Trying to reinstall OS on Vista

[dem629]

I have a laptop that is about two years old. It's a Compaq C700. I'm getting a new laptop in a few weeks and I want to give this one to my cousin, but before I do that, I'd like to reinstall the OS and start from scratch when we turn it on the first time when I give it to her. They used to send out discs to do this, but now there's apparently some kind of other method that doesn't require discs.

Any help would be appreciated.

(Yes, I am a novice here!)

[hobbit709]

1. There should be a restore partition on it.

But if you never made the backup disks when you first got it, there might be a problem.

[dem629]

3. Thanks. No, I didn't make a backup disc. Maybe I shouldn't do this. Hmmm.

[CK_John]

2. Usually Fn 11 or Fn 10 will get you to the restore partition during bootup else

this link will help get a restore disc from CompaQ.


<http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00810334&tmp_track_link=ot_recdoc/c01673043/en_us/c00810334/loc:3&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3559331>

[dem629]

4. Thanks. That site seems to be saying that if the Recovery comes up after F11

then I don't need a disc. That's how I read it anyway. Maybe I'll give it a try (after the new laptop gets here) and if it screws up I'll order the disc.