hello

[Mr_T]

Hi all new to the forum Sorry if this is in the wrong part of the forum.

I bought a second hand laptop yesterday, the person told me it was running on Vista. I've never heard of Vista before and some sites i go on (facebook amazon william hill) i seem to get problems or the computer runs slow. so i'm guessing Vista is maybe old and outdated.

Can someone tell me where if it's possible i can download or update to windows 8 from if that's the latest one?

Am not to clued up on computers. Thank you in advance.

 

[~mr mixx~]

check to see if your new laptop has a restore partition. If it does then you can just do a full system restore and restore the laptop back to factory settings and start fresh.

To do this, just click on round icon at the bottom left corner, and click on computer. If your computer has a restore partition it will say recovery on it. It will be on the D drive.

Also Welcome to CF, enjoy your stay with us here.

 

[Mr_T]

Hi thanks for the reply. How do i check if my laptop has a restore partition?

 

[~mr mixx~]

To do this, just click on start, then click computer, you should see your C drive and if your laptop has a recovery partition. it will be on the D drive and say recovery.

 

[Mr_T]

Ah thanks, no it doesn't have that hp recovery (D)part. i think this laptop is a good few years old.

Is there any other way i could reset it back to factory settings, or could i not just update it to maybe a newer version of Vista or Windows 8

 

[~mr mixx~]

Well I think the only way to recover your lappy back to factory settings is to have the Vista CD or upgrade your OS to windows 8.

One other thing you could do is to contact your laptop dealer such as DELL for example and request a recovery CD from them. I don't think they cost that much. I'm not sure about the amount, but it's an option you have.

Btw, what kind of laptop do you have?

 

[Mr_T]

Not got the cd as i bought the laptop yesterday from Gumtree. It's a Dell Latitude E5400. Not sure if that's a good laptop i only paid £65 which i think is $107 dollars.

I'm not sure what my OS is but how do i update that to Windows 8? Is it simple enough? If not i'll have to take it to a shop to get fixed.

 

[Smart_Guy]

Welcome aboard

Windows Vista is known for it's bad system resources optimization. A fresh install will refresh the system but it will eventually slowdown.

Check behind the laptop if there is a sticker with a Windows activation code. Call the customer service of Microsoft and ask the if the activation code is supported for an upgrade.

I personally recommend Windows 7 (any version better than Starter or Basic) over Windows 8.x because it is very well optimized and updated to support wider variety of hardware and software.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[~mr mixx~]

Well if you want to upgrade to Windows 8, you could just buy a Windows 8 CD from off of amazon.com. That would probably be your best bet, and it would be nice to have the install CD in case you ever want to do a reformat.

 

[Mr_T]

Thanks for the replys lads, nope there is no sticker on the back with a Windows activation code. I had a look on Amazon at the Windows 8 cd, was expecting it to be about £5 or something lol, but there nearly as dear than what i paid for the laptop itself.

Will just sell the laptop and and get another one as i can't be bothered with this crappy Vista and buy one with Windows 7 or 8.

How do i fresh install on the Vista i have the now?