BleepingComputer.com: Vista Reformat Instructions

Hey Guys and Girls,

A friend of mine wants to reformat his Dell Laptop, which has a Vista OS. His reason is that he wants to start over...fresh.

I had run some AV/AS/AW scans and he had some rogue programs and some minor infections (uses P2P). So that, combined with "2mb of memory left" (his words, I didn't check), he wants to start over with a new install.

I checked out the Vista Tutorials, but the "Repair" section seems to offer recovery instructions, but no Reformat instructions (i'm not familiar with Vista). I did some Google searches for Reformatting Vista, but thought I would ask my BleepingPeeps for guidance, as I value your knowledge and experience.

Thanks in advance.

Doc.

Was Vista installed originally or is it an upgrade from a previous OS?
Dell's come with an recovery CD or partition that makes a reinstall mostly an automated task.
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/glo...;l=en&s=gen

Hey MishY,

Thanks for that link!

Yup, his original OS is Vista..no upgrade. Sounds like this will take about 15mins if there are no problems.

The practice of placing the condensed OS files in a separate drive is great for speedy reformat, but it seems to take up a lot of space on the computer.."up to 4.5GB".

Thanks again!

Doc.

Well, had to go the "Advanced" route and reformat from the CD. Couldn't for the life of me get in to "ctrl F11". Got there once, but was at work and missed the time frame to choose an option, so it booted normally. Never could get back to it (hours of trying).

So, now that the LapTop is reformatted, his c: drive is is still crammed (9gb free of a 64gb drive). I'm sure it has to do with the Windows.old folder. Is it safe to delete this folder? Also, would I be able to re-install any programs found in this folder, like Avast! and Comodo?

Thanks again!

Doc.

I just re-format my vista too, to get a fresh HDD you have to boot from the disk

Here are some easy steps to format the HDD:
1. Put the Windows Vista disk in
2. Shut down your computer
3. Start it up again but as the dell loading bar is loading keep pressing the F12 button (so u dont miss the opportunity to press it)
4. Select the CD drive to boot from
5. Now you are into Windows vista set-up (which u've prolly seen b4)
6. Go thru the set-up while selecting all the recommended settings, until you get to the step when u can see all the HDDs
7. Select the HDD you want to start fresh from and then select the format/delete button (this will take a couple of minutes after you've pressed to button, there is no loading bar for the format, the screen simply freezes, so dont worry)
8. Continue thru the steps to install vista

I wud suggest that u print this out b4 hand so you can follow it while your going thru the steps.

Hope that helped,
Jay

Hey JMHanly,

Thank you for those instructions!

I tried following the instructions from HERE on using the Recovery Drive (ctrl F11), that comes with Dell computers, but I couldn't get into it. I ended up reformatting from the Vista CD.

I'll be saving your instructions for future use though.

Doc.

Quote

Yes to both questions
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933168
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932912
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933212