clean installing/e bay disc

catford

as my pc is in such a mess i,m going to either reinstall w2000 if i can get a disc or upgrade to 2000xp. i,ve seen stuff on ebay to run which should clean my system before i reinstall. Does anyone know if this works ok??

bestyman

If you are reistalling windows why not formatt the hard drive before? I recently reinstalled XP and was given that option.

shrek101

As said the best way to clean a system prior to a fresh install is a format. Make sure you backup all your important data and have drivers for the relevant hardware just in case. XP disc will boot up from a cd/dvd drive then it will ask you for a quick format or a ull format on the relevant partition on the hard drive.

catford

confused about the drive format! is that on the disc ?or does it get done seperately?

boogiemaster

A format just erases all information on the hard drive and you don’t need to buy any software to do it.
Reboot your computer and hold the Tab button down, it will list boot options and you need to choose command prompt.

Once in command prompt? Type format c: Remember to type format then space then c:
It will ask if you’re sure. Type y for yes then it will start to format your drive.

Once it’s formatted your drive you need to reboot, hold the delete button down and go into bios and change the boot order to boot from cd rom.
Press F10 to save and make sure you put in Win 2000 in the cd rom, if it cannot wont work? Then put it into another cd rom if you have two.
It will auto install and then change the boot priority to what it was before.

-TangleFoot-

catford wrote:

confused about the drive format! is that on the disc ?or does it get done seperately?

Didn't I already explain how to do that with the Windows XP CD? If it didn't make sense I apologise, but that is the simplest way of doing it. The procedure should be similar for Windows 2000.

Alternatively, you could use something like DBAN to wipe the disk clean of all data, then simply follow Windows' installation instructions as normal. Unless you're installing something archaic like Windows 95, a format is normally included as part of the installation process.

catford

sorry tanglefoot!! I,ve not been concentrating!-- got it now.