Formatting Laptop Without Recovery Discs?
If I format my Compaq Presario R4225CA, will my CDROM work, allowing me to reinstall windows? I’ve formatted desktops before but always had a 3.5 floppy drive to put DOS, CD drivers, etc. back on. Are laptops wired differently and CDROM will still work after formatting?
Incase your wondering, I can’t find recovery discs, F11 during boot up doesn’t work, and virus prevents me from restoring to earlier point in time, and seeing if I can get away with not paying for replacement discs.
February, 9th 2010 at 4:47 pm
Hi Drofnats,
If you want to format the hard drive on your computer there are utilities out there that can do such a thing. Personally, I recommend using a program called Kill Disk (http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm… or using DBAN (Deriks Boot And Nuke http://www.dban.org/download).
Both of these programs will completely erase your hard drive to DoD standards.
here is the issue I see. If you format the drive and do not have a copy of the recovery discs, what Operating system will you install? Obviously, when you format the hard drive, everything is erased.
To answer the question, yes the CD ROM drive will function if you format the drive. You will be able to use it to boot from to install or run any bootable disc.
Good Luck!
February, 9th 2010 at 5:36 pm
Yes the cd drive should still work and allow you to setup your operating system from there if you have a cd.
First i would suggest downloading a free antivirus an spyware programme from a different computer, save the programmes to a cd or usb and try installing them to your pc. If that works, it will save you a whole bunch of time.
February, 9th 2010 at 7:23 pm
Yes the optical drive will still work after reformatting. But if you have no recovery disks, that seems to be a moot point. If you have vanilla windows install disks, just use those, and use the key that should be on the bottom of the computer (laptop)
Good Luck
HTH
February, 10th 2010 at 2:12 am
Order the recovery disc made for the lap top by model and serial number and save your self a lot of time and head aches.
Been there, done that.
February, 10th 2010 at 5:29 am
Hello,
I suggest using http://dlpro.antivir.com/package/rescue_… @ http://www.avira.com/en/support/support_…
February, 10th 2010 at 8:32 am
try F10