• New here? Register here now for access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Plus, stay connected and follow BP on Instagram @buckeyeplanet and Facebook.

Computer help please...

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
jlb1705

jlb1705

hipster doofus
Bookie
OK, I bought a new laptop a few months ago, and I have been using it as my primary computer since then. I have continued to run my old computer, and have now decided that I'd like to reformat the thing and get it running better. I have a few problems though:

1st Mistake: I bought a floor model.
2nd Mistake: That floor model was an eMachine.
3rd Mistake: I never received a Restore CD, and never really thought of getting one until now.

Right now, I'm just looking for a way to be able to get this thing back to factory defaults. Every document worth a damn is backed up on my laptop - I just need to be able to get my drivers and OS back after I reformat. I've tried Googling for a solution, and I find nothing. I have contacted eMachines, and they told me that the CD is "free" but that it will cost me $20 to have it sent. (Why didn't they just say it previously cost $77 while they were at it?) Anyway, before I cave in and pay FedEx (yeah right) $20 for that CD, I figured I'd check here and see if anybody knows of any better options out there.

The make and model of my computer is eMachines T1120

Thanks.
 
What OS are you running? A big fat system restore could help but is definitely not the quality of a reformat...I know a few ways you could do this but they are all illegal so i'll keep thinking up new ideas for you
 
Upvote 0
Yeah not having SP2 on there is a pretty major prob. Well hell, tell you what I could do. Could just burn you a copy of XP, you can install it and use the key on your machine (Usually E-machine sticks it to the side of the case). Think that would be the easiest way to do it. Drivers are not a prob, you can get them right off e-machines website, or windows update would have most of them.
 
Upvote 0
Ok, I'm trying to get this done, the CD I made will autostart in windows, but it will autostart if I try to boot to CD. If I run the cd in windows, it saves temporary files to my hdd and will not let me delete that partition(my only partition). I have gone into BIOS, and my CD drive is set to boot first, with the HDD second and floppy drive third. I went to eMachines again for support (don't worry, I didn't pay for it or anything). Here's what they told me to do:

<table xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format" bordercolorlight="#808080" bordercolordark="#FFFFFF" border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" height="23" width="100%"> <tbody><tr><td class="entryTD">Hal says: Fdisk then Restore for Windows XP 1. Insert your eMachines Restore CD disk 1 of 2 or 1 of 3 into your primary CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/CD-R/W drive 2. Reboot your computer. 3. At the Start-up menu select "Boot to Command Prompt." 4. At the prompt type in FDISK (Please note: Proceeding with these steps will result in data loss) 5. You will receive a large notice and than it will ask you if you wish to enable large disk support. It should default to a "Y" answer. Press Enter. 6. Choose option 3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive. </td></tr> <tr><td class="timestampTD" valign="top"><nobr>22 Jul 2005 10:27:44 PM</nobr></td><td class="entryTD">Hal says: 7. Choose option 4. Delete Non-DOS Partition. 8. Select the partition you want to delete. You are typically going to delete partition 1 9. When prompted, "Are you sure (Y/N)," press Y and press Enter. 10. After you confirm the deletion, the program will then tell you that the Primary DOS partition is deleted. 11. Press the ESC key. 12. Press ESC to exit FDISK 13. Take CD out and restart computer, hold down control alt and hit delete twice, or hold down power button for 10 seconds. </td></tr> <tr><td class="timestampTD" valign="top"><nobr>22 Jul 2005 10:27:51 PM</nobr></td><td class="entryTD">Hal says: 14. Once to an error on the screen or attempting to boot into windows, put number 1 restore CD back in the top drive, and restart computer. WARNING! Make sure that there are no 3rd party hardware plugged into the system when attempting to restore the image on the hard drive. Example Printer, Camera, or Scanner</td></tr> <tr><td class="timestampTD" valign="top"><nobr>22 Jul 2005 10:27:57 PM</nobr></td><td class="entryTD">Hal says: 1. Please now choose option 1 Restore Windows XP 2. Follow the line of commands, to proceed 3. Once restoration has started you will be prompted to Insert Next Media, put disk 2 in and hit enter 4. Once completed with the restore process, it will go to 100%, it will then ask you to place CD in safe location, and press any key to reboot your system please follow the prompts.</td></tr></tbody> </table>
So, I tried to reboot in "Safe Mode with Command Prompt" When I get to cmd.exe, I enter in FDISK, and I receive the folling message:

'FDISK' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

This is where I'm stuck. Any help out there?
 
Upvote 0
They actually told you to fdisk? What a bunch of fucking morons they have working there.

but it will autostart if I try to boot to CD
Click to expand...
Not sure what you mean. If you put the cd in, fire up the machine, what happens exactly. It should boot from the cd, run through a few things, ask you to choose the drive to install to. Ask you to format the partition, then go from there.
 
Upvote 0
Well remembering that he has a laptop, with XP. Had him use that disk to format his desktop machine, use the key for the desktop, etc. etc. I had ripped him a copy of XP and sent it via AIM yesterday morning, but for some reason after he burned it, wouldnt boot from the disk. I am guessing when I ripped the image from my XP disk, it didnt take the boot record with it or something.
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top