Restore to Factory Settings

[Guest]

Is it a big job and a big risk to restore my pc back to factory settings? I
have saved everything I want on an external harddrive and wanted to
completely clean-out my pc by restoring it to factory settings. I have the
restore disks. Do you think its worth doing or is it just a pain in the arse?
Please help!

 

[Og]

Risk: nothing is risk free.
There is a remote possibility that one of your Restore Disks is damaged or
got munged at the factory. In that case, you are dead in the water until you
can obtain a replacement set from the manufacturer of your computer.
There is a remote possibility that your CD (/DVD) drive will fail right in
the middle of the restore.

Are you considering restoring to factory settings as a method of fixing a
problem, or as a learning experience?
If you have a problem, the folks in this newsgroup can assist you in
troubleshooting it and (usually) devise a solution.

If you are looking for a learning experience, here are my suggestions:
1. Run the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to back up your settings.
2. You will lose all patches to the Operating System and to Application
Software that you have accumulated since you got your computer. You will
have to obtain those all over again. If you have a high-speed connection,
not a big problem, but if you have dial-up, expect to camp out in front of
your computer for a few days.
3. Have fun.

Steve