Netbook Refresh ?

I just want to get some confirmation that I am doing this right.
I have a Acer One netbook that I bought on sale cheap about a year ago. With a purchase price of just under $200, I kept it as a backup if I ever needed it.
Over the summer, I lent it out, fresh in the box, to my wife's best friend who experienced an untimely computer crash of her own computer. About a month later I got the device back and the friend said that the computer was very slow. Yes, it seems to be slow and there seems to be some sort of kid related screen saver on the damn thing.
My bet is the spyware of the screen saver is the issue.
There is nothing on this computer that I care about. I am burning off a copy to DVD of the Acer Recovery Disk to a stand-alone CD/DVD drive that I have.

Is that all I need to do is reload this disk back to get to factory default settings?

Acer One 532h-2223
Windows 7 Starter 32 bit
Intel Atom N450
1GB
160 GB

You might try fixing it without resorting to hard measures. try running these programs:

run msconfig, just type it in the start's search bar. turn off all start programs that aren't necessary, I leave only drivers to start. uninstall all unnecessary programs, google the program if unsure. adaware. spybot. ccleaner. defraggler.

Probably quicker to wipe it.

Usually the newer stuff has a recovery partition on the HD, and you can run a restore from there.

Just wipe it and install a fresh, clean copy of WinXP if you have it rather than the Acer version with all their custom crap, or the Linux flavor of your choice, or put some effort into making it a hackintosh (like my Dell Mini9 that I've run for over 2 years).

familytruckster wrote: Probably quicker to wipe it. Usually the newer stuff has a recovery partition on the HD, and you can run a restore from there.

I have an Acer Aspire One and it has this partition. Quite effective. I saved everything I "needed" to an external HD and did the recovery. Much much quicker.

I do have a disk here of XP Professional Corp Edition that I am thinking of loading up on it instead.

You could also look at making it a Hackintosh or load Linux ;)

Seriously though, reloading from Acer's disk will get you back where you started.

familytruckster wrote: Probably quicker to wipe it. Usually the newer stuff has a recovery partition on the HD, and you can run a restore from there.

I made the disks and put them in with the original box but there is also the HD version so I ran from there. I would not call it quick but I am now deleting BS preloaded programs like Norton and McAfee (both!)

quickest/easiest way to get a computer back to running right is a factory fresh install... then run PC Decrapifier http://pcdecrapifier.com/ to get rid of all the crap OEM installs...

In reply to jrw1621:

I would suggest as you wipe it to split the hard-drive into 2 partitions, so you can save files to one partition, and if you ever need to wipe again, you can without messing with your save files.

madmallard wrote: In reply to jrw1621: I would suggest as you wipe it to split the hard-drive into 2 partitions, so you can save files to one partition, and if you ever need to wipe again, you can without messing with your save files.

+1 on this. I run partitions on all my computers. I'll lose a couple of programs but my personal files will remain intact.

Is it me or was your friend a little nervy complaining about the speed of a computer you graciously allowed her to borrow in her hour of need? Especially since it wasn't "slow" when you lent it to her.

Thanks for the partition suggestions.
Yes, a little nervy but since I had never had it out of the box, I could neither confirm nor deny. I will say having now used it, it is slow. Sure it is a sub $200 netbook so I do not expect a rocket machine but it is slower than the other Acer One that I am writing this on running XP. I do not think I am a fan of this Windows 7. I tried loading up the copy of XP that I have but it comes back with a "non-compatible" error window. I do not know if that is the disk or the netbook or Win 7 that is non-compatible.

donalson wrote: quickest/easiest way to get a computer back to running right is a factory fresh install... then run PC Decrapifier http://pcdecrapifier.com/ to get rid of all the crap OEM installs...

I'm always nervous about sites like that- is that really a good one to use? You are the first person I've ever heard a reference from.

But I sure hate all of the stuff these things run, that I am not sure if they are even needed.

(I'm reading this considering an iTool or just replatforming my wife's netbook)

alfadriver wrote:

donalson wrote: quickest/easiest way to get a computer back to running right is a factory fresh install... then run PC Decrapifier http://pcdecrapifier.com/ to get rid of all the crap OEM installs...

I'm always nervous about sites like that- is that really a good one to use? You are the first person I've ever heard a reference from. But I sure hate all of the stuff these things run, that I am not sure if they are even needed. (I'm reading this considering an iTool or just replatforming my wife's netbook)

I have used it on a number of computers without an issue. The best option is to use a non vendor specific copy of the OS but the above software does do a nice job.

In reply to Rusted_Busted_Spit:

Thanks.

I agree about the OS, but it's a Dell, and hard to get around that. That, and my complete lack of knowledge about installing OS's....

non vender is best but if you are lazy and just want to do a factory fresh install via the alt+f10 method or whatever you computer uses it works well... easy to use... it's been a while sence i've used it... will prob use it come christmas time though...