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How can you tell how old your laptop is?

Have a Toshiba laptop, Qosmio! It is 4 years old. I would like to either reformat it or do a clean install... and I'm sorry, I don't even know if these two are the same or different. I'd like it to be like day 1... Can anyone tell me how to do this?

  • Answer:

    Reformat it means wiping the hard drive, a clean install is wiping the hard drive and then installing windows on it again (so very close to being the same thing, one is the first step in the other) you would have either got a recovery CD with the laptop, if so put it in the CD drive and restart the laptop and hit a key when prompted to boot from the CD and follow the instructions to wipe it and reinstall. If not then it may have a recovery partition, which is an area of the hard drive hidden away that has all the information for a re-install on it. on toshiba laptops I think you hold down the "0" key while turning the laptop on and that should start the restore process. Remember though, doing either of the above is going to totally wipe your hard drive, so all programs you have installed will need to be installed again, and any personal data you have on the hard drive will be lost, so make sure you have backed up anything you want to keep before doing a restore.

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With Windows you could do a repair installation, which basically reinstalls only Windows and leaves the installed applications intact. However if you're going through the trouble to do any sort of Windows reinstallation, then it would be better to first do a backup of your files (important documents, locally stored email, bookmarks, etc.) and then perform a clean-install of Windows. You can use the recovery CD or recovery tool that comes with your laptop or a retail version of Windows.

Anonymous

If your laptop came with an installation disk, use the disk! My XP was already on my computer when I bought it and did not get an installation cd.. ♣SYSTEM RECOVERY♣ This is called a "system recovery" My windows XP was already loaded on my computer when I bought it. These instructions, will clean everything off of your hard drive, so you must back up anything that you want to save. I have done this three times and I got these instructions from a computer tech. When starting your computer tap the F-10 key. click on next-yes-and follow the instructions that come up on your screen. When you are finished your computer will look just like it did when you first bought it. Do these steps in order when finished. 1. set up windows firewall. in control panel. 2. windows update (click express)Important-from start! 3. install your anti-virus program (update) 4. install anti-spyware (update) 5. Install service pack 2.3..Good Luck.. All your drivers etc. will reload on your computer without a disc. All this information is stored on a hidden partition on your hard drive. You will not lose your operating system! Good Luck..

DixieRock

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