Sam1

Ok I understand and respect your decision. I do need to get the laptop up and running again though. I've had a look around for a free user friendly OS and found something called PCLinuxOS. I know Linux isn't as plug and play as Windows though but should be able to work it out. However, I would appreciate some advice to do with the security of the system. I know Linux based systems are not as susceptible to malware but can still be compromised, could somebody recomend me a good security set up to keep the system clean and safe? Thanks

I have multiple valid product keys which have been paid for, the laptop in question just did not come with a windows installation disk. Is it not just in effect the product key that authorises the use of the software on a computer?

I have run into a little bit of a problem. My sister's laptop had become hopelessly overrun with malware and general rubbish and she asked me to sort it out. So I get my Vista 32 bit installation disk (that was provided with my laptop and I have used to successfully format and then install Vista on another machine before), proceed to wipe out everything on the laptop's hard drive and start off the installation process. However, I then come back a while later to find that the installation had been aborted with the error code: 0X8007045D I look it up and find that it could mean that the disk is a bit knackered. I have other windows Vista machines at my disposal, is there any way to make a new installation disk? Or any other way to resolve the error code? I have tried this three times and the same code pops up on all three. The laptop I am trying to install it on is a Toshiba. Any help would be much appreciated. Sam

Hey guys, I'm back but something has come up and I will be leaving the laptop in question for a good few months, leaving tomorrow. If I could wipe it tonight that would be great. If not, it can wait. Is there an online tutorial (preferably idiot proof) that you know of that can guide me through the process. I'm fairly competent with computers but have never had to wipe vista and reinstall it. Thanks for the help!

Hey guys, Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately tomorrow I am away for a week so will have to revive this topic then :)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]541.vB5-legacyid=1202[/ATTACH]

Hey, Yeah i'm using a disk that came with my laptop. It says: "System recovery media, windows vista home premium SP1" on it and I assume that's what is needed to perform the re-format.

Hey, Just a quick question. I was attempting to wipe a laptop clean and re-install vista yesterday and something odd happened. I backed up all the files and booted the laptop from the Vista OS disk. However, when I went to try and select the appropriate Hard drive to wipe and install vista on it said that it needed about 7 gigs of space on the disk and as there was not enough space on the C drive I didn't proceed. This struck me as odd because surely the procedure shouldn't care about how much free space is available and proceed to wipe the hard drive clean and install a fresh OS system. Anyway, so my question is should I just delete 7 gigs worth of files and try again or am I doing something wrong? If you could also point me to a detailed how to guide that would be much appreciated :) Sam

Hey, I figured it out. It looks like there was some weird issue witht the CD drive. I fixed it by going here: Link removed: Copyright circumventions tools. and downloaded a new .exe file that would work without the CD

Hey, I bought Empire Earth 2 today, a game that's about 6 years old. Whenever I install an old game on my laptop I always expect to have issues but I usually overcome them with the experience I have and of course Google! However, this one has beat me, i've spent the last two hours attempting everything I know and googling the hell out of the problem but it seems that not many people have fixed the issue and those that have fail to tell anybody else how to do it. What happens is that when I go to start the game up I get the following error immediately: I've heard that this could be due to the fact that I have a dual core processor but have yet to find a solution! My PC Specs are: Samsung Windows Vista, 32 bit 4 gigs Ram Intel® Core 2 Duo CPU T5750 @2.00GHz 2.00GHz I have tried: Compatability wizard, updating direct x, running as admin and patching the game Any help that anybody can give would be greatly appreciated! Sam

Hey, All cleaned up now, thanks for your help again!

Hey, I've used the system for a few days now and have found no other problems and eveything seems to be running smoothly and am ready to enter the final stages of clean up.

Hey yeah, the systems running fine, I still have the phantom desktop icons but I can always just delete them. I've had no crashes for a while now and my icons haven't decided to sponatnously re-arange themselves.

Hey, That did the trick :) Heres the report: All processes killed ========== OTL ========== Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{02478D38-C3F9-4efb-9B51-7695ECA05670}\ deleted successfully. Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{02478D38-C3F9-4efb-9B51-7695ECA05670}\ not found. Registry value HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\WebBrowser\\{21FA44EF-376D-4D53-9B0F-8A89D3229068} deleted successfully. Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{21FA44EF-376D-4D53-9B0F-8A89D3229068}\ not found. Registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellExecuteHooks\\{AEB6717E-7E19-11d0-97EE-00C04FD91972} deleted successfully. Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{AEB6717E-7E19-11d0-97EE-00C04FD91972}\ not found. ========== FILES ========== < ipconfig /flushdns /c > Windows IP Configuration Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache. C:\Users\Sam\Desktop\cmd.bat deleted successfully. C:\Users\Sam\Desktop\cmd.txt deleted successfully. ========== COMMANDS ========== [EMPTYTEMP] User: All Users User: Default ->Temp folder emptied: 0 bytes ->Temporary Internet Files folder emptied: 0 bytes User: Default User ->Temp folder emptied: 0 bytes ->Temporary Internet Files folder emptied: 0 bytes User: Public ->Temp folder emptied: 0 bytes User: Sam ->Temp folder emptied: 34562074 bytes ->Temporary Internet Files folder emptied: 27459164 bytes ->Java cache emptied: 1013889 bytes ->FireFox cache emptied: 80705596 bytes ->Flash cache emptied: 2568 bytes %systemdrive% .tmp files removed: 0 bytes %systemroot% .tmp files removed: 0 bytes %systemroot%\System32 .tmp files removed: 0 bytes %systemroot%\System32\drivers .tmp files removed: 0 bytes Windows Temp folder emptied: 0 bytes %systemroot%\system32\config\systemprofile\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files folder emptied: 0 bytes RecycleBin emptied: 0 bytes Total Files Cleaned = 137.00 mb C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\Hosts moved successfully. HOSTS file reset successfully [EMPTYFLASH] User: All Users User: Default User: Default User User: Public User: Sam ->Flash cache emptied: 0 bytes Total Flash Files Cleaned = 0.00 mb OTL by OldTimer - Version 3.2.20.6 log created on 02122011_103205 Files\Folders moved on Reboot... Registry entries deleted on Reboot...

Hey, Unfortunatly OTL still crashed in safe mode, I tried re-downloading OTL but it just keeps stalling on the IE-HKCU line for some reason. Sam