Using Windows disc to clear computer?

[learntojive]

Our family computer is quite old and is full of rubbish and very slow. It's quite a good machine so I'm reluctant to part with it but our local pc shop want £80 to 'format and wipe' it.
I'm sure I've heard that you can put it back to factory settings by putting your windows disc in and do it that way, does anyone know if you can and how to do it?
There's a few pictures and documents that I can back up but everything else can go.

[VHG]

You can only put it back top "factory settings" if the company who sold you the PC built in a facility to do that, either with a "factory" image on the hard disk, or a factory CD that came with the computer. Check the books that came with your PC.

A factory image usually includes a pre-built Windows with all drivers, extra software and so on already installed.

If you just put the Windows disk in (assuming it is a standard Windows disk) then this will just do a Windows install and you will then need to install drivers on top of that, then all the Windows updates, then all the extra software like flash, shockwave, anti virus etc.

I rebuild my computer every so often by reinstalling Windows and to do a full install of Windows, then put everything else "on top" can take me all day.

[learntojive]

Thanks very much VHG.
I have the windows disc that came with the computer and also there's another disc that says drivers and utilities so I presume if I put that in after the windows one it should take it back to how it as when I bought it?
When I put the windows disc in will it ask me if I want to overwrite everything, is it quite self explanatory?
Thanks again for your advice

[MarkRae]

Self-explanatory? Depends on your perspective, I suppose - however, re-installing Windows is simple enough...

You don't say what version of Windows you have, so I'm assuming it's XP or Vista. So, disconnect from the Internet and then do this:

1) Put the Windows CD in the optical drive and reboot - the machine should boot from the CD.

2) Assuming it does, it should begin the installation process. After asking you some very basic questions, it will then ask you where you want to install Windows, and will present you with a list of possible places.

3) This list should include the location of your existing installation of Windows. Since you want to completely trash and rebuild the machine, you now need to delete the existing installation. How you do that will depend slightly on the version of Windows, but it should be obvious enough.

4) Once you've deleted the existing installation, tell the setup that you want to install Windows on the blank partition.

5) Thereafter, follow the instructions.

6) Once you've reinstalled Windows, you may need to use the other (driver) CD. Go into Control Panel \ System \ Device Manager and look for any devices which are not set up correctly - this will be shown as a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in it.

7) Right-click any such devices and select Update or Update driver software. When prompted where to find the drivers, put the driver CD into the optical drive and select it.

8) Install your anti-malare software.

9) Reconnect to the Internet and do a complete Windows update.

10) Update your anti-malware software