Starting from scratch!

[DEATH]

I have an Acer lap top with Windows xp home Edition! My girlfriends kids have
been on it (who are now longer aloud to touch it )...and there have been
numerous viruses and other stuff put on and taken off of this lap top. To
make me feel better and have a sense of security I would like to completely
wipe out everything from this lap top and start from the very begining. I
don't have anything that I will miss if I do this! When my brother did all
this for me he made 4 back up disks! I still have those. So am I to asume
that those disk will put everything back in after it has all been removed?
How do I go about completely wiping out my computer and starting from the
very begining? Thank you very much for any help that can be given. DEATH....

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

When you run the XP setup cd, it allows you to refuse to 'repair' the
installed system, and do a new install. This will 're-partition' the chosen
partition, removing all data.
As to those 4 disks made by your brother. One possibility is that he created
a "Automated System Recovery" set. if you read the screen during an install
(from a boot to the setup CD), you will see the opportunity to do this "ASR"
and it will allow you to use the disks to recover your system.
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Mark L. Ferguson
..

 

[Ridge Runner]

Allowed not Aloud

 

[neil]

The Acer should have recovery software that you can access from the desktop
or start menu. Or at least my Acer has.
Neil