[SOLVED] resetting

[Bretwk]

I built a computer. My son downloaded drivers, and installed windows. He may have made changes in the bios as well. I would like to reset the entire thing to original (bios and no windows 10).

How do I do this?

 

[USAFRet]

I built a computer. My son downloaded drivers, and installed windows. He may have made changes in the bios as well. I would like to reset the entire thing to original (bios and no windows 10).

How do I do this?

There is probably a function in the BIOS to reset to Default settings.
Do that.

For the OS...you can either do a full wipe with DBAN (not if an SSD, though), or just do your own clean install of Win 10.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

...I would like to reset the entire thing to original(bios and no windows 10)...

your BIOS will have an option you can choose to restore/reset to defaults. this would change all settings to the original default manufacturer settings.
to actually change the BIOS version to an earlier one;
you should be able to load an older BIOS onto a USB drive and install it through the BIOS's update options. though this is not recommended. you should always stick with the latest available revision.

what do you mean by "no Windows 10"?
you previously had an older version of Windows installed and you want to go back to that?
or you want to totally wipe the drive and have no OS at all installed?

 

[Bretwk]

what do you mean by "no Windows 10"?
you previously had an older version of Windows installed and you want to go back to that?
or you want to totally wipe the drive and have no OS at all installed?

I am honestly not sure what I need to do. I have reset the bios and I have reinstalled windows but all the drivers that my son installed are still there.

Essentially, I would like to get my self back to the moment when I first powered on the machine and start from there. Resetting the bios changed nothing and reinstalling windows also did not remove the drivers (not sure how that is the case?).

 

[USAFRet]

A full wipe and reinstall.
Delete ALL existing partitions during this. Nothing of the previous will remain.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Bretwk]

A full wipe and reinstall.
Delete ALL existing partitions during this. Nothing of the previous will remain.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Will this remove the drivers I installed?

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

Essentially, I would like to get my self back to the moment when I first powered on the machine and start from there.

what exactly is the issue you are now facing that you want/need to reset everything?

Will this remove the drivers I installed?

USAFret's recommendation will totally wipe EVERYTHING from the drive. after the reinstall you will have nothing but the basic Windows 10 files.

 

[USAFRet]

Will this remove the drivers I installed?

Done properly, it will remove everything.
Section II, Step 6 & 7 in that link outlines deleting ALL existing partitions and continuing with a totally blank drive.

 

[Bretwk]

what exactly is the issue you are now facing that you want/need to reset everything?

USAFret's recommendation will totally wipe EVERYTHING from the drive. after the reinstall you will have nothing but the basic Windows 10 files.

The issue that I am facing is that things aren't working. There are about a dozen of the same drivers on the computer and I don't know what to remove. I want to get back to the point before he started the computer so I can try to do it correctly.

As far as I can tell he:

1. booted the computer and downloaded windows from a usb
2. started downloading drivers from here (https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/MPG-Z390-GAMING-EDGE-AC)
3. couldn't get certain things loaded so kept downloading drivers

for instance there are about 3 dozen audio drivers downloaded. I actually uninstalled all the audio drivers and then rebooted and they were all back so at this point I think that starting fresh would be the best bet since this all happened in the last 24 hours (nothing to protect).

 

[USAFRet]

Full wipe and reinstall.​

 

[Bretwk]

Full wipe and reinstall.​

should that be linked? It doesn't appear to be.

At this point I created the installation media on usb from the previous instructions.

 

[USAFRet]

should that be linked? It doesn't appear to be.

At this point I created the installation media on usb from the previous instructions.

That wasn't a link, just an emphasis.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com