cleaning off and reinstalling operating system

scottieisu,

Make, Model and Operating System of your computer would be very helpful.

Rick

You should have received Dell OS and Drivers/Utilities cds with your computer purchase.  With Dell, they use an OEM cd key with the OS cd's (Windows XP cd with Dell enhancements and a Dell label on the cd).  This way, you don't have to enter a cd key when you re-install your operating system.  I'm assuming you're using XP or Vista.

Anyway, you should put in the Dell operating system cd (it's labeled), and boot off of the cd.  The prompt will ask you to press any key to boot off of the cd.  Press a key.  I usually delete all of the partitions shown until it says no partititions.  Then, just hit the Enter key to install and choose NTFS Quick if you're given that option.

This will load the Windows OS onto your computer.  Once Windows is installed, you will need to insert your Dell Drivers/Utilities cd and install the drivers associated with the hardware installed in your system. 

An easy way to verify what specific hardware is in your system is to go to support.dell.com and then look at the warranty information.  There will be a tab that says original system configuration.  Put in your Dell Service tag number and you will see a list of all the original hardware.  This should guide you to installing the correct drivers for your Dell system.

Hopefully this will get you started.  If you don't have the install cds that came with the system, look at the post above and order a replacement set.