How to Reset a Hard Drive

When a hard drive is on the fritz you have to take the hard road of resetting it. Your hard drive is the brains of your computer which stores all the information. Without it nothing can be done and your computer is completely worthless. All the information about Windows or other operating systems are also stored here, so the computer will not be able to start if the hard drive is gone. Be prepared by reading on to learn how to reset a hard drive.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Try to see if anything on your computer is working. If not then you have to reset your hard drive. Hopefully, you have saved all the information on discs or you will lose it all by resetting your hard drive. If the information is that important you might have to go to a computer specialist.

2. Continue with resetting if the information is not that important. Take the disc that came with the computer and insert it into the CD drive. It will prompt you to reset your hard drive. It might have different sayings for it so select what you want out of the list.

3. Select also whether the reset is from the original CD or from a backup disk. There are times if you have the backup disk that you may not want to take it to original form. Choosing to do it from the original disk will make your computer function similar to when it came in new.

4. Understand that if you say you have chosen from the original disk then it will proceed to first erase everything on your hard drive and reformat it for use. Then the hard drive will add all your files that make your computer work. It will also add programs that came when the computer was new.

5. Know that you still have to load all the programs that you put in separately. These programs will be loaded without all the files that you created after loading them.

6. Turn your computer off then and restart it. It should restart with the programs you have loaded in new condition. Check all the systems and programs to make sure they are working properly.

7. Choose the second option of restoring your hard drive from a backup CD, that way all your files saved till the last backup will be there for you to use. You will only lose the files from your last backup to the time the computer goes out. Just follow the directions on the screen and you will be able to get what you want.

Tips & Warnings

• Always follow the on-screen guide.
• Always keep your computer on at all times. Turning the computer off for any reason will make you redo everything from scratch.

[KellyAlmighty]

on 1/8/2009 I am in need of doing this with my computer..but i dont have the cd rom :( is there a way to do it to retail settings without it?