Reformat

Wade Romonosky · Post by **Wade Romonosky** » 28 Apr 2006 6:12 pm

I need to reformat my hard drive does anyone know of somewhere I can get the instructions.

Wade

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 29 Apr 2006 3:59 am

What Operating System? It does make a difference.

Wade Romonosky · Post by **Wade Romonosky** » 29 Apr 2006 6:12 am

windows xp

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 29 Apr 2006 7:32 am

When you boot with the Windows XP installation CD, it should give you an option to format the hard drive first.

After XP is installed, depending on your PC model/brand, you may have to install motherboard chipset drivers then the device drivers (e.g. sound) then the applications, reinstall the peripherals (printers, scanners), etc.

Wade Romonosky · Post by **Wade Romonosky** » 29 Apr 2006 7:51 am

I need to wipe the drive clean first. So I can start over.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 29 Apr 2006 8:46 am

Wade;
You will find resources on these pages to answer your question about re-formatting your C drive:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=313348 http://www.helpdesk.umd.edu/topics/troubleshooting/os/windows_2000/4349/ http://www.theeldergeek.com/formatting_drives_using_xp_cd.htm

Read the above references. You will need your original licensed Windows XP Cd and product key, you must set the BIOS to boot from your CD drive first, and you may need to have any special driver disks handy if your motherboard has a non-PATA hard drive (like first generation SATA, or SCSI - hit F6 when asked to do so, during setup, with the floppy disk in drive A). As Jack said you'll need the drivers CD for your motherboard, just in case the hardware is not recognized and installed automatically.

When you boot from the Windows XP CD, run Setup. During setup it will detect the previous OS. Tell setup to delete the partition, then install XP fresh into the unassigned space. The CD will ask if you want to format it as NTFS; say YES. It will warn about erasing all data, say OK.

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Read Wiz's Blog for security news and update notices[This message was edited by Wiz Feinberg on 29 April 2006 at 09:47 AM.]