Deleting information from your computer is easy if you don’t mind deleting everything. This is not optional unless you are actually preparation on reinstalling windows and starting from scratch!

(1). Download a program called Secure Erase from the internet and save it to a floppy disk or CD-R. You may need to unzip the file first.

(2). Access BIOS during the boot stage before the computer gets to the OS screen. This can be accomplished by pressing whatever key the computer tells you to when it says “”Press F2 to enter start-up”, for example.

(3). Change the boot order so that the computer boots from either the CD drive or floppy drive, depending on which drive you used for your Secure Erase program.

(4). Exit BIOS. The DOS prompt should appear once the computer has started up.

(5). At the system/DOS prompt type: “hdderase” to start the program. The Secure Erase menu should appear. Decide from Secure Erase or improved Secure Erase if the option appears.

Instructions :  Do not do this unless you are totally sure that you want to erase your data. and This will only work on computers built in 2001 or after.   

If you’re tired of the slow downs and errors of Internet Explorer, then maybe it’s time to try something new, perhaps safer and more efficient. It’s a free web browser called Mozilla Firefox. It’s a good idea to have more than one web browser anyway; so why not give this one a try?

Necessary Things: Computer with Internet access, Brief downloading knowledge, Access to Mozilla Firefox’s website

(1). Go to the website listed below in the Resources section (http://www.mozilla.com).

(2). Once there, click the large button on the screen labeled “download Firefox–free.” Then wait for the download to begin. A dialog box then appears that asks “would you like to save this file?” Click the “save file” button on the left.

(3). Once the file is downloaded, click install and follow the on screen step by step prompts. Your browser will restart with Google.com as your home page. If you would like to change this, go to “tools” on the top menu and select the “main” tab.

(4). Type in your new home page web address and click the OK button on the bottom of the screen to save this new address. The next time you open Mozilla, the page should automatically default to this.

(5). You won’t notice many differences in using Mozilla but you may not be able to access some websites that are not well-matched with Mozilla; so keep Internet Explorer around. The buttons may be a bit different, but you can still have all the tool bars on the top of it, such as yahoo and Google.

(6). your “favorites” are now known as “Bookmarks” and can be located under the Bookmarks menu. To save a favorite page, click “bookmarks,” and “bookmarks this page. You can also organize by placing it into a folder, alike to the process in Internet Explorer.

(7). HELP! Don’t worry, menus are virtually alike in this web browser as to Internet Explorer, but if do you get stuck, click the help menu and explore the choices beneath it. You can also search by topic if you are looking for something specific.

(8). Firefox also has a neat feature called “Foxmarks” where you can install an add-on, save a user name and password and then right of admission your favorites on any computer with Firefox by entering your username and password. This is an invaluable feature and built right in to the browser.

(9). MOST OFTEN USED FEATURES: If you would like to make the text size bigger, simply click the “view” menu on the top of your screen and then select “text size.” If you would like to go back to your starting page, just click the house on the top of the page. If you would like to cool down the page, hit the F5 key. The back and forward button functions stay the same. History is also the same. You can set the number of days, etc. and customize it to your needs. You can still save passwords inside the browser if that is something you prefer to do.

Necessary Things: Recovery CD, CD burner drive

(1).Go into My Computer and double click on your C drive.

(2). Right click anywhere under C drive, and select New, Folder. Call the folder “copy of recovery disk” or whatever you want to call it.

(3). Insert the original recovery CD into your CDROM drive. If the CD starts, cancel it, or you can press the Shift button before you put the CD ROM in and it will not start at all. Either way will work.

(4). Go back to My Computer, and right click on the CDrom drive letter and select explore. You should see all of the files on the recovery disk.

(5). Click on the top menu File, Select All, and the files will now appear shaded. (We are going to copy them).

(6). When the files are all shaded, right click anywhere in the CDrom folder and select Copy.

(7). Click on My Computer, C drive, and find the folder you created previously. Right click either ON the created folder or double click and go into the folder. Then, right click and select Paste. All of the files from the CDrom drive will now be copied to your new folder.

(8). Take the original recovery disk out of the CDrom drive, and place a burnable CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive.

(9). Right click on your CD-ROM drive letter after you insert the burnable disk, and select Paste again. The files we just copied to the new folder on your c drive will now appear on the CD-ROM drive, ready to burn.

(10). Burn the files to your CD-ROM drive. Now you have another CD-ROM with the recovery files AND you hsve a folder with the recovery files on it as well in case you lose both disks, you can create as many as you want f-ROM the folder. Hope this helps.