Formatting my notebook

Hello,

I've had my notebook for well over a year and a half now and I've decided to format it, I've backed all my important data and now I'm just wondering what I should do.

I have all the original CDs that came with my notebook but if I install that it will fill my notebook with all that unnecessary software correct? I would just like to install Windows XP Professional clean onto it, I have the CD-Key under the notebook but it didn't come with an installation CD so what do I do now?

I didn't know where to post this, in the Asus section or here.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

cool

back up ALL ur drivers . they r some free tools out there to help u doing this

borrow someone else's XP Pro disk and use it with ur key

cheers ...

 

Does your notebook come with a recovery partition?

If you don't have a recovery partition or the Windows CD then we have a problem. You need to find one or else you just can't install XP.

Once you have a CD, formatting is pretty easy. You just put the CD in the CD-ROM drive and restart your computer. You'll get the option to format your hard drive there. Once that's done you reinstall Windows XP (simple step by step instructions) and that's all.
As for the drivers, you can either install them from the CDs you have or download them from the Internet (you'll get newer versions from the Internet). Also run a few Windows Update to get your computer up to date.
Then you just reinstall the programs you want and put your personal stuff back on the notebook, that's all there is to it.

The process is pretty simple, you just need to find a Windows XP CD. If you have a friend you can use theirs (as long as it's no an OEM version).

 

I have the CD, I'm just backing some data at the moment so I'll put the CD in and run it soon. I hope it shouldn't be too hard, I have a few bookmarks and such in Firefox is there a way where I can save them all to a USB or something?

 

Oh so you have the CD for Windows XP? Well this won't be a problem then.

As for the bookmarks, they are in a folder. I'm not familiar with FireFox so I can't tell you the exact path. Just go under you C drive and find your firefox folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox
Or something similar to that. There should be a folder in there for your bookmarks. You just need to copy that folder on a USB drive or a CD/DVD.

Here are some instructions I found:

 

Alternatively, to save bookmarks, just go to firefox>Bookmarks>Manage Bookmarks>Export (best on desktop). I normally email my bookmarks to myself so I have regular copies available (without having to burn disks which I always lose).

 

I didn't know you could do that.
That seems like a much easier way of doing it.

 

Thanks for all the tips first time formatting ever so I'm a bit new, my son normally does it all for me. What do I need to know about programs that can save my drivers?

 

I myself don't backup any of my drivers when I format (except my wireless card drivers).
Once I have Windows installed, I install my wireless card and I download all the other drivers.
If you don't feel comfortable doing that, then backup your drivers before you format. I've never used any program to do this so I can't recommend any (I'm sure someone else can). A quick google search gave me this, you can try that or wait for someone else.