Please Help with Reinstalling Windows

[Guest]

About a week ago I had a virus which currupted a lot of my system files so my
anti-virus couldn't even repair them instead it had to delete them.
This caused my computer a lot of problems one of which is the fact it
couldn't re-install my broadband.
I realised that the only solution would be to reinstall XP, so I did using
the XP Professional disc. To my surprise my C: drive remained the same
with the same files as before! The most annoying thing is the fact that now
I cannot access my previous
Docs and Settings at all, I backed them up as I expected them to be deleted
but now there's about 30-40GB in there I can't delete!!! Is there a way
I can restore my computer to factory settings so the HD is like the day I
bought it?
Please, please help because this is driving me mad.

 

[Patti MacLeod]

Hi Igor,

For the issue of your not being able to access or delete the previous
Documents and Settings folder, if you are receiving the "Access is Denied"
error message, then have a look at this MSKB article, "Access is Denied
Error Message When You Try to Open a Folder", which explains how to take
ownership of a file/folder in WINXP Pro:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=810881

If you are certain that you do want to restore your computer to "factory
settings", use the Recovery or Restore CD provided by the computer
manufacturer to do a clean install of the operating system. If you have a
retail version of XP Pro, the follow the instructions here, provided
courtesy of Michael Stevens, to perform a clean install of XP:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html



Regards,