Completely wipe my laptop.

[Richard_]

Hello.

I have a Sony VAIO. And the model is VPCF12AFM. I had my laptop for over 1 year now. I would like to completely wipe my system and install a new version of windows 7. What are my steps of doing that? I know I have to download drivers from the manufacturers website but which ones do I exactly need to download. And where should I save them to?

The other thing is, would it be better to download an ISO for windows 7 or I would be better with buying it?

If there is like a link where I can go to that shows me step by step on how to do this, that would be great too.

Thank you

 

[ss202sl]

There should be a way to restore your laptop back to factory settings. You may have a dvd, or there may be a restore partition on your hard drive. You should have a license already for the OS(the license key is probably on a sticker on the bottom).

 

[inerax]

You can download a ISO for windows 7 as long as you have the key. Should be on the bottom of the laptop. Make you you get the same version ISO as the key.

You would burn the ISO to a DVD. I use Ultra ISO for that but many other programs are out.

After burned you would put the disk into the drive. I have always set the bios to boot from DVD drive first.

It will say "press any key to boot from disk." press any key.

It will preload a bunch of junk. After a couple minutes you will see hard drive options. You will want to delete your current partition and format that space. After the format you would pick to install windows from that point.

It is a easy process. Just follow the steps on screen after booting from disk

 

[Richard_]

There should be a way to restore your laptop back to factory settings. You may have a dvd, or there may be a restore partition on your hard drive. You should have a license already for the OS(the license key is probably on a sticker on the bottom).

Nope no DVD or the partition. My previous laptop was an HP, and that's the only one that had a restore to factory settings partition.

 

[Richard_]

You can download a ISO for windows 7 as long as you have the key. Should be on the bottom of the laptop. Make you you get the same version ISO as the key.

You would burn the ISO to a DVD. I use Ultra ISO for that but many other programs are out.

After burned you would put the disk into the drive. I have always set the bios to boot from DVD drive first.

It will say "press any key to boot from disk." press any key.

It will preload a bunch of junk. After a couple minutes you will see hard drive options. You will want to delete your current partition and format that space. After the format you would pick to install windows from that point.

It is a easy process. Just follow the steps on screen after booting from disk

Oh it looks simple. I will try to do it tonight. I don't need to worry about the drivers for the laptop right?

 

[inerax]

Oh it looks simple. I will try to do it tonight. I don't need to worry about the drivers for the laptop right?

windwos 7 is very good with drivers. Every time I have reformatted a computer with windows 7 the network card works with no problems.

Then I get on the internet to download the rest of the drivers.

If you want you can download the network drivers from your computer manufactures website and burn them to dvd/cd just to be safe

 

[Richard_]

Thank you!

 

[Richard_]

What drivers would I need to download from their website though?

 

[Richard_]

What I do from here?