If someone could tell me how I can wipe everything off my laptop and only install Windows XP or Vista I would be in great debt to them.. LOL! I am selling my laptop to a friend and I told her I would find everything out I could on getting rid of everything so she could start with it like new. Can I back up my Windows program and then install it on hers? I don't know the answeres to many questions... someone please help!
It is a Dell Latitude 630. Thank You!

Best way is to dig out your recovery disc and throw that through it.
If it's a newer Dell there's normally a hidden recovery partition that's accessible from Boot up that will do the same job.

Best way is to dig out your recovery disc and throw that through it.
if it's a newer Dell there's normally a hidden recovery partition that's accessible from Boot up that will do the same job.

Ok, I wish it was that easy... We are having a house built and until it's ready we are in an apt. All my stuff is in storage until around April. Soooooo I don't know how to do the other thing so please explain further. It's about a year old I guess. Thanks

In that case it will most likely have a recovery partition.
Pay attention to what it says when you boot up.
Normally it's one of the F keys to access this feature.

If you have access to an xp or vista disc, choose appropriate link for you

How to Format Drive and Install Windows from Scratch

XP
Geek to Live: How to format your hard drive and install Windows XP from scratch (http://lifehacker.com/software/windows/geek-to-live-how-to-format-your-hard-drive-and-install-windows-xp-from-scratch-157578.php)


Installing Windows Vista
Installing Windows Vista - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki (http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/G/Installing+Windows+Vista)

For the most part, the first link will be all you need

With it being around a year old there's a good chance it has a frecovery partition like CurlyBen said. Go into you're my computer and look at how many disks are showing. One should be your C: or local drive the other your d: (or something similar) drive, it should also say Recovery! If you do notice that it has a recovery partition follow Curlybens instructions if not follow Seahawks and try to find your recovery disks.

Hope this helps!


P.S. Remember if you have a Recovery Partition you will NOT have recovery discs. If you don't have a recovery partition on your laptop then you will have been given discs with purchase. This is all unless your discs were lost or your recovery partition deleted.

Keep Us Updated!

If there is a recovery partition, more than likely it is hidden and usually to get to the recovery partition, there would be a key combo on boot that would allow you to recover back to factory settings

Like Acer, on bootup screen you would have to hit Alt+F10 to start the recovery process and this is on a hidden drive for the users safety as not to allow them to view the drive in explorer

Here are 2 links that may help
Dell - Technical Support (http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/document?c=us&l=en&s=gen&docid=3E48AE3870775D64E040A68F5B2877D4)

Dell - Support (http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=us&docid=58E26A65A4388E4FE040AE0AB7E107E3&l=en&s=gen)

You guys are very quick with the info, thank you very much!
As soon as I have time to get to this I will give an update.

So what exactly do you want to do? Do you want to put the system at it's original state lik it was when it was purchased. You had like 5 questions in one.

What is your current OS?
Do you have a recovery partition?
Recovery Discs?

To transfer applications from your pC to another look into the Windows Easy Transfer tool!

Reply to the questions above and we can go from there.

So what exactly do you want to do? Do you want to put the system at it's original state lik it was when it was purchased. You had like 5 questions in one.

What is your current OS?
Do you have a recovery partition?
Recovery Discs?

To transfer applications from your pC to another look into the Windows Easy Transfer tool!

Reply to the questions above and we can go from there.





Ok, I don't know what I do or don't have for this laptop because it's all in storage at the moment and impossible for me to get to. I don't know what a recovery partition is exactly other than what I've been told on here. This is what I want to do. I want to sell it to a friend but she wants it wiped clean, but of course she wants to be able to use it; so I guess Windows would need to be set up again. I figured If someone could give me some step by steps I can do it myself... that's when you terrifically great strangers come in! :)

Here's the thing we need to know though, you can run a recovery system through it, whether it's cd's or through the partition. We need to know if you have either of these two.

Since you cannot check to see if you have the Cd's ceck to see if you have a recovery partition. ( if it's around a year old then you should have a recovery partition)

Go to my post above to see if you do! If you do then you must access your Boot Manager at startup to boot from the recovery partition!

Let me know if you have a rcovery partition!

Well it fairly easy you just starth the computer from the instalstion cd of the new desired oprating system and when you get to the partichen part delete the old partichen create a new one and format the drive then you should have wiped everything from the hard drive and installed a new operating system

Try this then if you have no other CDs: Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe (http://www.dban.org/)
Until you find your Windows CD for an OS reinstall.