Format drive c

[Guest]

I am having alot of problems with my xp Professional edition. (Actually I
believe it's the hard drive). I want to format and start fresh with my drive,
but have no idea were to start...is their someone that can help me?

Thanks

 

[Michael D. Alligood]

If you have your Windows XP CD or recovery CD that came with your PC,
you can insert that into your CD-ROM and reboot your PC. If your BIOS is
configured to boot from CD-ROM, it will prompt you to "press any key to
boot to cd." If after rebooting your computer, it just boots into
Windows again, we need to configure your BIOS to look at the CD-ROM
during boot. The goal is to boot to your Windows XP or Recovery CD and
perform a reinstall with formatting. In doing so, you will lose all
information including pictures, personal documents, music, etc. So make
sure you have a backup of any of these items you would like to keep.

Are you following me so far? Let me know if you have the Windows XP
or Recovery CD and try to boot from it. If it does not work, post back
and I or someone else will be happy to move you forward. Good Luck

 

[AJR]

Good advice from Michael - Question - if you think the HD is "kaput" - why
would you want to re-install or repair XP without first verifying the HD's
condition?

 

[Roy Colson]

Good advice from Michael - Question - if you think the HD is "kaput" - why
would you want to re-install or repair XP without first verifying the HD's
condition?

Download diagnostic software from the HD manufactures website and check out
your HD.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I am having alot of problems with my xp Professional edition. (Actually I
believe it's the hard drive). I want to format and start fresh with my drive,
but have no idea were to start...is their someone that can help me?

Thanks

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.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941

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

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


--

Bruce Chambers

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[Ken Blake, MVP]

I am having alot of problems with my xp Professional edition.
(Actually I believe it's the hard drive). I want to format and start
fresh with my drive, but have no idea were to start...is their
someone that can help me?

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_do_i_install_windows_xp.htm

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

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

However why do you want to reformat and reinstall? 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.

If you have problems, post them here; it's likely that someone can help you
and a reinstallation won't be required.