I have a good friend who needs her pc rebuilt as it has been corrupted by a virus. We have been able to save all files she needs and have all install disks/drivers except for the original ACER ones. I have built & rebuilt pcs before, but never done anything with ACERs etc. Is there anything that will make a complete drive reformat & partition difficult/impossible that i should be careful of?? Your urgent advice is appreciated as she needs it back up & running pronto for her studies...

If you don't have the Acer CDs, do you at least have a Windows XP CD? You can't get very far without that.. Life's more painless for the brainless.

Yes, have all those & drivers, just not the ACER recovery ones...

You need the ACER CD's which came with the PC or the Created Recovery Disk's, otherwise the Windows XP Key probably will not validate..... You could always phone ACER to request the CD's...

The ACER should have a recovery partition which reverts back to factory conditions and can be accessed within windows via "start" programs method.(remember?) ... I'm not sure if there is a keyboard method on startup. ... fixed one before, have a good look b4 you turn it to toast.

Problem is, the mobo has been changed. I have my old Windows xp System disks before I bought Vista for new pc, if the ACER ones won't work. The pc is that loaded up with crap from google etc, i think the best thing is to burn it & start again. Just wanted to see if there are any traps i should be aware of??? Thanks for the info already supplied, but its kind of not helping me with the problem i have.

Typically Acer (and some other manufacturers too) advise one to make the recovery CD/DVD(s) on receipt of the system as shipped - when you first boot-up etc. If one doesn't do that... things are not so straightforward. They can be made later too but of course it will not then be a true set-back to as received if they're used... Nonetheless it is possible to buy recovery disks from third party vendors; chaps have obviously made complete restore sets that allegedly contain all that's required to rebuild a given Acer system. In your case you say the Mobo has been changed. That being so I seriously doubt that even if you had made the recovery disk(s), as above, they would work. The XP installation/recovery routine(s) do seem to be set agin you being able simply change a Mobo and continue on as before...? If I'm right in my comments re' the Mobo issue then the best you can do is use a standard XP CD and (re-)install etc that way? But first... ensure you have copied all data off the system - to optical media. Then verify those disks are truly accessible/readable both on the original system and ideally one other - before proceeding further. Also ensure you have all required drivers for the Acer system - check on the Acer support site for them, download accordingly and transfer to CD/DVD (and maybe usb stick also)? What model Acer is this? And also how much space is on the c: drive at present? Incidentally - are there any early restore points on the system as is? If so what happens if you restore to one of those? This latter idea may allow you to avoid a total rebuild? Not having been in the predicament as posted I'm theorising in this regard - but it might not hurt to try (once all data etc. has ben verifiably secured off the system).