Restoring an Old Computer

I recently took the old EMachine Desktop from the down stairs in my house (a good 8+ years old computer), and I opened it up, cleaned it out, and set it up on my desk.

It has Windows XP on it, and it runs EXTREMELY slow. I wanted to put in the Restore CD, and restore it back to the state in which it came in the box, but....I do not have the restore CD, nor do I have a Windows XP CD.

My question is, is there ANY way I can restore this computer to it's original state, without having to go out, and buy an XP CD, and re-install all the drivers?

I personally don't think I can, but there may be a way I am not thinking of.

Any input is appreciated.


P.S: And please, no mentioning of illegal download's of any kind, because it is against Forum rules, and it's also a naughty naughty thing to do.

 

hmm i don't think so its possible unless you have hidden recovery partition or you have OS Imaged

 

Oh don't I wish! That's what surprised me, that it did not come with a recovery partition.

Is it odd it didn't come with one, since it's an old computer? Do they even still do that in new computers?

 

Anyone else know if it's possible?

 

I think you're best bet is to try your best to clean up the existing instillation of XP. Just use things like CCleaner, and Ausologic Defrag, uninstalling unessicarry programs, stop unwanted start-up programs from running automatically by going into services.

 

Maybe even put Xubuntu on it?
It'd probably run faster then Windows will.
but if you'd like to keep Windows, just clean it up, remove a lot of crap(using Revo Uninstaller + CCleaner), defragment (JKdefrag GUI), maybe add more RAM as well.

 

Not really, back then companies weren't trying to cut corners whenever possible. My Pavilion desktop from 99 still has Windows 98 Recovery Disks, although in typical HP fashion, it's bloated as hell.

On newer machines (i'd say about 2002 +) they began the whole recovery partition thing, prompting people to burn their own disks upon first boot. It's only recently (last couple years) that some PC makers give out Windows and Drivers disks.

 

Ahh ok, Thanks for the info.

That was my main idea, to clean up this computer, instead of putting money into it. I will only use it to browse the Internet, and watch movies on when I am playing games or something on my laptop.

Thanks for the help guys, I will try and clean this computer up as best as I can, and see if I can't get it to work at decent speed.