Format hard drive and reinstall Win XP

badbambi

Hi

Ideally want to totally clear my PC and reinstall Win XP.

PC wouldn't boot into Windows but following reinstall of Win XP, driver paths are corrupt and internet connection not recognised etc.

I have recent back ups of all my files and folders and I have install disks for the programs I want to reinstall.

When I try to format through Windows I get an error that programmes are still running.

I tried to format via C prompt but that didn't work either.

Any advice (basic please as I'm no techie) welcomed.

Cheers

jasonwatkins

You can't actually reformat your PC while you're running it - it would be like trying to whip off a tablecloth with all the cups still on it

You need to find your Windows XP installation disk, put that in the CD drive and reboot your machine.

Usually you have to press the "Escape" key to select what to boot from, so you could do that and select the CD Drive to boot from the installation disk.

Then you can follow the prompts and do a full re-format from there.

wonka

Just to reiterate what Jason says, you can only format/reinstall XP after a reboot using the XP CD.

It might be necessary to modify the BIOS settings to boot off a CD first.

Once the XP installer has loaded, select the option to install, and then you'll find yourself on the partition page. My advice would be to delete the partitions then recreate one before formatting and reinstalling XP - start with a clean slate if possible. It's pretty straight forward.

One other piece of advice before embarking on this... make sure you have all your device drivers at the ready before wiping the hard disk and installing XP.

You'll need drivers for:

• Ethernet Network
• Wifi
• Video
• Audio
• + any other hardware

jasonwatkins

Yeah I can't recommend enough taking some time to pull together all the drivers and programs you usually use before the re-format.

I started doing it years ago and now I have one DVD with all the up to date versions of the stuff I use and it helps immensely - makes the process a lot quicker.

to make it easier to do, i'd create a folder - maybe on your desktop if it's easier to find.

call it something like "useful programs" and then search out and download everything you need and save it to that folder.

then, you can just burn that folder to disc and you'll be ready to go.

badbambi

Thanks for all the advice.

I'll let you know how I get on.

:T