• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 09:29
CEST 15:29
KST 22:29
  • 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
Weekly Cups (July 13-19): Terran & Protoss rise; Zerg falters0Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2914Serral wins Maestros of the Game 243ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7
Community News
Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16)64Reynor: GSL Loss Wasn't About Preparation Format16[IPSL] Spring 2026 Grand Finals - This Weekend!17Weekly Cups (July 6 - 12): Protoss strike back12BSL Season 22 Full Overview & Conclusion8
StarCraft 2
General
How would you feel about frequent/monthly balance patches for SC2? Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Weekly Cups (July 13-19): Terran & Protoss rise; Zerg falters Clem: "I don't have that much hope in Blizzard" [D] Wireframe Casting Removed
Tourneys
RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2) WardiTV Summer Cup 2026 GSL CK #5 Race War HomeStory Cup 29
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
New Map Maker - Looking for Advice - Love or Hate Work In Progress Melee Maps [D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3
External Content
Mutation # 535 Assembly of Vengeance The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 534 Burning Evacuation Mutation # 533 Die Together
Brood War
General
screpdb: new Starcraft reporting tool ASL22 General Discussion Animated Gateway NaDa's Body BW General Discussion
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [IPSL] Spring 2026 Grand Finals - This Weekend! Escore Tournament - Season 3 Small VOD Thread 2.0
Strategy
Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers Creating a full chart of Zerg builds Relatively freeroll strategies
Other Games
General Games
ZeroSpace at Steam NextFest - Last free demo Path of Exile Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor 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
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
Russo-Ukrainian War Thread How to buy a book - shipping from Korea to Europe US Politics Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI UK Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club The HerO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books Series you have seen recently...
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023 McBoner: A hockey love story Tennis[sport]
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Simple Questions Simple Answers FPS when play League Of Legend on laptop
TL Community
Northern Ireland Global Starcraft The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Role of Gaming on Mental Hea…
TrAiDoS
ASL S22 English Commentary…
namkraft
Poker (part 2)
Nebuchad
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 12062 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
WardiTV Weekly
11:00
WardiTV Mondays #96
IntoTheiNu 987
WardiTV910
OGKoka 495
Rex143
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
OGKoka 495
Ryung 357
SHIN 253
Rex 145
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 5751
Bisu 2096
Shuttle 1871
Britney 1202
Mini 695
Soma 688
EffOrt 658
BeSt 562
Soulkey 487
Jaedong 483
[ Show more ]
Light 368
firebathero 355
Larva 301
Stork 246
ZerO 194
Snow 188
Hyun 140
Dewaltoss 136
Rush 101
ggaemo 85
Pusan 74
Sea.KH 66
Sexy 57
ToSsGirL 52
soO 48
JYJ 47
Free 42
Movie 41
scan(afreeca) 34
910 32
JulyZerg 32
HiyA 30
Aegong 27
Barracks 21
yabsab 20
Sacsri 20
Bale 17
zelot 17
Hm[arnc] 16
Noble 15
ajuk12(nOOB) 13
Terrorterran 11
Yoon 10
Icarus 6
Dota 2
qojqva1743
Dendi1140
XcaliburYe217
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor68
Other Games
singsing2438
B2W.Neo1001
Lowko485
crisheroes326
Sick238
Hui .130
Liquid`LucifroN120
Liquid`VortiX80
ZerO(Twitch)20
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick2286
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 1204
Other Games
BasetradeTV258
StarCraft: Brood War
lovetv 12
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 11 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Nemesis1893
Upcoming Events
Monday Night Weeklies
2h 31m
PiGosaur Cup
1d 10h
The PondCast
1d 20h
Kung Fu Cup
1d 21h
OSC
2 days
CrankTV Team League
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
CrankTV Team League
3 days
Korean StarCraft League
4 days
RSL Revival
4 days
Clem vs ByuN
Serral vs SHIN
[ Show More ]
Online Event
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
RSL Revival
5 days
herO vs Solar
Rogue vs Lambo
WardiTV Weekly
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

IPSL Spring 2026
HSC XXIX
Eternal Conflict S2 E3

Ongoing

Acropolis #4
CSL 2026 Summer (S21)
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
RSL Revival: Season 6
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
SCTL 2026 Spring
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S3: W4
ASL S22 SEASON OPEN Day 2
Escore Tournament S3: W5
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
Light Tournament 2026
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale
Stake Ranked Episode 4
Logitech G Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
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.