[Panmureboy]

I've inherited a Packard Bell 5106 from my daughter. It is full of files and folders that she has already archived to her laptop and a stand alone hard disk. The machine runs very slowly and none of the files are needed.

I want to run the Recovery Program to restore the original settings.

I've followed the instructions which call for turning the machine on with the recovery disk in the floppy drive.

However, it just whizzes past the floppy disc and Windows XP is set up.

The last advice I followed was to turn the machine on and immediately press F11 to get into BIOS. Although that didn't work, a prompt which suggested F2 DID work and I reached BIOS.

I'd been told to reset the commands to look for Floppy Drive before Hard Drive but the BIOS options didn't seem to cater for that and I am stuck again.

Any suggestions to move me on from where I've got to?

Am I going down the right path or should I be doing something else entirely as all I actually want is a fresh start?

[etaf]

most desktops used to boot the floppy first if you had a bootable disk installed in the floppy, if not you got a message to remove the floppy

what operating system is it -
windows 98
XP

Also you may have some recovery CDs - these are what you may want if XP

[Panmureboy]

Thanks.

It's Windows XP.

And we're almost certain that there were no CDs supplied.

The guy in PC World and the guy on the helpline both seemed to think no CDs were involved. The helpline guy was at a loss. The guy in the shop recommended a Google search for instructions on how no navigate BIOS but the machine is 8 years old and neither was too comfortable with the queery.

[etaf]

8 year old machine, usually had CDs supplied
its possible there is a partition on the drive with the recovery,
not sure how to access it
HP machines you hit F10 as it booted and then a menu appeared where you could go back to factory configuration,
I'll need to look that up on the website if possible

[etaf]

have a look here
http://support.packardbell.com/uk/it...ppn=P480401401

apparently this will create a recovery CD

[Panmureboy]

Thanks again.

I do seem to have downloaded the program and created a CD.

Trouble is, when I turn on the PC, it just loads Windows.

Do you think the problem might be in BIOS itself?

I'm learning as I go on this but I now, I think, begin to understand a little better what I see in BIOS. It says

Primary IDE Master USER
Primary IDE Slave Not Installed
Secondary IDE Master CDROM
Secondary IDE Slave CDROM

Do those settings sound right?

[etaf]

you need to look in the bios for Boot Order , it may be on a different screen, you can scroll through different screens
so you can change the order so the CD boots first, rather than the Harddrive

I suspect the order maybbe
Floppy
Harddrive
CD

you need to swap the CD and Harddrive around

[Panmureboy]

The order was
Primary IDE Master USER
Primary IDE Slave Not Installed
Secondary IDE Master CD ROM
Secondary IDE Slave CD Rom

After a lot of fiddling, I actually got it to read the floppy disc.

Sadly, after doing about 90 seconds worth of loading, I got

Error 7 No Hard Drive!!!
n\wait2.ico
OK (as button)

and when I entered

Error 7 No Hard Drive!!!
Computer Incorrectly Configured
Contact Technical Support
OK (as button)

and when I entered

Exit from OEMSETUP
C:\>_

Any suggestions welcome.

[Leec65]

With the Packard Bell Recovery Program you can restore the computer to its original state as when you acquired it. At the same time, it offers you the possibility to maintain the current configuration and personal data. This recovery process does not require any CD and it only takes approximately 10 minutes. You can start this process by pressing <F11> at start-up, or by clicking the appropriate icon in SmartRestore. Please refer to the chapter on Recovery in your User's Guide.

this is not the boot order

Primary IDE Master USER
Primary IDE Slave Not Installed
Secondary IDE Master CD ROM
Secondary IDE Slave CD Rom

look for something that said first boot or boot order, also the error you got means that it is trying to boot to a non bootable disk

[Panmureboy]

I'm afraid that no amount of pressing F11 during start up had an effect at all.

I went to the Users Guide chapter on SmartRestore. It says start it from Windows by clicking on Start, select Programs, Tools, and click on SmartRestore. I can manage START(!) but there is no PROGRAMS. There is ALL PROGRAMS but that does not offer a TOOLS.

A search of HELP AND SUPPORT offers NO RESULTS for SMARTRESTORE.

THis is a Packard Bell I MEDIA 5106 and the User's Guide looks generic.

Help.

[etaf]

control panel
administrator tools
computer management
disk management

post back how many drives and what they are called

If you cannot get to recover the PC to original condition, it may be worth just going through and cleaning up manually

Remove all unwanted programs from Control Panel - add/remove programs
Delete any unwanted documents - in my documents
open internet explorer , tools, Internet options, and delete - all temp files, cookies, history
Start, all programs, accessories, system tools, disk cleanup
the we need to remove all unwanted startups - this can be quite time consuming
Start, run, msconfig, startup tab
Now you need to look up each entry against a reference website - http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php
scroll down until you find

provided is to be accurate. If that is the case I would suggest you download either the Full-list ZIP, Start_ups.exe or Excel ZIP files which will bypass the filtering.

•All items - on-line database displaying all programs, recommendations and descriptions
•Full-list ZIP -...................etc

open the full-list zip and run the startup file
Then search through for each entry in msconfig - this site will tell you what the files are used for and if needed

-------
If still bery slow also you can do a clean boot
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796

[Panmureboy]

Many thanks. I found "disk management" and there are two rows of information there.

The headings are Volume, Layout, Type, File System, Status and Capacity.

Row 1 has a symbol and a grey oblong, Partition, Basic, Blank, Healthy (unknown partition) and 1.95 GB.

Row 2 has the same symbol and HDD(C under volume, and then Partition, Basic, NTFS, Healthy (System) and 35.31 GB.

Does that help?

I've started simply deleting stuff too to see if that helps.

[etaf]

Row 1 has a symbol and a grey oblong, Partition, Basic, Blank, Healthy (unknown partition) and 1.95 GB.

Well that seems like a hidden partition - Not sure if the size is enough would expect a larger size

there are quite a few ways to access that partition - depending on manufacturer
Leec65 - suggested F11
other manufacturers use
F8, F10, F11, some also use a combination of Alt + F key
do you have a manual for the PC - I cant seem to find one online ?? to see if it indicates in there

otherwise you are going to clean up manually as posted

[Panmureboy]

I do have a manual but it doesn't cover partitions and I'm sure I've absorbed all there is in there on restoring the original settings.

I have had some success through cleaning up manually. I'll settle for that.

Many thanks for the help and assistance. I'm genuinely impressed. Alan

[etaf]

I do have a manual but it doesn't cover partitions

the manual should tell you how to reset to factory condition, and have the Alt F11 or just F11 documented in the manual