Restarting from scratch

[Albert]

I'm only running XP SP3 and I'd like to restore this laptop so that it
is like a newly bought laptop with XP installed. I've got the XP CD;
could you tell me more about backing up and the rest of the process?

 

[sandy58]

I'm only running XP SP3 and I'd like to restore this laptop so that it
is like a newly bought laptop with XP installed. I've got the XP CD;
could you tell me more about backing up and the rest of the process?

Albert, do you mean a "clean install" of Windows? That is, a newly
format-ed hard drive & XP installed? Don't you want to save all your
stuff on the hard drive? Is your hard drive partitioned?
If you have a partition you can shunt all the stuff you want to save
onto the partition and format the main (where Windows is) drive
without losing anything.
More info please, Albert.

 

[Albert]

Albert, do you mean...a newly
format-ed hard drive & XP installed? Yes

Don't you want to save all your
stuff on the hard drive?

I intend to back that up all up onto a CD/DVD but I'm not sure of the
best way of going about this.

Is your hard drive partitioned?

Yes, and I'd like to remove it. I don't want my hard drive
partitioned.

Please ask for more detail if necessary