Re-formatting XP problem

[William W Hines]

I've tried to follow the steps in the recommended reformat procedure, but
it's not working out for me.

I'm running a Dell 4450 dimension with Windows XP Home Edition and 512 MB of
RAM.

I have a re-install disk. It goes through the whole procedure, but I found
that most the previous disk content was not deleted from my 120 GB hard
drive. Each time, I by passed the "repair" option and choose the clean frsh
install option, but it seems that I'm just compounding the amount of content
on my hard. Now, I seem to have doubled and tripled the preious content.

What am I doing wrong? Am I making a mistake at the partition point of the
procedure? If so, what could it be? All I want is a clean Widows re-install.

I hope I am not misunderstanding the jargon (terms) in the procedure.

Help, please! Thank you, someone('s)!

Billyboy
(e-mail address removed)

 

[DL]

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

 

[William W Hines]

Thank you for your response, DL. I'm still puzzled somewhat, because I
thought that followed every step in your post website. Maybe not!
Here's where I suspect that I messed up:

<10b If the hard drive or partition has a previous installation of XP you
want to remove, choose to delete the partition by pressing "D". You will
then be prompted to create a new partition in the empty space. This will
remove all data from the deleted space.>

I wasn't insterested in partitioning anything (even though I have a pretty
large HD). I just wanted to delete all the content from the previously
installed XP Home Edition. Then, I noticed my PC starting to act up and
become very slow (almost to a stop). I don't understand why that during my
re-install the content wasn't deleted when I selected "D" for delete? The
factory disk came with my Dell 4550 Dimension PC.

Will there be any use to try the re-install (format) again, or will the
situation only get worse?

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Wy]

Hi William -

What I'd do if I were you is download the software of the hard drive and
reformat that way. I don't know what kinda hard drive you have so I can't
say what to download. It's basically a tool to let you diagnose and
reformat the drive. Most drives comes with a disc or sort when you buy it
but I know this one probably came with your computer since it's a Dell.
It's probably easier to print out those instructions (from the website DL
gave you) and follow them instead of trying to memorize all the steps. Take
it from someone who learned the hard way ;-)

Good luck,
Wy

 

[William W Hines]

A big thanks to you both, DL and Wy! I wanted to speak to someone in the
know before I tried to re-formatt again>

FYI. I didn't know which files to manually delete and which ones to leave
intact. I was afraid that I might unintentionally delete some files that
might keep me from rebooting at all. I am now creating a set of bootable
floppies just incase something does go wrong. That way I can switch over to
my cs-rom drive if I get stuck.

It's amazing how something so seemingly simple can get out of hand so
quickly. <smile>

Oh well....I'll give it my best shot and see what happens. Thanks again
guys!

billybob

 

[Twayne]

I've tried to follow the steps in the recommended reformat procedure,
but it's not working out for me.

I'm running a Dell 4450 dimension with Windows XP Home Edition and
512 MB of RAM.

I have a re-install disk. It goes through the whole procedure, but I
found that most the previous disk content was not deleted from my 120
GB hard drive. Each time, I by passed the "repair" option and choose
the clean frsh install option, but it seems that I'm just compounding
the amount of content on my hard. Now, I seem to have doubled and
tripled the preious content.

What am I doing wrong? Am I making a mistake at the partition point
of the procedure? If so, what could it be? All I want is a clean
Widows re-install.

I hope I am not misunderstanding the jargon (terms) in the procedure.

Help, please! Thank you, someone('s)!

Billyboy
(e-mail address removed)

To do a clean windows reinstall, you really need to use the partiton
Delete and reCreate options in the beginning of the process, assuming
it's not automated on the disk you have.
"Repair" and "clean install" regardless of where you think you're
finding them, are mutually exclusive; One does not lead to the other.
Repair leaves data in place. Clean Install kills off all the data. I
suspect you are mixing up your terminology. Repair is NOT a clean
install. It doesn't delete old data.

Twayne

 

[wmwh1217]

Thank you also, Twayne. I will be a lot more careful this time through the
reformatt process.

Bill