Repartition hard disk

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve
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S

Steve

Hey,

What is the easiest way to repartition my hard disk for a clean install of
winxp home? I want to wipe everything off the disk.

Thanks,

Steve
 
Steve said:
Hey,

What is the easiest way to repartition my hard disk for a clean
install of winxp home? I want to wipe everything off the disk.

Thanks,

Steve
Click to expand...

Boot using the Windows install CD, use its tools to delete all
partitions, create new partition(s), and format them (as NTFS). Then
continue the install.
 
In
Steve said:
What is the easiest way to repartition my hard disk for a clean
install of winxp home? I want to wipe everything off the disk.
Click to expand...


No formatting first is required. 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://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm



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



However why do you want to do this? In my view, it's almost
always 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.
 
Steve said:
Hey,

What is the easiest way to repartition my hard disk for a clean
install of winxp home? I want to wipe everything off the disk.

Thanks,

Steve
Click to expand...

You boot from the CD and do a clean install.
Click on or copy and paste the link below into your web browser address bar.
How to clean install XP.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
 
Sounds easy for an expert.
By the time i write to this news group and wait for answers , (eaven if they
are prompt, which they usually are) I can reformat my hard drive and
reinstall my XP PRO and all my aplications in about 4 hrs. I have everything
backed up on cd.
It would probably take me a week to get all the answers i might need to get
my puter back up to par useing the news group.
I know you guys can't sit by your computer 24 hrs a day.
I am just a home user and its much faster and easier to just do it all over.
 
Carl said:
Sounds easy for an expert.
By the time i write to this news group and wait for answers , (eaven
if they are prompt, which they usually are) I can reformat my hard
drive and reinstall my XP PRO and all my aplications in about 4 hrs.
I have everything backed up on cd.
It would probably take me a week to get all the answers i might need
to get my puter back up to par useing the news group.
I know you guys can't sit by your computer 24 hrs a day.
I am just a home user and its much faster and easier to just do it
all over.
Click to expand...

That is very good, and all home users should be as prepared as you. The
reality is most computer users have only heard a rumor they should make
backups of their important information. All the photos of their first borns
archives. The first step, maybe the sound bite of the first DaDA or MaMa.
The golden shower dad or mom gets changing a soaked diaper. Most likely all
these memories would be just that with a "just do it all over" mentality.
LOL
Kens advice is much safer for the average home user.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm


 
Steve said:
What is the easiest way to repartition my hard disk for a clean install of
winxp home? I want to wipe everything off the disk.
Click to expand...

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. Make it a suitable size for the system to be on; make any
further partitions later in Admin Tools - Disk management

The important point is the delete. Without that it will just go ahead
and make a new install over the top of the old one
 
In
Carl G said:
Sounds easy for an expert.
By the time i write to this news group and wait for answers ,
(eaven
if they are prompt, which they usually are) I can reformat my
hard
drive and reinstall my XP PRO and all my aplications in about 4
hrs.
I have everything backed up on cd.
It would probably take me a week to get all the answers i might
need
to get my puter back up to par useing the news group.
I know you guys can't sit by your computer 24 hrs a day.
I am just a home user and its much faster and easier to just do
it
all over.
Click to expand...


If that's your choice, so be it; I won't try to talk you out of
it. But if I had to reformat, reinstall Windows, reinstall all my
apps, and reconfigure everything the way I wanted it, it would
take me a whole lot longer than four hours.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

 
Thank for the come back Ken
I probably don't have one tenth of the stuff on my PC that you have.
Like everything else i guess , diferent strokes for diferent folks.
Thanks.--
Carl G
 
In
Carl G said:
Thank for the come back Ken
I probably don't have one tenth of the stuff on my PC that you
have.
Like everything else i guess , diferent strokes for diferent
folks.
Click to expand...


You're welcome, and once again that's fine. Whatever works for
you is OK with me. I only wanted to warn you against the often
recommended "panacea" to reformat and reinstall. It's generally a
poor idea for most people.
 
Thank for the come back Ken
I probably don't have one tenth of the stuff on my PC that you have.
Like everything else i guess , diferent strokes for diferent folks.
Thanks.--
Carl G
Click to expand...

But THAT would be 4 hours of boring work. Waiting for newgroup replies and
discussing solutions with the highly intelligent, capable people here isn't
work :). Patience, patience.

The biggest problem w/ just reformat and reinstall is that you don't learn
a damn thing. You never found out what the problem was, how it could have
been prevented, how to fix it. Not to mention all the extra stuff you learn
along the way when you're working on a problem.

Finally, accidents happen. Everyone, no matter how skilled, gets fat
fingers once in a while. Maybe you had forgotten to back up something.
Maybe the coating on that critically important CD has, unbeknownst to you,
flaked off and suddenly now it's--unreadable. Maybe you hadn't bothered to
verify that backup; all your backups had worked fine before, unverified;
but THIS one had quietly stumbled over a bad sector and now it can't be
read by the decompressor.

Yeah, there's always at least a small risk in doing a reformat and
restoring from a backup. It's to be avoided, IMO.

Anyway, good you're up and running. Hope the same problem doesn't happen
again.
 
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