Hello,

Bought a new computer a while ago without a floppy drive (that's how it
is these days, I guess). Anyways, in the old days, I used to reformat
my drive every year or so to clean it up. I would put in my 98/XP
bootable floppy to get me to an A: prompt, then format c: and go on my
merry way.

How do I do this now? Can I burn the same files to a cd rom drive and
then set the bios to boot to cdrom first? Would that work?

Need some suggestions....

thanks

what OS are you using?
"Mista Fadedglory" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hello,
>
> Bought a new computer a while ago without a floppy drive (that's how it
> is these days, I guess). Anyways, in the old days, I used to reformat
> my drive every year or so to clean it up. I would put in my 98/XP
> bootable floppy to get me to an A: prompt, then format c: and go on my
> merry way.
>
> How do I do this now? Can I burn the same files to a cd rom drive and
> then set the bios to boot to cdrom first? Would that work?
>
> Need some suggestions....
>
> thanks
>

BigJim wrote:
> what OS are you using?
> "Mista Fadedglory" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hello,
> >
> > Bought a new computer a while ago without a floppy drive (that's how it
> > is these days, I guess). Anyways, in the old days, I used to reformat
> > my drive every year or so to clean it up. I would put in my 98/XP
> > bootable floppy to get me to an A: prompt, then format c: and go on my
> > merry way.
> >
> > How do I do this now? Can I burn the same files to a cd rom drive and
> > then set the bios to boot to cdrom first? Would that work?
> >
> > Need some suggestions....
> >
> > thanks
> >

Sorry, Windows XP Pro.

BigJim wrote:
> what OS are you using?
> "Mista Fadedglory" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hello,
> >
> > Bought a new computer a while ago without a floppy drive (that's how it
> > is these days, I guess). Anyways, in the old days, I used to reformat
> > my drive every year or so to clean it up. I would put in my 98/XP
> > bootable floppy to get me to an A: prompt, then format c: and go on my
> > merry way.
> >
> > How do I do this now? Can I burn the same files to a cd rom drive and
> > then set the bios to boot to cdrom first? Would that work?
> >
> > Need some suggestions....
> >
> > thanks
> >

Win XP PRo

The Windows XP CD is bootable, assuming you have a retail copy of the CD
rather than a recovery CD from your pc manufacturer. To reformat with a
retail version of XP see the following on my website:
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how...d_drive_us.htm

If you have recovery disks from your pc manufacturer then by following the
manufacturers install procedure windows xp will be re-installed onto your
pc, along with any software that came pre-installed with your pc.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

"Mista Fadedglory" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hello,
>
> Bought a new computer a while ago without a floppy drive (that's how it
> is these days, I guess). Anyways, in the old days, I used to reformat
> my drive every year or so to clean it up. I would put in my 98/XP
> bootable floppy to get me to an A: prompt, then format c: and go on my
> merry way.
>
> How do I do this now? Can I burn the same files to a cd rom drive and
> then set the bios to boot to cdrom first? Would that work?
>
> Need some suggestions....
>
> thanks
>

John Barnett MVP wrote:
> The Windows XP CD is bootable, assuming you have a retail copy of the CD
> rather than a recovery CD from your pc manufacturer. To reformat with a
> retail version of XP see the following on my website:
> http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how...d_drive_us.htm
>
> If you have recovery disks from your pc manufacturer then by following the
> manufacturers install procedure windows xp will be re-installed onto your
> pc, along with any software that came pre-installed with your pc.
>
> --
> John Barnett MVP
> Associate Expert
> http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
> http://vistasupport.mvps.org
>
> The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
> kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
> reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
> any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
> use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
> mail/post..
>
> "Mista Fadedglory" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hello,
> >
> > Bought a new computer a while ago without a floppy drive (that's how it
> > is these days, I guess). Anyways, in the old days, I used to reformat
> > my drive every year or so to clean it up. I would put in my 98/XP
> > bootable floppy to get me to an A: prompt, then format c: and go on my
> > merry way.
> >
> > How do I do this now? Can I burn the same files to a cd rom drive and
> > then set the bios to boot to cdrom first? Would that work?
> >
> > Need some suggestions....
> >
> > thanks
> >

Wonderful, many thanks, any ideas yet if Vista will do the same thing?

Assuming XP, you boot from your XP CD and it will give you the option to
repartition and format during the install.
If you want to do it manually, boot to the recovery console from the CD and
use the diskpart and format commands.

"Mista Fadedglory" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hello,
>
> Bought a new computer a while ago without a floppy drive (that's how it
> is these days, I guess). Anyways, in the old days, I used to reformat
> my drive every year or so to clean it up. I would put in my 98/XP
> bootable floppy to get me to an A: prompt, then format c: and go on my
> merry way.
>
> How do I do this now? Can I burn the same files to a cd rom drive and
> then set the bios to boot to cdrom first? Would that work?
>
> Need some suggestions....
>
> thanks
>

Mista Fadedglory wrote:

> Bought a new computer a while ago without a floppy drive (that's how
> it is these days, I guess).


Although many computers now come without diskette drives, I always choose to
get one with a floppy drive. You don't need them often, but it's a real
convenience to have it when you need it. And they cost only a few dollars.

You can also add them after the fact.



> Anyways, in the old days, I used to
> reformat my drive every year or so to clean it up.


Ugh. I strongly disagree that there's ever a need to do this routinely,
whever in the "old days," or now. In my view, it's usually a mistake. With
a modicum of care, it should never be necessary to reinstall Windows (XP or
any other version). I've run Windows 3.0, 3.1, WFWG 3.11, Windows 95,
Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP, each for the period of time before
the next version came out, and each on two machines here. I never
reinstalled any of them, and I have never had anything more than an
occasional minor problem.

It's my belief that this mistaken notion stems from the technical support
people at many of the larger OEMs. Their solution to almost any problem they
don't quickly know the answer to is "reformat and reinstall." That's the
perfect solution for them. It gets you off the phone quickly, it almost
always works, and it doesn't require them to do any real troubleshooting (a
skill that most of them obviously don't possess in any great degree).

But it leaves you with all the work and all the problems. You have to
restore all your data backups, you have to reinstall all your programs, you
have to reinstall all the Windows and application updates,you have to locate
and install all the needed drivers for your system, you have to recustomize
Windows and all your apps to work the way you're comfortable with.

Besides all those things being time-consuming and troublesome, you may have
trouble with some of them: can you find all your application CDs? Can you
find all the needed installation codes? Do you have data backups to restore?
Do you even remember all the customizations and tweaks you may have
installed to make everything work the way you like? Occasionally there are
problems that are so difficult to solve that Windows should be reinstalled
cleanly. But they are few and far between; reinstallation should not be a
substitute for troubleshooting; it should be a last resort, to be done only
after all other attempts at troubleshooting by a qualified person have
failed.



> I would put in my
> 98/XP bootable floppy to get me to an A: prompt, then format c: and
> go on my merry way.
>
> How do I do this now? Can I burn the same files to a cd rom drive and
> then set the bios to boot to cdrom first? Would that work?


No, you don't need a diskette drive for this, because you don't need to
format separately from installing. Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change
the BIOS boot order if necessary to accomplish this) and follow the prompts
for a clean installation (delete the existing partition by pressing "D" when
prompted, then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how...windows_xp.htm

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

"Mista Fadedglory" wrote

> Hello,
>
> Bought a new computer a while ago without a floppy drive (that's how it
> is these days, I guess). Anyways, in the old days, I used to reformat
> my drive every year or so to clean it up. I would put in my 98/XP
> bootable floppy to get me to an A: prompt, then format c: and go on my
> merry way.
>
> How do I do this now? Can I burn the same files to a cd rom drive and
> then set the bios to boot to cdrom first? Would that work?

There should be no need to reinstall XP clean every year. A properly
maintained system can run well for years. This one I'm working on now,
which I have also used in the Vista Beta and which is now running a
multi-boot configuration with 4 OS installations, two XP and two Vista, has
been running over 3 years without a reinstall of the XP OS.

As others have pointed out, the XP installation CD is bootable.

Mista Fadedglory wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Bought a new computer a while ago without a floppy drive (that's how it
> is these days, I guess). Anyways, in the old days, I used to reformat
> my drive every year or so to clean it up.


I've heard of stranger hobbies. There is usually no sound
technical reason for reinstalling WinXP so frequently.


> I would put in my 98/XP
> bootable floppy to get me to an A: prompt, then format c: and go on my
> merry way.
>


The boot diskette is a thing of the past, as all legitimate WinXP
installation CDs are already bootable.


> How do I do this now? Can I burn the same files to a cd rom drive and
> then set the bios to boot to cdrom first? Would that work?
>


Simply boot from the WinXP installation CD. You'll be offered the
opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the
installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the order of boot
devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.)

HOW TO Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...B;en-us;316941

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm


--

Bruce Chambers

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