Cave being needing assistance in formulating the right questions

[mediabeing]

Okay - I lent my Windows PC W7 to a friend. The friend did stuff to it and now, underneath, I think the PC still thinks it's owned by the guy I lent it to.

I'm not positive I'm the real administrator anymore. The friend is long gone.
I'm not sure where to begin to figure out what is wrong/right.
I haven't been able to roll the device back to pre-friend lend time.

I'm wanting to 'clear the decks' of the PC, at the same time keeping whatever directories to what's left on the discs.

I want what's left in memory of what is mine, while fully sanitizing it of any other being's stuff.
I want to make sure the computer doesn't have spyware that makes it call out somewhere monthly and download particulars.

While I did assemble the Windows machine, that's as far as it goes for me, computer savvy wise.
I don't know a BIOS from a TRIOS.
I'm thinking I'll be buying some kind of disc from Microsoft to fix things.
Is there a better way?

 

[indianacarnie]

Welcome to the forums mediabeing!

I would suggest a clean install. You'll lose "your" stuff, unless you back it up to an external source of course. With a clean install you'll KNOW that the machine is yours and yours only. We have many excellent tutorials here at the forums, heres one on how to do that if you haven't before. Theres also a link to a Genuine Official Windows download, all you'll need is the COA from the sticker on your machine. Just click on the link.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[bigmck]

Go into the Control Panel and see if you can do a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html to a date before your "friend" got his hands on the PC. This will put it back like it was. This will require Administrator powers, so you might not be able to do it.

 

[mediabeing]

Indianacarne, I appreciate your clear and succinct answer, and I'm sorry I didn't make myself screamingly clear on the the matter. Whatever is left on the various storage devices of the windows unit is as dear as life itself, okay?
With That now well established - that erasing stored documents and photos is verboten - care to try again?
Thanks.

 

[mediabeing]

bigmck, I appreciate your suggestion. That was the very first thing I tried, to no avail. The system wouldn't go back before the lending period of the machine.
Again, my thanks for your thoughts on the matter.
Any clever discs that allow surgical removal of stuff (after identifying it well)?

 

[mediabeing]

It looks like the answer, for the time being, is to replace the hard drive(s) and start over with a factory fresh disc of the last version of 7.
I have a slowly growing pile of hard drives I'd like the data from. There must be others in the same boat.
Harvesting data from my old hard drives is yet another project.

 

[indianacarnie]

I don't think a entirely new drive is called for....... unless you just like getting new hardware . Just copy/back-up what you want to save to an external drive and then reinstall. You'll definitely be the "Administrator" then and it will be YOUR machine again. Check the link I posted to earlier for a Windows iso if needed.

 

[mediabeing]

I think that's probably the route I will take. Gotta save up first. Much thanks for your thoughts on the matter.

 

[RogerR]

You could also copy your files and photos to a CD or cloud account such as Dropbox. A clean windows install need not erase your files and photos - just create a new partition and install clean into that.

 

[mediabeing]

Thanks for your thoughts, but....There is indeed a solid reason why the entry mentioned a 'Cave being'.

The cave being has heard the word, 'partition' a few times; hasn't the slightest idea how he might detect existing ones, how to create new ones and what to do with the new ones from there. The cave being is looking into remedial classes on this.

It's starting to look like the nice Windows machine will be collecting dust for another year or two.

The cave being is gifted in music composition, photography and video production....not multipurpose computational devices.

 

[bigmck]

Thanks for your thoughts, but....There is indeed a solid reason why the entry mentioned a 'Cave being'.

The cave being has heard the word, 'partition' a few times; hasn't the slightest idea how he might detect existing ones, how to create new ones and what to do with the new ones from there. The cave being is looking into remedial classes on this.

It's starting to look like the nice Windows machine will be collecting dust for another year or two.

The cave being is gifted in music composition, photography and video production....not multipurpose computational devices.

When you buy a new HDD, it is blank. You have the option to divide it into parts. Just like when you cut a pie. These are called Partitions. The advantage is you can put Win 7 in one partition and your personal data (Pictures, Documents, etc) in another partition. The advantage of this is that you can reinstall Windows and your Documents in the other partition will remain untouched. You can make a partition using Disk Management (in Windows 7). A better option is to download Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online It is easy to use. Be sure and download the Bootable CD as that is needed in some cases.

 

[mediabeing]

Thanks, bigmck.

The cave being will go over this tract of enlightenment several more times and attempt to work it into his worldview.
At this time, the cave being's head is hurting. Conceptualization hurts.