Problem after reformatting of drive

[Guest]

hey guys
i'm wondering after u reformatted ur dirve all the old files will be gone
rite? however for my case, i suspect that not everything is gone as my disc
space is still the same as before i reformatted and i had a lot of movies n
music on my comp then, but now i have none.
and i also found out that my old "owner" folder is still present in my
Document n settings folder, however i can't access it nor delete it.
i'm wondering if anyone knows what wrong n how i can get rid of that n
possibly free up my disc space.
Thanx~
Jasper

 

[Guest]

I'm pretty positive you did not reformat your hard drive!

You probably installed another copy of windows on top of what you already had.

If you had done it correctly, NONE of your previous files or folders would
still be there.

You want to do a "Clean Install".

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/honeycutt_02october07.mspx

or

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316941#XSLTH3169121122120121120120
Perform a clean install of Windows XP
A clean installation refers to removing all data from your hard disk by
repartitioning and reformatting your hard disk and reinstalling the operating
system and programs to an empty (clean) hard disk. You should back up all
important information before you perform a clean installation of Windows XP.

For additional information about important things to consider before you
partition and format you hard disk and how to partition and format your hard
disk by using the Windows XP Setup program, click the following article
number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
313348 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348/) How to partition and format
a hard disk in Windows XP
After you have backed up all your important information, follow these steps
to install Windows XP:1. Start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM. To
do this, insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD drive or DVD drive, and
then restart your computer.
2. When you see the "Press any key to boot from CD" message, press any key
to start the computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.
3. At the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to start Windows XP Setup.
4. Read the End-User License Agreement, and then press F8.
5. Follow the instructions on the screen to select and format a partition
where you want to install Windows XP.
6. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete Windows XP Setup.