formatting HD and re-installing Windows

[Michael]

Please help.

I have a 2-yr. old HP desktop P3 128mb RAM running
Win98ME. It has been crashing so I decided to reformat the
HD and reinstalling Windows XP because running HP's system
rescue disc did not work.

Any Ideas on the proper way to do this? Where should I run
the format command? I have a full professional version of
XP on CD-ROM so how do I get my PC to read from the CD
upon install?

Any input will be great!! Thank you.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ** Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall **
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]


--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Please help.
|
| I have a 2-yr. old HP desktop P3 128mb RAM running
| Win98ME. It has been crashing so I decided to reformat the
| HD and reinstalling Windows XP because running HP's system
| rescue disc did not work.
|
| Any Ideas on the proper way to do this? Where should I run
| the format command? I have a full professional version of
| XP on CD-ROM so how do I get my PC to read from the CD
| upon install?
|
| Any input will be great!! Thank you.

 

[peter]

You need to enter your BIOS and designate the CD drive as the 1st boot
device
Then insert the XP CD and reboot
read the messages that show on start up because you might have to push an F
key to boot from the XP CD.
The XP installation will let you format your HD during the installation.
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp
peter

 

[June]

Hi,
I also have an HP destop P3, but it runs 98SE and looking
to upgrade to XP. I went to HP website and to windows
website to see if I could update to XP. I discovered that
for HP 8665C there is problems with updating to XP.

On someone's computer HP PII, they could not bring it up
to windows so I refomatted the HP PII by having a boot
disk which has the config.sys, command.com, etc. which I
created from my computer then booted their's. BTW, their
HP recovery disk was not recognized either before the
reformat. By reformatting, there no more HP settings
(can't use recovery disk no more, but make a bootable disk
once everything is installed). Now I understand that
booting from the XP CD with a complete install may work,
but may not get rid of all the extra files.

First, I would find out if your HP model is compatiable
with Windows XP at the HP website.

Once you have a bootable disk (diskette) and boot to C:

format C:

Also, could try putting the XP CD in, turn the computer on
and boot from it and do new install.