The slowest computer on earth

[Priesty]

I have a computer that is painfully slow to the point of hardly working. I bought it with XP pre-installed, but with no disk supplied. I have nothing on here that I want to keep, so I was just thinking of wiping it and starting again. How do I reformat my computer? and would the pre-installed XP stay on there, or would i need to buy a new operating system?

[vehelpfulguy]

Your computer may be slow because it is not powerful enough to run Windows XP (a computer needs to be more powerful to run XP than older versions of Windows like ME, 98 etc)

Try to find an option called Sytem Information on the start menu (it may be under System Tools) and tell use the following information:

Processor

Total Physical Memory

That will help us define it is is powerful enough to run XP.

[vehelpfulguy]

And to answer your questions, if you reformat you will lose Windows and ALL the other programs on it.

You would need to buy a CD of Windows XP that would cost between 60 and 100 pounds.

[trevHCS]

They should have provided you with something to reinstall XP, even if it's a recovery disk. Sure it's legit, as in they didn't install the same copy on 20 computers and only pay for one?

I'd ask whoever you got it from for the installation disks.

[Ethel]

Have you done 'basic maintenance'?

Deleted cookies, temporary files, browser history.
Defragmented hard drives.
Run anti-sypware programmes (at least 3) - ewido, Ad-Aware, a squared are example of good free utilities.
Have a good firewall up and running.

How much free space do you have on the hard disk?

Sorry to be presumptious but failure to do any of the above can slow you down to a crawl.

Reformatting your system could be an unnecessary, hugely expensive mistake.

[Nemesis9]

By definition (assuming the PC was new when you bought it and haven't upgraded to XP yourself), it should be powerful enough to run the XP operating system. It sounds like a corruption of the registry or operating system, or possibly conflicting programs. If it didn't come with a recovery disc, it will no doubt have a copy of the operating system in a partition of the hard drive (common these days) which will reinstall a clean version of the operating system.

Alternatively use 'system restore' (found in 'all programs', 'accessories', under 'system tools', to reset your PC to an earlier point in time when it worked normally.

[ermadea]

Priesty, I agree with Nemesis9, my computer windows, bought new from PC World Jan 2006, came pre installed with windows xp, I had no installation disc, merely set up by using step by step guide from Packard Bell, I was informed the xp programme was on my hard disk, so I presume yours is the same, any system restore I do is always fine, as Ethel says regularly maintain your pc and you won't have many problems, you can't just use it constantly and do nothing by way of cleaning, clearing and maintenance, there are so many free programmes. You could always set your computer back to factory settings, so it will be like it was the day you bought it, but with no data you put on it there, but still with windows xp. good luck

[Priesty]

I bought it from Tiny, so it came with XP, the system restore will only go back about 3 months, which is no good for me. I want to restore it to factory settings, how do I go about doing that?

[Nemesis9]

If memory serves, the majority of Tiny computers came with a system recovery disc that can either be set to wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall XP and the programs tiny supplied you with, or, re-write the operating system back to it's original default settings, while leaving your data (and subsequently installed programs) intact. (not always wholly successful).
I suspect now that Tiny are defunct you may struggle to find someone within the organisation who can supply one.
If so, let me know as I have a Tiny disc that might work.