how to reformat hard drive in Dell pc

Hello

I'm needing help. The computer is a Dell and I did write to them and got all the discs of everything that was on it when it was new. Now, I need to know how to 'make it like new'...wiping out everything and starting over. It's my MIL's computer and she continually gets the 'blue screen of death', so we backed up everything that she does not want to lose and would like to wipe it out and start over. Even though I have all these discs, I do not know where to start... Could someone direct me to a 'tutorial' (for lack of better term) on how to go about doing this? She lives on a limited income (83 years old and STILL computing, bless her heart LOL), so I thought I'd give it a shot for her.

I appreciate any & all help that anyone can give me. Be gentle....I'm FAR from being the computer guru that it looks like folks here are.

Have an AWESOME day

Blondie

What OS are you installing, W98?

If your Dell has the recovery partition, you don't even need the disk
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/glo...lang=en&cs=

To use the CD's, you need to enter the BIOS of your computer and set the CD/DVD drive as the first boot device
Once that is done, you just pop in the disk and away you go
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/glo...lang=en&cs=

Edited by garmanma, 16 May 2009 - 10:02 AM.

BSOD was never a part of Win98?

Maybe for WinME?


WIN 95, WIN98, WIN98SE relied on a DOS Start Up Boot in most cases.

The Member has not stated which one is being used?

Very hard to give advice just now without more Information.

This Comment is not Normal from the period we are looking at here?

The computer is a Dell and I did write to them and got all the discs of everything that was on it when it was new.

Sounds more like XP?

Edited by Abacus 7, 16 May 2009 - 03:00 PM.

Can you, Sweet Lady, Please tell us what Operating System that Computer uses?

Noone here would ever deliberately give you Wrong Advise, but not knowing what Operating System could possibly lead to that.

Edited by Abacus 7, 16 May 2009 - 05:27 PM.

Yes, I'm so sorry It's XP.

Thanks so much

Blondie

Since the OS in question is XP, I'm shifting this topic to the XP forum.

Also, since it is a DELL, chances are it has a built in recovery partition which would restore the computer to factor conditions. That said, I've never reformatted, so I cannot provide instructions in how to do so.

Orange Blossom

Thank you, Orange, for moving this to the appropriate area. I am so sorry...I posted it in the wrong area. How embarassing

Thanks again for your help

Blondie <and ACTS like a blonde> hehe

What I posted is for Dell no matter what the OS