Rebuilding PC help

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February 5, 2013 at 1:59 pm

#699657
1

Chrispydelic

@chrispydelic

Participant
Hi techies,

My poor PC finally gave up the ghost just before Christmas. So I inherited by Stepdad’s old PC.

All I use this for is as an adapter to my 1tb HDD which I stream to my Xbox and various other devices around the house. I also do all my torrent downloading on it.

Now, the problem I have is that this PC needs to be reset to factory settings, but I don’t have the reboot disks or a working copy of XP.

Any advice? Anyone got any version of XP for sale cheap (it could be home edition for my needs)? or any other way that I can get this PC scrubbed and back to factory settings?

All help wold be appreciated.

I really need to get my part of the network up and running again.
February 5, 2013 at 2:16 pm

#963373
1

DaftFader

@daftfader

Participant
If you have the windows key (normally on a sticker on the side of the pc), then you can download the same version of xp off the internet and use you’re key (it must be the full version and not “tampered with”). You’re paying for the license to use the OS when buying an operating system not the disk it’s self, so you’re not doing anything wrong by doing this afaik as you already have the license key what was paid for by the person who originally built/bought the pc.

If there’s a recovery partition on the HDD then you might be able to press F11 during boot up (you normally have to hold it for a few seconds at some point before the splash screen comes up) then you can restore to factory default setting.

Make sure you back up any data before you do either of these as it’s very very hard to get back if not (you’ll need a load special software what the police computer forensics would use to get anything back).
February 5, 2013 at 4:06 pm

#963366
1

thelog

@thelog

Member
1,Take fork,
2, Wiggle it inside PC,
3, Remove all fans
4, Pour water inside (this is your new liquid cooled thingy)
5, Make sure you bring a towel

There you go, you may need to reinstall windws but after that she will purr like a kitten.
February 5, 2013 at 6:45 pm

#963370
1

Mezz

@mezz

Member
Dont restore to older versions, you could lose data including driver software for anything added later ( sound / video cards etc ), and some software might not work, or will have problems without expansion packs ( later windows fixes ).

What exactly is the problem ?
February 5, 2013 at 6:49 pm

#963371
1

Deez

@deez

Member
Yeah man if you reset to factory settings your gonna be in for a shit few hours downloading drivers and updates for soundcards, gfx cards etc.

Whats the issue and i’ll try help ya..
February 5, 2013 at 7:42 pm

#963374
1

DaftFader

@daftfader

Participant
@DeezNuts 522739 wrote:

Yeah man if you reset to factory settings your gonna be in for a shit few hours downloading drivers and updates for soundcards, gfx cards etc.

Whats the issue and i’ll try help ya..

It’s the other way round actually, if you reinstall windows, it’s a fresh install with no drivers. Most of the time if you reset to factory default, it reverts the OS back to when it was shipped out the factory, WITH all the drivers etc on there (It’s normally some brand named pc’s that have this option though as they have a modified version of the normal OS and have a restore partition on the HDD where it stores the factory default set up of windows and all the drivers etc.). You’ll still have to update it though, but you’ll have to do that what ever you do.

If however you do a normal system restore to a point in time after the pc was first used, it can bugger up all manor of things like installs and shortcuts etc etc.
February 5, 2013 at 7:45 pm

#963372
1

Deez

@deez

Member
@DaftFader 522770 wrote:

It’s the other way round actually, if you reinstall windows, it’s a fresh install with no drivers. Most of the time if you reset to factory default, it reverts the OS back to when it was shipped out the factory, WITH all the drivers etc on there (It’s normally some brand named pc’s that have this option though as they have a modified version of the normal OS and have a restore partition on the HDD where it stores the factory default set up of windows and all the drivers etc.). You’ll still have to update it though, but you’ll have to do that what ever you do.

If however you do a normal system restore to a point in time after the pc was first used, it can bugger up all manor of things like installs and shortcuts etc etc.

Ahh well all my PC’s are custom built so i’m used to having a shit time getting drivers whatever happens 😛
February 5, 2013 at 8:25 pm

#963375
1

DaftFader

@daftfader

Participant
@DeezNuts 522772 wrote:

Ahh well all my PC’s are custom built so i’m used to having a shit time getting drivers whatever happens 😛

Same 😛
February 5, 2013 at 9:20 pm

#963367
1

Chrispydelic

@chrispydelic

Participant
@DaftFader 522661 wrote:

If you have the windows key (normally on a sticker on the side of the pc), then you can download the same version of xp off the internet and use you’re key (it must be the full version and not “tampered with”). You’re paying for the license to use the OS when buying an operating system not the disk it’s self, so you’re not doing anything wrong by doing this afaik as you already have the license key what was paid for by the person who originally built/bought the pc.

If there’s a recovery partition on the HDD then you might be able to press F11 during boot up (you normally have to hold it for a few seconds at some point before the splash screen comes up) then you can restore to factory default setting.

Make sure you back up any data before you do either of these as it’s very very hard to get back if not (you’ll need a load special software what the police computer forensics would use to get anything back).

Using a piece of software called a “key finder” I have managed to decrypt the license key for the original software. So I DO have the license key, I just don’t have the software itself.

You say that I can just download this? I don’t need to keep anything that is on the PC so a format *.* in dos speak is not a problem.

All I need is a machine that will boot up to Windows so that I can run the media sharing software and torrent software that I used to use my old PC for.

For some reason the settings on the PC I have are very strange, it has rite protected my external 1tbHDD so that when it is connected I cannot move, delete or alter files! Weird.

Also it did show up briefly on the network but then it went missing.

It really does need to be rebuilt to be honest. I even tried putting the drive from my dead PC into it as the master drive to see if I could boot the PC from that but that just got it stuck in a loop.

All I want is my media sharing back and the ability to download and share files over my local area network.
February 5, 2013 at 9:35 pm

#963376
1

DaftFader

@daftfader

Participant
A fresh install should sought this out, the only thing that’ll change the settings after yo’ve set it up is software, eg. software that comes with your external HDD etc. (and possibly some updates and ofc possibly a virus if you get one).
February 5, 2013 at 9:38 pm

#963368
1

Chrispydelic

@chrispydelic

Participant
That’s what I’m thinking. I had all sorts of problems to begin with because after my Stepdad passed away, this PC had not been switched on (this is several years). It still had all of the software for the dial up modem that it used to connect to the internet.

So how do I go about downloading XP from the internet legitimately?
February 5, 2013 at 9:56 pm

#963377
1

DaftFader

@daftfader

Participant
@Chrispydelic 522800 wrote:

That’s what I’m thinking. I had all sorts of problems to begin with because after my Stepdad passed away, this PC had not been switched on (this is several years). It still had all of the software for the dial up modem that it used to connect to the internet.

So how do I go about downloading XP from the internet legitimately?

Torrent, it’s not strictly legitimate, but It’s not illegal either (don’t quote me on that) as you have a license to use it.

The acquiring of the software may or may not be ok with Microsoft (they would hand out the software if they were 100% happy for you to have a copy of it otherwise), but using it with your license is 100% legal and legitimate.
February 5, 2013 at 10:04 pm

#963369
1

Chrispydelic

@chrispydelic

Participant
@DaftFader 522808 wrote:

Torrent, it’s not strictly legitimate, but It’s not illegal either (don’t quote me on that) as you have a license to use it.

The acquiring of the software may or may not be ok with Microsoft (they would hand out the software if they were 100% happy for you to have a copy of it otherwise), but using it with your license is 100% legal and legitimate.

Cool! Cheers Mr Fader!
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