[Help!] Reformating my Acer laptop

[Einherjar Silberio]

Howdy!
I'll make it short: I've got a small laptop which has been running extremly slow the last few months and I've only now come to the decision of reformating it (if that's the correct term... Reinstall windows on it). The computer is running on Win 7 and the specs are the following (if you wish to know ):

Processor Intel Atom CPU N280 @ 1.66GHz 1,33GHz
RAM: 1 GB
32-bit OS
And that's all it says.

Now, the thing is that I've been pondering about if I should reformat it to just wipe everything out on the hope that it'll run smoother and faster, instead of cleaning it bit by bit (which so far hasn't had much result), and I just want to ask you guys if you think it's worth it, or if it'll just run as slow... Maybe due to that the computer might be old or just over-used.

And now, for the main point: the laptop doesn't have a CD-drive, I don't own an USB CD-drive and I'm neither in the economical situation to buy one. I knew about something called USBCD or something, that I tried to google but didn't really get any results, but yeah... Does anyone know anything about this or something similar that can help me wipe off my whole laptop and "reinstalling" windows clean?

Of course, all this, in a legal way.

Thanks a lot for the help, in forehand

[Goody.]

If you have a memory stick (usb) then you can make a bootable windows "disc" There is plenty on google on how to do that.
Formatting the way to go. Simply removing programs won't do it tbh unless your skilled enough with editing the registry and sorting out the old ms.config although the latter is pretty straigh forward.

I would recommend though doing the following first.
Hit start and right click on "Computer" Select manage on the list of options that appears.
A new window will open and on the left there is a few items. You should now select the "Disk Management" option on there.

Now it is has a hidden partition of a few gb then you might be in luck and it will have a recovery partition. This has all the windows install files on there and it is usually accessed by hitting one of the F keys at boot. It was F8 on the last laptop I had to repair so try that.

[MrFancypants]

With those specs the laptop will probably run slowly anyway. You could try installing Linux and see how that goes. Use a program like partition magic to make a small partition for Linux, then google for instructions how to use a bootable USB stick to install it. You can install it parallel to your existing Windows installation that way.

[kow_ciller]

I'd slap an SSD and more ram into that netbook. With the ram being the cheaper option

Try the adata USB bootable program, its supposed to only be for their drives but it is quite easy to use for any win7 bootable drive.

[Toph]

Do what Goody said if you require Windows for compatibility issues (games, programs, poxy projectors). If that doesn't matter, what Fancy said will likely make you extremely happy.

[Goody.]

Linux is a good option if your just going to use it as a netbook but if your wanting to do other stuff then check to see if there is a open source alternative. That said a lot of programs are now turning to linux as a stable alternative to windows as most do not like win 8 with steam being the biggest name.
Before you do anything though open up the device manager and make a list of the hardware and search for the drivers. This is not needed so much with Win 7 as that is brilliant at setting itself up.

[Toph]

It's no longer needed for most Linux distros either, especially the big ones. I must have done 20+ installs on various systems and various distros and had only a few issues, which Google easily solves (look up computer specs).

[MoreGun89]

I agree with using Linux (since the little 'uns aren't powerful enough to run most games anyway). However, the Acer's can also handle up to 2Gbs of RAM. If you're feeling up to it I recommend removing the 1Gb stick and replacing it with a 2Gb stick. It sped my netbook up considerably

[MrFancypants]

Originally Posted by MoreGun89

I agree with using Linux (since the little 'uns aren't powerful enough to run most games anyway). However, the Acer's can also handle up to 2Gbs of RAM. If you're feeling up to it I recommend removing the 1Gb stick and replacing it with a 2Gb stick. It sped my netbook up considerably

and RAM is cheap these days. You can also use a USB thumb drive as virtual memory extension in Windows. MS calls it "ready boost". 2GB RAM and a decent 2gb USB stick should speed things up considerably.

[D3matt]

Originally Posted by MrFancypants

and RAM is cheap these days. You can also use a USB thumb drive as virtual memory extension in Windows. MS calls it "ready boost". 2GB RAM and a decent 2gb USB stick should speed things up considerably.

Eh... Most flash drives aren't much faster than a hdd, I'm not sure that's really worth the effort.