reformatting my hard drive

[Biff]

Hello. I have a problem with viruses and I think I need to reformat
my computer and reinstall the disks. I am using Windows XP Home.
Trend Micro PC-cillin has detected the problems but cannot clean
them. I have tried to update my pattern files but no matter what I do
I still get things popping up trying to sell me stuff. I do not know
how to clean out all of the old corrupted junk off of the drives
before reinstalling my OS. A friend told my to reboot and when the
process started try holding ctrl/f11 at the same time but it does not
seem to have any effect on the booting up process.

So...How do I wipe my puter clean and start anew?

Thanks in advance
Biff

 

[peter]

If your system came with XP preinstalled....read the manual that came with
it and it will explain how to restore to just purchased state.

If you have a retail XP CD......boot with the CD in place.Watch for the
message "push any key to boot from CD" and push a key.
If that does not happen you might need to enter your BIOS and set CD as 1st
boot device...the key to push to enter the BIOS varies most of the time that
also will display when your system boots...on most machines it is the
"delete" key.
Once XP installation starts pick the partition that it is already installed
on and pick new installation and use the option to format the drive.This
will erase all info on the drive.
Be aware that you will need to reinstall all Updates....as well as all
programs that you now have.
Here is a website that covers the install.
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp
peter