• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 04:21
CET 10:21
KST 18:21
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
HomeStory Cup 28 - Info & Preview5Rongyi Cup S3 - Preview & Info3herO wins SC2 All-Star Invitational14SC2 All-Star Invitational: Tournament Preview5RSL Revival - 2025 Season Finals Preview8
Community News
Weekly Cups (Jan 19-25): Bunny, Trigger, MaxPax win3Weekly Cups (Jan 12-18): herO, MaxPax, Solar win0BSL Season 2025 - Full Overview and Conclusion8Weekly Cups (Jan 5-11): Clem wins big offline, Trigger upsets4$21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7)38
StarCraft 2
General
HomeStory Cup 28 - Info & Preview StarCraft 2 Not at the Esports World Cup 2026 Weekly Cups (Jan 19-25): Bunny, Trigger, MaxPax win Oliveira Would Have Returned If EWC Continued herO wins SC2 All-Star Invitational
Tourneys
KSL Week 85 HomeStory Cup 28 $21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7) OSC Season 13 World Championship $70 Prize Pool Ladder Legends Academy Weekly Open!
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
[A] Starcraft Sound Mod
External Content
Mutation # 510 Safety Violation Mutation # 509 Doomsday Report Mutation # 508 Violent Night Mutation # 507 Well Trained
Brood War
General
Bleak Future After Failed ProGaming Career Potential ASL qualifier breakthroughs? BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ [ASL21] Potential Map Candidates
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 Azhi's Colosseum - Season 2 [BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 10
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Zealot bombing is no longer popular? Current Meta Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2
Other Games
General Games
Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread Path of Exile Nintendo Switch Thread Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Beyond All Reason
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread YouTube Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club! The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
How Esports Advertising Shap…
TrAiDoS
My 2025 Magic: The Gathering…
DARKING
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1118 users

[H] How to reformat a computer

Blogs > [Fin]Vittu
Post a Reply
[Fin]Vittu
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Canada507 Posts
January 18 2009 06:16 GMT
#1
So I bought one of those generic computers from futureshop, an HP one. I think it is plagued with viruses slowing my internet down insanely. I always wanted to reformat but I don't think my computer game with a copy of vista. So I was wondering if there is a way going around this without a cd. In addition, being a poor student I don't really have the money to buy an external hard drive...maybe those 2gb flash drives but I don't think they can hold my whole computer on it.

Thanks in advance!

The "Finnish Metal Terran"
nataziel
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
Australia1455 Posts
January 18 2009 06:29 GMT
#2
Umm, you could try download an ISO of vista and burn it onto a disk, then format your computer that way, but if you don't have a disc handy it's gonna be a bitch to do.

Also, there's no way in hell a 2gb flash drive would hold your whole computer on it at all, just back up the stuff you need onto DVD's then reformat. Make sure you're running AVG when you get your computer back up and running too.
u gotta sk8
HeavOnEarth
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
United States7087 Posts
January 18 2009 06:34 GMT
#3
you could try running a virus scan? just to see how bad the dmaage is first =/
"come korea next time... FXO house... 10 korean, 10 korean"
0xDEADBEEF
Profile Joined September 2007
Germany1235 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-01-18 07:33:15
January 18 2009 07:31 GMT
#4
If it didn't came with a copy of the OS but the OS was preinstalled, then there must be some kind of recovery partition (separate drive number): space on the hard drive from which you can reinstall the operating system. It's not a real installation, but an image, so you end up with the same crap on it again. But that's how you reinstall Windows on new customer PCs.
This partition may be invisible to Windows. If you're missing several gigabytes of HDD space (not counting the space which is always lost due to drive manufacturers counting 1 GB = 1000 MB instead of 1 GB = 1024 MB), then you have such a partition.
Sometimes the vendor even allows you to burn a recovery DVD from that recovery partition, in that case there is probably some tool pre-installed which does it for you.
In any case, there should be some tool or documentation which explains how to use it.
And no, I don't think your PC is infected with viruses just because your internet is slow. That is almost definitely a software problem. First thing you should do is uninstalling/disabling all useless software including a personal firewall if there is one.
Besides, viruses making the PC slow or damaging it is so last millenium. Most modern malware operates undetected and steals interesting information or uses your PC for a botnet.
[Fin]Vittu
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Canada507 Posts
January 18 2009 07:53 GMT
#5
On January 18 2009 16:31 0xDEADBEEF wrote:
If it didn't came with a copy of the OS but the OS was preinstalled, then there must be some kind of recovery partition (separate drive number): space on the hard drive from which you can reinstall the operating system. It's not a real installation, but an image, so you end up with the same crap on it again. But that's how you reinstall Windows on new customer PCs.
This partition may be invisible to Windows. If you're missing several gigabytes of HDD space (not counting the space which is always lost due to drive manufacturers counting 1 GB = 1000 MB instead of 1 GB = 1024 MB), then you have such a partition.
Sometimes the vendor even allows you to burn a recovery DVD from that recovery partition, in that case there is probably some tool pre-installed which does it for you.
In any case, there should be some tool or documentation which explains how to use it.
And no, I don't think your PC is infected with viruses just because your internet is slow. That is almost definitely a software problem. First thing you should do is uninstalling/disabling all useless software including a personal firewall if there is one.
Besides, viruses making the PC slow or damaging it is so last millenium. Most modern malware operates undetected and steals interesting information or uses your PC for a botnet.


my buddy came over and ran a -netstat -na or something like that on my cmd. he looked at some values and said i have one. which explains why my stream is so slow. another thing is that, the same friend checked his speed on the gom tv network checker and his speed was 3 times faster than mine even though we are on the same ISP.

Regarding my computer, i do have such a partition. I looked at my computer and i see my c drive and a d drive called "recovery"

How about to i go about that? I am not too sure when my last recovery point was.
The "Finnish Metal Terran"
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 2h 40m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SortOf 175
StarCraft: Brood War
Sea 6305
Bisu 1839
Soma 331
Jaedong 293
Zeus 235
actioN 142
Dewaltoss 91
Larva 85
EffOrt 85
Shuttle 68
[ Show more ]
Backho 61
ZergMaN 60
Mong 51
Sharp 47
yabsab 43
NotJumperer 40
Shinee 37
ToSsGirL 33
Shine 33
soO 27
ggaemo 23
Mind 21
Bale 15
Sacsri 10
Terrorterran 7
Stork 1
Dota 2
XaKoH 438
Fuzer 104
NeuroSwarm92
League of Legends
JimRising 599
C9.Mang0401
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King75
Other Games
gofns7657
ceh9474
crisheroes254
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 4
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Lourlo1483
• Jankos1175
• Stunt414
Upcoming Events
HomeStory Cup
2h 40m
Korean StarCraft League
17h 40m
HomeStory Cup
1d 2h
Replay Cast
1d 14h
HomeStory Cup
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Wardi Open
4 days
WardiTV Invitational
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
[ Show More ]
WardiTV Invitational
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-01-29
OSC Championship Season 13
Underdog Cup #3

Ongoing

CSL 2025 WINTER (S19)
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Acropolis #4 - TS4
Escore Tournament S1: W6
Rongyi Cup S3
HSC XXVIII
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S1: W7
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals
Nations Cup 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.