I need to reformat my laptop, how do I go about doing so?
My computer will not run a virus scan, and now certain programs, like iTunes and the Microsoft Office programs, will no longer run. I don’t have a start up disk. I have a dell inspiron 9300, if that helps at all.
I’ve tried the system restore and that just freezes my laptop. I left it alone for 24 hrs and it never finished.
5 Responses to “I need to reformat my laptop, how do I go about doing so?”
In more recent dell laptops, you have the option of booting into a special “system restore” partition.
Check out the dell website for more help.
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well w/o either an operating system disk or a Recovery disk you will be unable to do so. You will need to get ahold of one of these. If you get an O.S. disk or a Recovery CD you are going to incert the cd restart the computer and as soon as it restarts keep hitting the f10 key till it pops up w/ a screen either 1) asking you to choose a boot media (if so select cd rom) or 2) will say hit any key to boot from Cd ( in this case hit any key!) Then you will follow the on screen prompts as to what you need to do. You will get to an option that will ask you to format the drive, make sure you do so and use the NTFS format (quick version) and then you will go from there. hope this helps
If not take your computer to a Best Buy and the Geek squad will be able to help you out
Justin Reynolds
Geek Squad Agent
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go to start then to accessories then system tools then choose system restore, you can go back to an earlier date when your computer was working correctly. it is usually caused by installing a new program or a virus, roll it back to the earlier date and try that before you reformat. Reformatting will erase all your info and with out disks, you will have to rely on outside source (ie. friends, family) for software needed to reformat.
try this first if that doesnt work then do the reformat, it is always a last resort in my mind.
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Here is the website where you can find all the software drivers you need for your Inspiron 9300.
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/devices.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&SystemID=INSPIRON%209300&os=WW1&osl=EN
Do you own a copy of Microsoft Windows operating system cd? If you do, you can simply insert it and then let it self boot. Now follow the onscreen instructions. After you’re done, you will have to manually update various drivers on your computer.
It’s best if you can ask someone who’s computer literate to help you out. I’ve searched the DELL Support website but was not able to find anything about system restore cds nor was there anything about system restore partition.
Hope that helps!!
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you’re going to need to get some disks from dell, or purchase a full version of windows XP before you get anywhere.
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