Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2015 July 19

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July 19

Will wiping a desktop that can't start up Windows 7 solve the problem?

I've got the recovery disk, I can reach the BIOS page, the only thing that happens is the desktop can't actually start up Windows 7 in any way. I'm prepared to completely wipe the desktop, factory reset the desktop, etc... anything to get it to be a working computer again. But nothing I try seems to work. --Aabicus (talk) 22:34, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

Is the hard disk working at all? It is worth trying to wipe and reinstall if nothing else works. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 22:37, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

The original wasn't, I installed one from another computer and that's how I got it to reach this far. I think the hard disk is working, I'm just worried I might be doing it wrong. Is there a guide online for wiping a computer from the BIOS page, or from outside the OS? --Aabicus (talk) 22:41, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

Usually it's just a matter of booting from the recovery disk. Do you know how to do that? It's usually as easy as putting the disk in and turning the laptop on, if there's a prompt that says "boot from CD?" hit Y or which ever key confirms you want to boot from CD. If it doesn't boot from CD or even give you the option then there might be a BIOS setting which sets the boot order, you need to make sure CD/DVD is above the hard disk in the boot order. Vespine (talk) 00:03, 20 July 2015 (UTC)

Unfortunately I've already tried that. I'll give it one more go, making sure the CD is above the hard drive. Then I guess I've got to call it a day. --Aabicus (talk) 18:44, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

If you have a recovery disk, you can safely wipe the current window operating system that is not working properly, because the recovery disk contains the image of your original operating system.However, I will try to diagnose the computer first before perform any actions that involve formatting your system. You can log in safe mode by keep pressing F8 when your computer boot up and check if there is any pre-built recover image or uninstall any conflicting software may cause the system to stop working. Beside that there are several options you can do, Either repair the window operation system with recovery disk, or format the old window and re-install the image you had on your recovery disk. This is a tricky steps if you have a laptop, since each laptop has their own boot key, usually F11, F12, F8, or ESC if you own an ASUS laptop. When you successfully boot into recovery mode, you can able to format and re-install your original operating system Daoquang1 (talk) 00:53, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

Can the computer boot and run off one of the various Linux live CDs? Whether it does or doesn't, this may be informative. (And if it does, you might even wish to install the flavor of Linux permanently.) -- Hoary (talk) 01:14, 24 July 2015 (UTC)