I had a friend "set up" my computer for me when I first got it. I recently downloaded the windows updates and now everytime I turn my computer on, a notice comes up saying that I might be running "non-genuine" software. Maybe this is true maybe it isn't. I don't know. I really want to fix this problem, but I don't know where to begin.
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I'm using a computer that was built by a friend (really, I promise) who installed non-genuine XP in it. I've never been a fan of pirated software, but the computer was free, so what's a boy to do?
OK, so I've put up with all the "non-genuine" reminders from Redmond figuring it was my penance, but now I'm thinking I should move on up to Vista (mainly for Media Center). And yes, the hardware is up to it.
Meanwhile, I had installed a genuine copy of XP on my previous computer before receiving this one (I still have the disks). One install, one machine. So, can I just install that genuine XP over the non-genuine one?
I need some one to take me step by step "SLOWLY" and tell me how I can wipe my Hard Drive completely Clean, as if it was right out of the box.I am not all that bright when it comes to computers.But come on.How tough can it be, if you are taken through it one step at a time? Please don't use computer Lingo while holding my hand through this. Just tell me as simply as you can, how a computer browser type of person can do this task all by themselves.there has to be some one out there that wants to share the secret?I have a few buddies who do it all the time, and when I ask them how to do it.they just say, that it is to difficult to explain as if it is a Big Dark Secret.I would Love to be able to do it myself.can some body tell me the easiest way to do it?
View 14 Replies View Relatedi need to wipe my hard drive clean. I don't what anything left on it after the format. I want to sell it without operating system on it. I've tried to do this with the XP cd but it just installs a fresh copy of windows back on.
View 6 Replies View RelatedI like to do a clean install of XP on the family computer.Its an older p3 933mhz 512meg system and its been running slow even after i did all the usual virus, spyware, reg, defrag scans.A lot of people have said I should do a fresh install of XP and it will help alot.The question is, how do I go about doing this?Do I need to format my Hard Disk first?How do I do that?I have a XP pro disk so I really just need to know how to wipe the Hard Disk clean before I install it.
View 6 Replies View Relatedhow do i wipe my pc so i can start fresh i have windows xp
View 5 Replies View RelatedI am running on a non genuine copy of Xp professional and would like to know if I install a genuine copy of Windows 98 will I then be able to take advantage of Microsoft .com upgrades ? Like could I upgrade to XP ?
View 5 Replies View RelatedI have an ibm think pad with windows 2000 office professinal , it takes approx 12-15 minutes for start up and free space is 78 percent so I know the problem is not space. I am also unable to do a disk cleanup. I have defraged ok and once the computer has started I can surf easily what could be wrong I have a fair knowledge of computers but nothing about configuration Could someone please help?
View 3 Replies View RelatedGot new parts for PC upgrade. All parts new (including cables) but recycled HDD and DVD/CD-ROM.All bits connected and powered up last night in about 10 mins. Put Windows XP CD in, went into setup/ reformat process then PC needed rebooting to continue with Windows setup. Fine. or so I thought. rebooted, went into "Please press any key to boot from CD". IF pressed any key, went through the whole reformat, copy setup files etc. ELSE, just hangs on that screenie. No error messages or anything!Seems to me like it's gone into a loop, and not running the Windows set-up files copied into the HDD.
View 2 Replies View RelatedHome computer got too many virsuses to fix. Need to reformat hard drvie but our computer came preloaded with windows xp and no disks. Last time this happened had to spend $ at Best buy where we boutgh it for them to fix. They said the operating system is hidden somewhere i the system. Is there a way to extract this before I wipe out the drive? I can only start up in safe mode.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI want to wipe XP and install win 98...The computer is going to be connected to my network and simply used for MP3 storage and back-up as well as I am going to connect my scanner to it. When I go to CMD promt and type Format C: it tells me that everything will be erased, yes all well and good. I enter yes and then it tells me that another process is using the hard drive and cannot format. It tells me that I can disconnect the handle or something like that and I again enter yes. It then tells me that It can't disconnect. What the hell? It doesn't even work from Dos? When I tried to run a XP home edition from Boot, it getts hung up on Kernel debugging DLL...Then I have to restart. Anyone have answers. I just want to wipe the drive, format in fat 32 and install win 98.I am going to take the video card, audio card, HD and CD-ROM and throw it all onto a motherboard I have from my old computer: Celeron 1.1GHZ processor, 256 SD PC-133 RAM.
View 8 Replies View RelatedDBAN will wipe drives, but won't allow me to leave teh recovery partition.I want to keep the FAT32 recovery partition intact.
View 11 Replies View RelatedI'm currently in an architectural design class and it's getting to the time where my teacher likes to get a clean start on the next year computer-wise. Now he always just uninstalls select things and then reinstalls the better versions the next year. Now I was thinking, since these computers are a few years old, he should just format them entirely, speeding them up greatly and clearing out any old problems. And this is where the problem comes in, he wants to save past student's files and I can't think of a way to do this after doing a wipe leaving out the option of backing them up on a seperate drive.
View 4 Replies View RelatedI just installed Windows XP Professional over Windows 2000 Professional but I would like to completely wipe my hard drive and just have Windows XP installed. Does anyone know of a program I can use to totally erase my hard drive and start overwith a clean drive? I used to use a FAT32 format but this computer uses NTFS.
View 14 Replies View RelatedI am currently running xp home and i am having major problems...i want to start all over and reinstall from scratch. When I get to setup it tells me that setup cannot continue because the version currently on my computer is newer than what I want to install (which is odd, it's the same program as far as I can tell!!) I want to do it anyway but when I try to boot from the cd...it doesnt seem to work.
View 14 Replies View Relatedreinstalling win 2000 on a laptop. In the past when I have needed to wipe an installation, I have just pulled the drive and put it into another of my machines to clean the hard drive to start all over and proceed that way. That being said, I have never done one with a laptop. I have a laptop that an aunt asked me to wipe. She does not remember the login password.
View 1 Replies View Relatedit came with 2000 and want to load XP. I loaded xp and it now has both on hard drive. it is a dell besides. If I reformat the hard drive, it will wipe out the drivers. I tried all I can think of to rid this computer of 2000, but it won't let me. I am considering reformatting and load only xp but not sure about drivers for a dell lap top. Are they the same as for a desktop?
View 14 Replies View RelatedI have PC which has Windows XP media Center 2005 edition, which I have a key for but I need to wipe it and reload it. However I don't have a disk for this but I do have one for XP home edition one, would this key be compatible?
View 14 Replies View RelatedI want to wipe the harddrive of my HP Pavilion desktop and start from scratch. However, I have moved since I purchased it many years ago and I don't have any of the original disks.Is there any way to access a function in the harddrive to wipe what's there and just re-install what it came with at purchase? And will it be able to connect to the internet to get drivers, etc.? Sorry if this is a question that has been asked before... I am semi-literate when it comes to computers but I have never done a complete reinstall without the original disks that came with the system.
View 6 Replies View RelatedAnyone who remembers my posts knows that I have been having all kinds of problems with my Win XP Home for at least three months now. Most of it has been my fault, as I don't do my research and get advice from experts like this forum before I barge ahead and pretend like I know more than I do. I'm on a Sony VAIO, almost 5 years old. It has 80 GBs and 700+ RAM and another 512 chip waiting to be installed (I want to fix these other issues first). I don't have any kind of original XP CD, which has caused many problems, because my computer came loaded with the OS. I just have restore disks which take me back to 2002. I have decided to wipe my hard drive and install my Dad's XP Pro, which is also 2002. At least I'd have the installation disk. He has permission to use it on multiple computers. I plan to get all of the updates for it from Microsoft once it is installed - is that a problem? I will not upgrade IE6 to IE7.
View 7 Replies View RelatedJust was given a Dell Dimension L1100R with xp pro installed and a ton of the previous owners files and programs. It came with no installation CD so I am unable to reinstall. Is there any way to wipe all the personal files and programs without deleting XP and the drivers? I already have a dell dimension 8250 with an xp home disc but it won't install over pro.
View 10 Replies View Relatedas some of you may or may not know.. i have had some ( ok ok alot ) of problems with my computer since the hydro kept flickering on and off a few weeks ago.. well my saga continues.. I decided to say screw it and reformat. well it wont reformat properly it wont totally wipe the c drive.. it will delete and or reformat the d drive partition.. but when i come back c drive still has all the program files etc.. i have tried to do it through system restore and type in reformat c: /fsintfs and that wont wipe it either.
View 8 Replies View RelatedI have an HP dv1000 laptop that came with XP Home and am looking for ideas on how I can get the drivers out of it before I wipe it and install XP Pro.I haven't done one of these in a while and at least I know for sure that the drivers for laptops must be similar or the same as the original. The system may work with generic drivers, but is there an easier way than to update the drivers one by one?
View 12 Replies View RelatedMy laptop is an hp pavillion dv4000 version 2002(w/SP3), and I got it almost 3-4 years ago. It has, as expected, gotten slow over the years. But now, it's EXTREMELY slow. As in, it takes like 10 minutes to start up. It takes several minutes for my internet browser to pop up. Doing more than one thing at once is impossible. And I constantly have "Virtual Memory Minimum Too Low" popping up...from doing even the simplest tasks on it.
I really like this laptop and don't want to purchase a new one. I want to completely wipe off everything from the laptop and then reinstall windows XP so that I can start afresh. Problem is, I don't have the CD, my laptop never came with it. The manual says it already came with the recovery feature pre-installed.
what is procedure and commands to wipe all data from harddrive? the currently installed os is windows 2000. its so badly infected with trojans( thanks kids!) that i am going to start anew and put better access limits on it.(take that guys). already have downloaded all data i want to keep and will be scanning it( before installing) with avast and other goodies i've downloaded.
View 1 Replies View RelatedMy brother recently bought a new HP desktop PC so he wants to sell his old laptop (Compaq Presario 700, Windows XP Home Edition) and we both agreed we should do a full restore to completely wipe the hard drive clean to it's original slate and we have the original Compaq ''QuickRestore'' discs and for whatever reason, they're not working. There is three CD's and not a single scratch or mark on any of them. I've tried to run all three on the laptop and the only thing that happens is that the folder containing the discs files on it is what pops up and no actual setup occurs like it says on the little piece of paper that comes with the CD's.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI was running XP professional but got hacked or a virus and did a complete hard drive wipe out and then installed XP home. Now it does not find, or is having a conflict with, my ethernet controller, audio device, system management bus and VGA. I can probably download updated drivers for the other things if I can get it to load a driver for the ethernet, but since I can't, I am pretty well screwed. I would appreciate any help from anyone who is at all familiar with the Dell Dimension 2400.
View 14 Replies View RelatedI have been looking at image recovery programs to see what can be extracted from the free space after all the cleaning operations have been implemented. Having seen the amount of information that can be recovered I will no longer empty the Recycle Bin without shredding the contents, but it seems that an enormous amount of information is still being collected which the normal individual is unaware of.
View 3 Replies View Related A few days ago when he switched on his pc he got a message that said that his windows was not genuine and that he was the victim of Software piracy. There is a link on the page to a site that says it is a microsoft site and that he must buy a licence from microsoft to make his software geniune.
The software he uses is a geniune microsoft XP disk. It is however old because none of the service packs is installed and it must be installed seperately.
I am using an HP Pavilion / Pentium 4 HT / WinXP Pro SP2 / 1 GB RAM / 200 GB HD desktop with no problems at all.
I used DBAN (Boot and Nuke) to wipe my data clean in hopes of reinstalling WinXP fresh. This morning while trying to reinstall Windows XP Pro SP2 I ran into several problems:
The copy I paid for was not recognized as a full version.
A backup copy I had borrowed from a friend was recognized and successfully allowed me to format my HD. However, while installing the OS, after getting to about 80% of the files copied it started saying it couldn't find certain files.
I had to swap copies of the WinXP discs several times and Retry to get all of the windows files copied.
Before getting to that, I formatted my HD using NFTS full which was successful. After finally getting all the Windows files copied, the system performed the initial reboot, and after the Windows XP black logo screen I got the BSOD stop error:
"Process1_Initialization_Failure"
I do not have Norton GoBack installed and have never had any issues with this computer at all so I don't see how it could be a HD, Memory or CDROM issue.
Do I need a new copy of WinXP Pro?
I have XP pro on my computer that is not genuine. I have a legit copy of XP 64 bit.
Is there a way I can install my copy over top the existing one to solve my problem? Will it prompt me for a new key and I'll be good to go?
