Erasing Harddrive

[Guest]

I am trying to erase my hard-drive and start fresh.
I have inserted the XP disc and tried to run - but an error is telling me
that the version of XP on the Harddrive is newer than that of the disc so it
will not let me proceed.
Catch here is - that the disc was purchased in July 2004 and here it is Nov.
2004. Can't tell me that there is that big of a change from the updates from
windows and my disc that would prevent me from erasing and starting over.
So my question is how do I get around this problem so that I can erase the
hard-drive and start fresh?
Thanks for any help

 

[Ted Zieglar]

"How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP"
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313348

 

[Curt]

The XP cd is bootable. In your system bios, set the system to boot from your
cd drive. Pop in your XP cd and reboot, then follow the on screen
instructions. If you encounter problems using that method, you can use fdisk
to delete any non-dos partitions and then set the system to boot from the cd
drive to create a new partition, format and install XP.

 

[Richard Urban]

You do it by booting up from the Windows XP CD and following the
instructions - very carefully (-:

--

Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[John Smith]

I wish it was that simple for me. When I boot from the CD, the first 2
options (format & repair) are grayed and won't let me use them - any
thoughts?

 

[Ted Zieglar]

You're doing something wrong. Those options are always available.

'Booting from the CD' means that you place the CD into your CD drive and
re-start the computer. For this to work, your BIOS must be set to boot from
the CD drive before the hard drive.

Ted Zieglar

 

[Brodieman]

I wish it was that simple for me. When I boot from the CD, the
first 2

options (format & repair) are grayed and won’t let me use them -
any
thoughts?

HEH? Are you just putting the disk in whilst you in Windows? I have
never seen this option when you boot from the CD... it could just be
me..

Literally Turn off your PC
Turn it back on with the CD in your choice of optical drive (IE CD/DVD
Drive)
After the BIOS bit of the boot before what ever OS your current
running starts it should give you an option to "Press any key to boot
from CD"
Press any key!

It will then load also sorts of bits and pieces, in a DOS like
enviroment...
1 question to ask here! Do you have your hard drives connected to a
RAID array? if you you’ll need the drive disk.. probably a floppy
(hopefully anyway).. if you do whist the the setup is loading it’ll
ask you to Press F6 to specify additional drivers... make sure you
press it (this appears within about 10 seconds of setup loading....)

Follow the on screen instructions... and when you come to the bit of
where you want to install XP you can delete the partition with XP
current on and re-create the partition to install XP on...

Hope this helps... good luck.. and I hope you have access to another
PC to ask questions.

Stu

 

[Guest]

where is the "Any Key"?

If you have to explain how to boot from a CD, then that person does NOT know
what a RAID drive is either...

Why is a floppy drive so hard?

 

[Guest]

that still won't erase the the drive. with software, I can read up to 7
fdisks and/or formats! repartitioning or formating is not erasing...he
asked how to erase the drive...that is "zero fill" the drive.

 

[Richard Urban]

The fact that he is trying to "start fresh" tells me he just wants to format
to remove the previous junk.

--

Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[Guest]

OK...you still have to low level format the drive or zero fill
it...Formatting or fdisking a drive is like using a used piece of paper and
erasing it...you can still see and make out what was on the disk
before....especially bad for viruses and spyware. Wiping a drive (low level
formating or zero filling) is like using a fresh new sheet of paper.
nothing bleeds through.

 

[Earl F. Parrish]

I am trying to erase my hard-drive and start fresh.
I have inserted the XP disc and tried to run - but an error is
telling me
that the version of XP on the Harddrive is newer than that of the
disc so it
will not let me proceed.
Catch here is - that the disc was purchased in July 2004 and here
it is Nov.
2004. Can't tell me that there is that big of a change from the
updates from
windows and my disc that would prevent me from erasing and
starting over.
So my question is how do I get around this problem so that I can
erase the
hard-drive and start fresh?
Thanks for any help

Your CD is either the original XP or XP SP1 while your installed
version is XP SP2 if you use Windows Update.

 

[John Smith]

No - those two options are not 'always' available - they aren't for me. BIOS
is set, CD is in drive, computer is re-started, and this is not the first
time I've used the CD. Quite some time ago, I put the CD in and browsed it -
the two options were available then.I've run my anti-virus, Ad-aware, and
SpywareBlaster - they report all clean.
I had installed an old DOS-based program I love (actually, reinstalled it -
I had removed it and replaced it with its newer version but prefer the old
one). Immediately, it only wanted to open the DOS-based program whenever I
tried any program. I downloaded and used the exe fixit program, but that
didn't work so I uninstalled the DOS-based program. That didn't fix it
either. I decided to just reinstall windows and be done with it - that's
when I tried the CD and it grayed the first two options