Restore discs

first you have to back up your drivers, noely reccommended this free program to me Driver Max 5.5, you then keep the backup aside, maybe on a flash drive.
then you find the operating system disc that came with your acer, and you reformat the O/S, then you reinstal the drivers using the drivermax program.

ah Wheelo thats the problem it didnt come with any disk it was pre installed ( like they all are) even my new one But the new one give you 3 disks and tells you 1st thing to do is back up all files on those disks.
plus forgot to mention its not just XP its windows XP Media Centre (thingymabob)

mine is a dell and came with xp pro disc, never heard of the XP media(thingummy) i will have a look around and get back when i have a better idea
by the way linny, did the acer come with recovery discs??

no! just blank discs for me to do recovery on - i remembers that from another post on here - but unfortunatly i think its one that got lost!! on win7 acers you go to all progrs, acer, acerrecovery plus it also has acer backup manager

this from the microsoft site

Prerequisites
Windows Installation CD
Before you start, have your Windows installation CD and the product key available. Without these, you cannot reinstall Windows. If Windows was preinstalled on your computer, contact the computer manufacturer for help in obtaining the Windows installation files and product key.
Device drivers
Many of the device drivers for your hardware components are integrated into Windows. However, devices such as printers, monitors, graphic cards, sound cards, modems, external drives, and scanners usually have separate installation CDs. If you do not have all the drivers for your hardware components, you can download the drivers from the Internet and then write them to a CD.

this might be a bit simple too, but here goes, have you tried a system restore to a time that is as far back as possible?

also why do you want to reset it?, is it giving you problems? or are you going to give it to someone and dont want them to have access to your old files?

Code:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.gamepc.com/images/labs/rev-xpmce2005-mainmenuSM.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.kindel.com/blogs/charlie/archive/2004/10.aspx&usg=__BnBH7En7PYne4ixOj0m0bNo2SNA=&h=450&w=600&sz=59&hl=en&start=8&sig2=B72A88lGAHReT3T7-EJBmg&itbs=1&tbnid=RgeNl1y_ItO0_M:&tbnh=101&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwindows%2Bxp%2Bmedia%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=0A3rS9asC8S0sgbR17SJDw

abouve is a link to a piccie its windows medica centre edition

Not sure Linny,but this might help

Code:

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/wxppasr.html

also why do you want to reset it?, is it giving you problems? or are you going to give it to someone and dont want them to have access to your old files?

yes its only about 3-4 yrs old but plan on selling it. I have a copy of xp home but coz the pc in question has the media centre on it the xp home does not include that.
Didnt think of going back as far as pos with the restore. good idea!

I have never bought a pc or lappy that came with a copy of the OS they have always been pre installed before getting to electrical stores like comet/currys eyc and now new windows 7 dont come with any disks as far as i know!

Originally Posted by sinno

Not sure Linny,but this might help

Code:

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/wxppasr.html

thanks Sin:no that looks and sounds simple enough ill give that a go 2mora - ah just read it and its says " The ASR process is only available for Windows XP Professional." but ill see what it has on the pc 2mora - to late now to be playing with machines been setting up new one all day and transfering stuff etc

this may also help

Code:

http://www.wikihow.com/Reinstall-Windows-XP-Without-the-CD