Hi, New and scared of a HD Reformatting!

[Guest rnoldh]

Hi, I'm new and not very good with computers. For an older guy like me, I'm about a C, but compared to most younger people I'm probably a D!

Anyway, I primarily use an HP zv5476cl laptop. 2 years old with a 3.4 pentium chip, 1125 RAM (upgraded from the original 512, and an 80 Gig HD.

The laptop has been OK with some problems. I've sent it back twice for a backlight replacement for the Monitor. Both times, I took the HD out of the laptop prior to sending it to HP for the work. So there was no data lost.

Now, I'm having problems with the A/C adaptor. Not the adaptor, or power cord itself, but the computer itself will not accept a charge or run on the A/C adaptor. In addition, I'm having some other driver issues(like an inability to set the monitor to 1280-1024 resolution setting), and the computer has slowed down inordinately and often shuts down and gives an error message. So, I'm sending it in this time with the HD, which I'm sure HP will wipe clean and reformat.

My question is. How should I prepare for the ReFormat. I'm not a computer guy like I said, so tomorrow I'm going to see my friend's son. He is a computer guy. I'm thinking of copying my Outlook Email, and address files to a DVD. In addition I want to copy my pictures(only a couple of hundred), and my Word documents. I know that I can't copy any of my programs that were not on the initial set-up(or can I and should I)?

Has anyone sent their laptop in for servicing and had a HD ReFormat. Will I have to update every Windows update since the date of my restore disc. Will I be able to reinstall my MS Office 2003 easily and then installl all my outlook and Word documents back on? Will I be able to easily resume my Norton antivirus? Will I have to reinstall and update all my plug-ins and related stuff and update them?

Any opinions or experiences greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

rnoldh,

Houston, Tx

[IcemanND]

You will lose anything that was not on the machine at the time you first took it out of the box. So back up anything that you want to pu back, except applicaitons of course those you will need to reinstall after you receive the machine back. Along with all of those lovely updates from Microsoft.

As long as you have a valid subscription to Norton that should not be a problem. And everything else should reinstall without a problem also.