Formatting hard drive

cooldudecol

I've got a 5 yr old laptop that has got so much junk over the years and runs incredibly slowly and overheats.

I'd like to clear everything out and just use it for the internet.

Is it easy enough to format the hard drive and install xp and all the neccessary hardware software if you've got the CDs?

I've not a technophobe by any means, but not a PC expert.

Browntoa

as long as you have the drivers disk then it's easy

should take no more than 10-15 minutes to format and load XP then as it boots after the XP install it will start installing the hardware, pop the drivers disk in and it should find the drivers

just remember to install a decent firewall straight away like kerio or comodo and do Windows Updates before you do anything else

cooldudecol

thanks for that - now for a daft question.

How do I actually go about formatting it?!

Browntoa

boot from the XP cd, nice instructions with pics here

http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_home_install_-_graphic.htm

trythat

If you only want it for email and browsing, I'd look at shoving a Linux distro on it, more secure, no virus' (yet) and its free.

Shouldn't be any slower and there are a large number of desktop shells to use.

Also if you download a Live cd edition you can try it before installing it, to see if it does what you want. The live cd will run very slowly, but once installed to the hard drive, it will of course be a lot quicker

http://www.linux-laptop.net/ is a good place to start, it will try and recommend a Linux for your laptop.