way I can find out this information? I don’t have any recovery discs, installation CDs, user manuals, no anything. Is it possible for me to do this, or am I pretty much screwed?
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4 Responses to “How To Do A Full Destructive System Recovery?”
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No need to wipe clean just yet !
The Java Runtime Environment cause issues, you should use a free program I use myself called JavaRa to get the latest JRE and remove older versions. This will ensure the security of your computer and extra space on your hard disk will be created. More information here: http://raproducts.org/javara.html and the download link on this page: http://raproducts.org/
Flush every single possible accumulated junk (cookies, cache and what nots) in ALL your browsers. As you browse the web, browsers stores information about the websites you visit. You should delete that information if your computer is slow (like in your case).
Here are two methods for the two most popular browsers (IE7 and Firefox 3):
For older versions of the same programs or for other browsers, check their help files for guidance on doing the cleanup.
Method One (now):
In Internet Explorer, click the Tools menu, then Delete Browsing History and in the box, click the Delete all button (bottom left) and Yes.
In Firefox, go to tools, clear private data, make sure all boxes are checked and then click on the clear private data now button.
Method Two (in the future – about every week):
In Internet Explorer, click the Tools menu, then click Delete Browsing History and in the box that opens, do the following steps (in order)
1) click the button near Temporary Internet Files, click Yes and wait for the box that opens to close.
2) click the button near History, click Yes and wait for the box that opens to close.
Finally, click the close button (bottom right) to finish.
In Firefox, Go to tools, clear private data and uncheck all except Browsing History, Cache and Authenticated Sessions boxes and then click on the clear private data now button.
Note: You should close your browser ( This is good for Internet Explorer and Firefox ) when you’re done to clear cookies that are still in memory from your current browsing session.
Install a cleaner called Glary Utilities ( http://www.glaryutilities.com/gu.html ) and Antispyware/Antimalware Spybot ( http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-am... ) and use them in “safe mode” then get back in normal mode and, as a final touch, defragment your drive with your choice of defragmenter (built-in, freeware or open source).
So here we have it, I hope this will help guide you.
Ciao
QD 1956
P.S.: If that does not work, check for a recovery partition that contains the things you need to get it back to factory settings.
If you cannot find any, you need an XP disk, try checking the classifieds (paper or web site) or little shops near your home for a “sold for parts” scrapped computer (with a valid license that is not used anymore).
open the case up and vacuum and blow out the dust. Then have someone check all the fans and memory. after that. get a program called cpuz and right down the cpu, memory, harddrive size and post it. that way we can see if its worth a cheap upgrade.
Buy a copy of your OS of choice (I recommend Linux as it’s free and runs nicely on older systems) and install over the hard drive.
Without a OS CD….well there’s not much you can do.
*You can uninstall all programs you don’t use or that are old.
*Not sure if you can add memory and it will probably be expensive its if old memory.
*Can download and run CCLeaner, will clean up all the crap. Use under each user. Also run the registry cleaner. (run after you go online all the time)
*Do a defrag.
*Download, get the updates and run (in safe mode) malwarebytes to make sure you get all the nasties out.
*Go to my computer>righ tclick for properties>advance and Performance settings, choose best performance, it will use less memory.
*While there you can tweak up the virtual memory, but I dont know hard drive size to tell you how much.
*Start>Run type msconfig, uncheck all those programs running in the background.
Geez, can’t think of anything else.
This will clean it out, tweak it up a bit.
Also, don’t use IE, its just a hog. Use firefox. Don’t add any toolbars….there are a waste.
If you use AOHELL, get rid of it, memory hog and not needed.
Em….that’s all I can think of.