Reformatting the hard drive

[M Weiss]

I plan to reformat the hard drive. Are there "official" instructions of how
to do it?

Mo

 

[JS]

How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348/en-us

JS

 

[John Barnett MVP]

No official instructions but the ones on my website might help:
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_format_my_hard_drive_us.htm

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
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any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I plan to reformat the hard drive. Are there "official" instructions of how
to do it?

I assume that your intent is to reinstall Windows after reformatting?

Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if
necessary to accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean
installation (delete the existing partition by pressing "D" when
prompted, then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp.htm

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

However why do you want to reformat and reinstall? In my view, it's
usually a mistake. With a modicum of care, it should never be
necessary to reinstall Windows (XP or any other version). I've run
Windows 3.0, 3.1, WFWG 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and
Windows XP, each for the period of time before the next version came
out, and each on two machines here. I never reinstalled any of them,
and I have never had anything more than an occasional minor problem.

It's my belief that this mistaken notion stems from the technical
support people at many of the larger OEMs. Their solution to almost
any problem they don't quickly know the answer to is "reformat and
reinstall." That's the perfect solution for them. It gets you off the
phone quickly, it almost always works, and it doesn't require them to
do any real troubleshooting (a skill that most of them obviously don't
possess in any great degree).

But it leaves you with all the work and all the problems. You have to
restore all your data backups, you have to reinstall all your
programs, you have to reinstall all the Windows and application
updates,you have to locate and install all the needed drivers for your
system, you have to recustomize Windows and all your apps to work the
way you're comfortable with.

Besides all those things being time-consuming and troublesome, you may
have trouble with some of them: can you find all your application CDs?
Can you find all the needed installation codes? Do you have data
backups to restore? Do you even remember all the customizations and
tweaks you may have installed to make everything work the way you
like? Occasionally there are problems that are so difficult to solve
that Windows should be reinstalled cleanly. But they are few and far
between; reinstallation should not be a substitute for
troubleshooting; it should be a last resort, to be done only after all
other attempts at troubleshooting by a qualified person have failed.

If you have problems, post them here; it's likely that someone can
help you and a reinstallation won't be required.

 

[Unknown]

Would you explain what you mean by 'official'?

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I plan to reformat the hard drive. Are there "official" instructions of how
to do it?

Mo

After backing up any data you wish to transfer to the new OS
installation, simply boot from the WinXP installation CD. You'll be
offered the opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part
of the installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the order of
boot devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.)

HOW TO Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

Then the backed up data can be restored and applications re-installed.


--

Bruce Chambers

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[M Weiss]

Thank you all. guys. Really appreciate your help.

Mo