Want to completely clean my lap.

[Gizametalman]

Ugh... Okay, so...
I'm a noob at this and I just got completely scammed.
A few days ago, everything was fine, and nothing bad has happened since, but still want to completely remove everything from my laptop and start all over again.

I do not own a Restore Point from when I first turned on my lap.
I do not own a Copy of Windows 10.
I do not have a CD-DVD Driver.
Also I can't remember which drives it came with originally (that is Video, Sound and Internet drivers)

But, how can I restore my lap to its Fabric State without any of these?
I've always believed that this was just for that,

so I didn't bother with creating copies of my system.

Can this be made?
If it is possible to completely remove everything from my C: Drive, will I need an activation key?
PS: No, I did not upgraded from Windows 7 nor 8 to 10.
My lap came with Windows 10 and the only updates I've done are the ones required by Microsoft.

 

[330]

Configuración -> Actualización y seguridad -> click on "Recuperación" and begin. Afterwards, click "quitar todo".

Note that you will lose everything that's on the hard drive. If you're fine with that, there is nothing else to do. The laptop will restart.

The recovery partition you see is most likely made by a third-party program that was already installed in your PC when you bought it. People can complain about anything about Windows 10, but Microsoft really stepped up their game with resetting the machine. It's foolproof.

 

[Gizametalman]

Configuración -> Actualización y seguridad -> click on "Recuperación" and begin. Afterwards, click "quitar todo".

Note that you will lose everything that's on the hard drive. If you're fine with that, there is nothing else to do. The laptop will restart.

The recovery partition you see is most likely made by a third-party program that was already installed in your PC when you bought it. People can complain about anything about Windows 10, but Microsoft really stepped up their game with resetting the machine. It's foolproof.

When you say, everything it means that I will have to manually install all my drivers from scratch?
I just want to get rid of any software registers and specially, all the software I will never use and that installed their own version of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistribuitable...

Does this applies to any System Updates too?

I'm aware that I'll have to back up all my music, but aside of that, that's all I'm worried about.

 

[330]

When you say, everything it means that I will have to manually install all my drivers from scratch?
I just want to get rid of any software registers and specially, all the software I will never use and that installed their own version of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistribuitable...

Does this applies to any System Updates too?

I'm aware that I'll have to back up all my music, but aside of that, that's all I'm worried about.

Windows 10 will take care of most of the drivers. If your laptop has one of those proprietary "press this button to enter third-party tools" then you might need to look for them on the manufacturer's website. Other than that, the OS should find everything else.

 

[Gizametalman]

Windows 10 will take care of most of the drivers. If your laptop has one of those proprietary "press this button to enter third-party tools" then you might need to look for them on the manufacturer's website. Other than that, the OS should find everything else.

I've done some research about this option you gave me, and I've found a site that says that, doing this will lead me to two options.
1.- Delete everything but keep personal files.
2.- Delete everything including personal files.

I obviously want to make the first one. But as I don't have any external storage device to back up 16GB of personal files... now I'm wondering if I have to put those files in a certain folder in order to prevent them to get deleted by mistake by Windows.
Do you know about this certain issue?

 

[nero99]

If you want to save that data, make a free mega.nz account and upload it to there. sure it'll take a while if you have a slow connection, but at least it'll be in a safe place.

 

[Gizametalman]

If you want to save that data, make a free mega.nz account and upload it to there. sure it'll take a while if you have a slow connection, but at least it'll be in a safe place.

You're right.
I didn't thought about that.
Can I use my Google Drive instead?

I've had recent bad experiences with MEGA. It won't let me download something past the 50MB mark. So, I'm assuming that, if I upload 16GB of personal files, it wont let me access to them later.

 

[330]

I've done some research about this option you gave me, and I've found a site that says that, doing this will lead me to two options.
1.- Delete everything but keep personal files.
2.- Delete everything including personal files.

I obviously want to make the first one. But as I don't have any external storage device to back up 16GB of personal files... now I'm wondering if I have to put those files in a certain folder in order to prevent them to get deleted by mistake by Windows.
Do you know about this certain issue?

I'm not entirely sure, as I always format everything.

 

[Gizametalman]

Thank you guys.
I will do the first. If I'm not satisfied I will format everything.

 

[VinsCool]

I went with a simple trick here.

Make 2 partitions, where 1 of them is used as C:\, and the other one only for data.
That way, you can move all the personal files to the other partition, wipe you C:\, reinstall from new, then copy relevant files back.

That's simple and efficient. This system saved my ass countless times.

Same process could be used on Linux.
Have your /home mount point on a different partition, and never lose your data when you're reformatting the system.


So as for reinstalling. I assume you own at least a 2GB USB key that could be used to create a bootable image from Microsoft Creator Tool.
That's the easy part. Rest could be done by the suggestions people posted above.

If you want to save that data, make a free mega.nz account and upload it to there. sure it'll take a while if you have a slow connection, but at least it'll be in a safe place.

So at least you have your files saved.

What you could do once the USB key is booted, is to delete every partitions, then start a new. I recommend to assign at least 120GB for C:\ (I personally split my 500 GB drive in 2 halves), and leave the remaining space to the data partition.
From there, install Windows normally, and you'll be on good bases to start from fresh. If you need drivers, they're usually automatically gotten, or sometimes, you may have to look up from the manufacturer's website to get what you need for getting your hardware work properly.
As for the activation itself, no idea if you have a license yourself, but if it goes like my girlfriend's laptop, it may be automatically gotten from the motherboard.
If it requires an activation key during installation, simply skip this step, and cough, cough cough find your way with a certain KMS activation method (not going to hint further since it's illegal).


I hope this could help you

 

[Gizametalman]

I went with a simple trick here.

Make 2 partitions, where 1 of them is used as C:\, and the other one only for data.
That way, you can move all the personal files to the other partition, wipe you C:\, reinstall from new, then copy relevant files back.

That's simple and efficient. This system saved my ass countless times.

Same process could be used on Linux.
Have your /home mount point on a different partition, and never lose your data when you're reformatting the system.


So as for reinstalling. I assume you own at least a 2GB USB key that could be used to create a bootable image from Microsoft Creator Tool.
That's the easy part. Rest could be done by the suggestions people posted above.

So at least you have your files saved.

What you could do once the USB key is booted, is to delete every partitions, then start a new. I recommend to assign at least 120GB for C:\ (I personally split my 500 GB drive in 2 halves), and leave the remaining space to the data partition.
From there, install Windows normally, and you'll be on good bases to start from fresh. If you need drivers, they're usually automatically gotten, or sometimes, you may have to look up from the manufacturer's website to get what you need for getting your hardware work properly.
As for the activation itself, no idea if you have a license yourself, but if it goes like my girlfriend's laptop, it may be automatically gotten from the motherboard.
If it requires an activation key during installation, simply skip this step, and cough, cough cough find your way with a certain KMS activation method (not going to hint further since it's illegal).


I hope this could help you

It really does.
Actually, didn't thought about doing another partition and saving everything there.
Yet again, if I'm not satisfied with the "Keep my files" option, I will opt for the second one.
KMS... is it easy or safe to use?

 

[VinsCool]

Actually, didn't thought about doing another partition and saving everything there.
Yet again, if I'm not satisfied with the "Keep my files" option, I will opt for the second one.

You could always use GPARTED and rework your partitions directly without any file loss. From what I see, you got over 300GB free on your C:\, so the option is perfectly viable.
I'd recommend this route if you really don't want to bother making a data backup.

KMS... is it easy or safe to use?

It is if you know exactly what you do and what you install
Been running off a certain toolkit for over a year, the last time I made a clean install, never ran into any problems.

 

[Originality]

If your previous Windows 10 install was legit and activated, then when you reinstall Windows it will automatically activate from the HID of your motherboard. No need for KMS.

Most sources of KMS online are filled with viruses and trojans and are not safe. If you can be sure you’re getting it from a trustworthy source, then it’s safe to use. But you shouldn’t need it anyway.

 

[Gizametalman]

If your previous Windows 10 install was legit and activated, then when you reinstall Windows it will automatically activate from the HID of your motherboard. No need for KMS.

Most sources of KMS online are filled with viruses and trojans and are not safe. If you can be sure you’re getting it from a trustworthy source, then it’s safe to use. But you shouldn’t need it anyway.

I decided not too.
The reason why I wanted a clean up was because I used a Software Patch, but nothing happened.
I felt unsure whether or not that action made some changes on my laptop.
Upon looking at the Register Keys, my installed software, my hidden files and folders and my Internet browsers ( and after two Complete Windows Defender and Malwarebytes Scans ) found nothing changed in my system, even though before using that patch it was recognized as Malware.
That sort of... panicked me.

But on top of that strange behaviour from a Malware, I noticed that I have up to 15 Microsoft C++ Redistributable that ranges from 2005 to 2017.

Also, I presume I need windows.old to properly restart my lap to its factory settings. And thats something I deleted long time ago.

On top of that, before choosing "Proceed" when trying to Restart everything, Windows prompted me with a list of all the software that would get uninstalled, and sadly, most of my original drivers will get uninstalled.

This last thing made me wonder, well, if my lap isn't behaving strange, then there's no use of deleting everything.

I want to avoid the pain of looking for every single HP and Microsoft driver.

 

[tedmg091309131]

Why not simply delete your current user account from the laptop? Then add a new account to start over. This should work.

 

[Plstic]

Why not simply delete your current user account from the laptop? Then add a new account to start over. This should work.

It doesn't work like that lmao.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

You're right.
I didn't thought about that.
Can I use my Google Drive instead?

I've had recent bad experiences with MEGA. It won't let me download something past the 50MB mark. So, I'm assuming that, if I upload 16GB of personal files, it wont let me access to them later.

You can use MegaSync, I don't think it has a download limit. Works a lot like the Dropbox client, though I found it to be very slow at uploading (it was actually much faster to upload the files manually through the site, granted I had a lot of stuff to upload)

 

[Gizametalman]

You can use MegaSync, I don't think it has a download limit. Works a lot like the Dropbox client, though I found it to be very slow at uploading (it was actually much faster to upload the files manually through the site, granted I had a lot of stuff to upload)

Nah, I just found the Malware and Viruses in my Windows Defender Quarantine... thing.
They'll get removed from my system eventually. So they main reason why I wanted to completely wipe out my lap was because of this. But now I dont need to do it.

Still it is amazing to know that, if anything goes horribly wrong I can wipe out everything to it's factory settings.