CNC in the Workshop
Recovery
If you’ve acquired an older desktop running, say, XP you may have found that it has been set up in a non-standard way (that’s a kind way of saying it has been severely hacked about by someone who has not had a clue what they were doing).
Technology is like that sometimes.
The best thing would be to return the machine to its original configuration and start from there.
This is sometimes possible.
Dealing with a non-standard setup on an older computer
Do you have the original installation disks?
If so, you are more or less home and dry.
You will need the original serial number.
Then you can re-instal your Operating System (OS) from those disks. If you are given the option of performing a “clean” instal, take that, but be aware you will lose all data and software, so you may wish to back this up by copying your data onto a memory stick or CD or DVD.
You will need the original installation disks for any software packages you want to put back on the computer, and the serial numbers or licences as well.
This is a bit of a pain, but that’s the way it is. I didn’t make the rules (and seldom abide by them anyway).
Does the machine have an intact Recovery partition?
If you don’t have the original installation disks, this may save your bacon. Most manufacturers put the Operating System on the drive, and a backup “recovery” area (a “partition”) on the hard drive so that you can use that to reinstate the original OS and core software at any time.
Do a search for something like:
“using a recovery partition in XP” or whatever suits your computer. There is lots of advice on how to do this.
A couple of useful items are at these links:
How to boot into a Recovery partition