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How to reformat my pc from master discs

menzies39

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Posted April 20, 2011 at 4:43PM

I have a Packard Bell pc which is about 6 years old and is running really slowly, I've bought a laptop for myself but I want to keep the desktop for my son to use, I have 4 master discs which I created when I originally got the pc, the disc drive on the desk top is not working so I've got an external disc drive, can I reformat the pc using the external disc drive, if so how do I do this? Thanks in advance Angie

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spuds

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Posted April 20, 2011 at 7:59PM

It should work, depending on the master disks that you created. Were these taken from a partition on the computer hard-drive?.

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menzies39

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Posted April 20, 2011 at 8:22PM

I have no idea, when I 1st booted the pc up it told me to create these discs so I did but it was 6 years ago so I can't remember exactly what I did. The Packard Bell techs told me that these discs will 'make my pc brand new' but wanted me to phone them on a premium number to talk me through it.

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Jollyjohn

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Posted April 21, 2011 at 12:53PM

The discs you have created will restore your computer to new. All your personal data will be wiped in the process so ensure you have all the stuff you want off the old computer before you start.

Please confirm which disc drive is not working, cd/dvd drive or the internal hard drive?

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onthelimit1

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Posted April 22, 2011 at 8:45AM

As it's working (albeit slowly) I assume the HDD is OK. On start up, tap F2 repeatedly to get into the BIOS. There you need to change the boot order to boot from USB device first. Insert Disk 1 and reboot. Computer should now start to load the recovery programme from the external drive.

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onthelimit1

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Posted April 22, 2011 at 8:58AM

Sorry, should added 'I think' after F2.

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