Keeping factory installed Windows XP when reformatting?

[Guest]

My computer came with Windows XP preinstalled. I'm thinking of reformatting
the computer and just starting over fresh. Is there a way to keep Windows XP?

 

[G.T.]

My computer came with Windows XP preinstalled. I'm thinking of reformatting
the computer and just starting over fresh. Is there a way to keep Windows

XP?

Your question is a little confusing. Do you want to resize your
partition(s), too? If so, backup, repartition, and restore, but you will
still have your preinstalled Windows XP. Likewise, if you use a partition
resizer you will still have your preinstalled Windows XP.

If not, then you need to reformat and install to start over fresh. Or you
keep your preinstalled Windows XP installation to keep Windows XP.

Greg

 

[Richard Urban]

Reformat equals wiping the hard drive clean. I hope you have the Windows XP
media. You had better look at the manual that came with your computer and
see what it has to say about system recovery. There may be a hidden
partition on your hard drive that enables you to get back to the way your
computer was when you took it out of the box.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

My computer came with Windows XP preinstalled. I'm thinking of reformatting
the computer and just starting over fresh. Is there a way to keep Windows

XP?

There are two ways to revert to the original factory installation:
a) If your machine came with a factory restore facility. You
need to read the manual that came with your PC.
b) If you took a snapshot at the very beginning, using a
product such as Acronis TrueImage.

If neither of these applies then you must either keep your installation
as it is or you reformat the disk (not the computer!) and re-install
Windows from scratch.