Reinstall XP

[Pat McLaughlin]

When I installed XP Pro for the first time, I wanted to
completely reformat my hard drive. So I chose new
installation. However, the install worked but the hard
drive was not reformated. How can best completely wipe
out the hard drive and reinstall XP Pro.

Thanks,
Pat

 

[Patrick Keenan]

When I installed XP Pro for the first time, I wanted to
completely reformat my hard drive. So I chose new
installation. However, the install worked but the hard
drive was not reformated. How can best completely wipe
out the hard drive and reinstall XP Pro.

Thanks,
Pat

During Setup, when you choose the partition to install to, you probably
chose "use existing format" which does *not* format the drive - it leaves it
as is. You need to actually select a format type to invoke the format
utility.

HTH
-pk

 

[Dan]

Get a window 98 boot disk and run fdisk to remove the partition. Also you
can run fdisk /mbr to rewrite the boot record

 

[Alex Nichol]

When I installed XP Pro for the first time, I wanted to
completely reformat my hard drive. So I chose new
installation. However, the install worked but the hard
drive was not reformated. How can best completely wipe
out the hard drive and reinstall XP Pro.

New install just makes a fresh install of the system - it does not
necessarily format. You do it as part of a reinstall of the system
after booting the XP CD direct. Enter Setup, and after the license
agreement take New Install. When it asks you to confirm where, hit ESC;
select and *delete* the current partition and make a new RAW one to be
formatted at the next stage

 

[Nada Alwarid [MSFT]]

While in Win XP setup, select the partition you want the OS installed on and
choose to reformat it. or you can just delete any exisiting partition and
create new ones and format them. this will help you clean any unwanted
partitions, as well.

nada