Need help with Vista

[Azreal Oreo]

Yeah I know, vista sucks. If I would have known Dell had some systems with XP instead of Vista when I got this thing, I would have gotten one of those instead. But, I am stuck with this thing.

Anyway, I need some help concerning uninstalling and re-installing vista on my laptop. This thing is so distraught and possibly full of viruses etc that it is really slow, and a few programs will run and then "not respond", which shuts the program down. I have my disk that came with my computer, but I am not sure how to uninstall vista and re-install it to make my computer the way it was when I first got it. So, any help with that would be appreciated.

And thanks in advance to those who offer their help.

[Baako]

You would be better off downloading Ubuntu rather than continuing to use Vista.

[Weisseman]

Do you have a recovery cd? If so stick that in the drive and it should come up with option for "recovery" (Fancy term for a fresh install with all the programs the laptop needs). This will reformat the entire drive so it's best to take anything you want to keep off of the laptop beforehand.

However I know these days some laptops don't come with recovery cds and I'm told these have a hidden area on the HD that has the recovery process on it. If that's the case I can't really help you since I've never used that before.
 

You would be better off downloading Ubuntu rather than continuing to use Vista.

I knew someone would say that. And that's not true. Laptops are more picky when it comes to pc's with linux as certain functions use specific programs. Unless there's a linux alternative of the program then it wouldn't work.

[Baako]

You would be better off downloading Ubuntu rather than continuing to use Vista.

I knew someone would say that. And that's not true. Laptops are more picky when it comes to pc's with linux as certain functions use specific programs. Unless there's a linux alternative of the program then it wouldn't work.
[/quote]

Oops, I didn't know that

[Feathertail]

You would be better off downloading Ubuntu rather than continuing to use Vista.

I knew someone would say that. And that's not true. Laptops are more picky when it comes to pc's with linux as certain functions use specific programs. Unless there's a linux alternative of the program then it wouldn't work.

I'm using XUbuntu on my Thinkpad, and loving it. And at this point, it can't hurt him to try!

Azreal, if you'd like to try Ubuntu out for yourself, you can download a copy at http://www.ubuntu.com/products/GetUbuntu. Or if you like, you can go to http://shipit.ubuntu.com and ask them to mail you a free CD. Once you get it, you can try it without installing it, or you can even install it inside Windows and then just uninstall it if you decide you don't like it.

Ubuntu comes with useful free software, including Firefox and a Microsoft Office-compatible office suite, and you can choose from thousands more programs that you can have automatically installed and even updated for you. There's also the option to run certain Windows programs, like Photoshop, via a "compatibility layer" known as Wine. Not all Windows programs will run in Ubuntu, but when something doesn't there's usually a free alternative. And it doesn't get its registry corrupted, or its hard drive fragmented, or get infected with malware like Windows does.

If you have any trouble getting it set up, drop me a line and I'd be happy to help. ^.^ Or check out the forums at http://www.ubuntuforums.org! They're very friendly there. And for pretty much any problem you have, you can usually find someone else who's already asked about it, and received a timely and easy-to-understand reply.

Good luck!

[Ratchet]

Personally i would install Linux on it, I'm using Linux mint http://www.linuxmint.com/(ubuntu based) on my old laptop and it works perfectly, and far faster than it ever did with XP .

If you do decide to keep Vista you could do a "nuke and pave" installation, reformatting your hard drive at the same time, which should sort out any issues.

you'll have to make sure you have all the files pictures etc you want to keep copied to a disk or whatever as this will wipe the hard drive completely.

I haven't done this on a vista computer (yet ) but i guess its basically the same as xp.

first you'll need to set the computer to boot from CD, to do this you start up the computer then on the start up screen you will notice a message which will say something like : to change boot order press f12 , hit the key it mentions and you'll be at the bios screen (usually blue with white characters), on there you'll see the options to change the boot order.

Once you have done that exit the bios (make sure your installation disk is in the drive first) and it should start up the installer (it may ask you to hit a key) once its installed a few setup files, it will display your partitions.  Delete any existing partitions by selecting the desired partition with the arrow keys, press D to delete and then L to confirm the deletion.

You should now have only one option, "Unpartitioned Space".  Press Enter to  install windows to the unpartitioned space.

It will then ask how you would like to format the partition, select "Format using the NTFS file system". ( I think the file system may have changed for vista though)

[Azreal Oreo]

Thank you Ratchet. That helped, and was able to redo my computer to where it was back when I first got it.

now if only I can remember how to make it where the mouse pad built into this thing no longer works when I have an external mouse plugged into it....

[Ratchet]

Happy to be of assistance . I'm not sure about the touch pad though, i know how to disable it (go into control panel then mouse- properties) but i think that disables it permanently until you manually re-enable it. Its maybe an option you get on vista that xp doesn't have though.