Fresh Install of Vista on Advent 5712
Sometimes the most effective solution when faced with multiple software problems on a computer is simply to reinstall Windows afresh. This was the case with an Advent 5712 laptop that came into the Surgery at the end of last week. A reinstall is normally a straightforward process when there is a recovery partition available on the hard drive. You just need to follow your computer manufacturer’s instructions for accessing the recovery area. In the case of the Advent, just hitting F8 as the machine booted, selecting the ‘repair windows’ option from the menu and then the ‘full destructive recovery’ started the automated process which took about 20 minutes to complete.
This returned the laptop to the state it was in when first purchased. All I had to do then was download and re-install all the Windows updates – of which there were quite a few – plus some previously installed applications and away we went.
Remember, of course, that a destructive recovery will delete everything on your hard drive, including your valuable data. So make sure you have safely backed up all you precious documents, photos and music before you start!