How can I reformat my computer (details important)?

@manyu :: They don’t have a optical drive on their netbook so that will not work.

When you reboot your computer, then you have to press a certain key- combination while reboot starts, then it will offer you a system restore. I think you have to press F9 like 10 times in a row or until the restore menu comes up. Do it when the reboot starts.

@manyu I don’t have an optical drive, and I don’t have a disc. Please read the question in future.

@Otto_King I’ll try that, thank you.

Your Eee should have come with a support DVD which contains a system restore function that will restore the machine to factory configuration (but it will also result in everything else being deleted) if you use it on startup and press ‘ESC’, but you will need to attach an external DVD drive to use it.

External DVD drives (USB) are coming down in price, I’d check your local big computer store (Frys, Best Buy, etc.) and if all else fails a little one like Radio Shack (Note: I am in the USA, store names and availability will vary ;-)

Just be sure to keep the receipt.

Another possibly might be to make a boot-flash-drive. I think there are tools to put the contents of an ISO on a flash drive or memory card+reader and make it bootable.

@ragingloli I’ve just found that I had a DVD all along. Thanks!

I don’t particularly want to buy an external drive even if I can return it later – if I turn it into an .iso file, then write a .ini file to execute it and put them on a flash drive, will that work?

@FireMadeFlesh I don’t think it will Just Work, because the boot sector needs to be set up a certain way, but I do think there are ways to do it. (I’ve never done it myself though, so I can’t give details)
(and the BIOS can’t read an ISO, you would need to extract it to the flash drive)

@davidgro Thanks.