Windows formating

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

When ever I reinstall windows It doesnt delete everything on the Hard Drive.
Which means I can get my stuff back from previsiliy. I don't know why but my
computer is using 13GB when I don't have any of my documents on the computer
(They are all on my flash drive) and when ever I reinstall it all it still
has the same ammount of space being taken up. Help me please!
 
matte85643 said:
When ever I reinstall windows It doesnt delete everything on the Hard Drive.
Which means I can get my stuff back from previsiliy. I don't know why but my
computer is using 13GB when I don't have any of my documents on the computer
(They are all on my flash drive) and when ever I reinstall it all it still
has the same ammount of space being taken up. Help me please!
Click to expand...


The "why" is because you're not choosing to format the hard drive. I'd
lay odds that you're simply inserting the installation CD while booting
into Windows and selecting the Upgrade option.

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


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
matt85643 said:
I do a new installation and it doesnt completely wipe the hard drive clean.
Click to expand...


Not unless you specifically and deliberately choose the option to
format, no, of course not. No OS installation routine should "assume"
that you want to format the partition. How could one safely perform a
repair installation, otherwise?


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
Ok I have no idea on what u said there :O
I have Windows XP Home Edition and what could I do so it wipes the HardDrive
clean then installs windows on it?
 
matt85643 said:
I do a new installation and it doesnt completely wipe the hard drive
clean.
Click to expand...


If you want it to wipe the drive, and it doesn't, then you're just doing it
wrong, as Bruce said.

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

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



 
matt85643 said:
Ok I have no idea on what u said there :O
I have Windows XP Home Edition and what could I do so it wipes the HardDrive
clean then installs windows on it?
Click to expand...


As I wrote in my first post in response to you, 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


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
When ever I reinstall windows It doesnt delete everything on the Hard Drive.
Which means I can get my stuff back from previsiliy. I don't know why but my
computer is using 13GB when I don't have any of my documents on the computer
(They are all on my flash drive) and when ever I reinstall it all it still
has the same ammount of space being taken up. Help me please!
Click to expand...

One of several downsides to using XP is that it saves at
least one redundant copy of itself (likely it saves 2 or 3
redundant copies of itself) for recovery.

All that OS takes up space.

I recently upgraded ( FINALLY !!!) from a 160 Gb hdd to a
200, but only got about 170 Gb from my new hdd after I had
installed XP Pro and my half-dozen "core" apps. Office Pro,
Norton, Agent, etc.

The tech at the store said, "That's XP!" It takes up that
much space!

You may be able to save SOME space by deleting system files.

My advice:

Learn to live with less space, or buy a bigger hard drive
with that in mind.

My next expenditure will be at LEAST a 250 Gb, probably a
300. I'm a gamer, and I like to "play with new stuff", so I
need the space.


Good luck!


Tallahassee
 
I do a new installation and it doesnt completely wipe the hard drive clean.
Click to expand...


Do a "Delete Partition" next time you're in the Install
Options menu.

Then repartition,

then it will format,

then it will install Windows.

And your hard drive will be "wiped clean" except for the
Windows Install.

STILL, you should expect to see a CONSIDERABLE chunk of hard
drive dedicated to your OS.
 
Not unless you specifically and deliberately choose the option to
format, no, of course not. No OS installation routine should "assume"
that you want to format the partition. How could one safely perform a
repair installation, otherwise?
Click to expand...


If he wants to "wipe his hard drive clean", he should
delete and reinstall the partition as well.

Simply at the Menu, select "Delete Partition."

Then follow the prompts to re-Partition, format (which
should then be invisible IIRC), then install.


Tallahassee
 
Talahasee said:
One of several downsides to using XP is that it saves at
least one redundant copy of itself (likely it saves 2 or 3
redundant copies of itself) for recovery.

All that OS takes up space.

I recently upgraded ( FINALLY !!!) from a 160 Gb hdd to a
200, but only got about 170 Gb from my new hdd after I had
installed XP Pro and my half-dozen "core" apps. Office Pro,
Norton, Agent, etc.

The tech at the store said, "That's XP!" It takes up that
much space!

You may be able to save SOME space by deleting system files.

My advice:

Learn to live with less space, or buy a bigger hard drive
with that in mind.

My next expenditure will be at LEAST a 250 Gb, probably a
300. I'm a gamer, and I like to "play with new stuff", so I
need the space.


Good luck!


Tallahassee
Click to expand...

200 GB minus the 7% difference between advertised size and actual drive size
= 186 GB
Is 186 GB shown as the drive size in Disk Management?
186 GB minus 170 GB = 16 GB used by operating system and programs.

A 300 GB drive will be 21 GB less = 279 GB.
 
i did not read all the replies here but i had the same problem and called
Dell and go it answered and trust me none of the articles link here to
microsfot stuff tells ya this! as i worked on this exact problem for two days
(i am no IT professional but i am fairly good w computers:

as scary as this sound what you have to do is "delete" the c: drive that is
listed in the chooses menu that comes up when you are trying to reformat.

then, after you do this delete, then you have to pick the other choice that
is left on what to format and format it.

then windows xp will build a whole new partician!

the dell support lady laughed and said ya, microsoft does not ell ya that in
there articles and posting. but she said dell has it done correclty on there
support web site stuff. i did not go and look as the dell lady talked me
throught the real format that wipes out everything and then reinstalls window

but watch out - there is one more trick microsoft does not tell you about

when you do this type of format you have to reinstall all your equiptment
drives ont he computer - like your wireless card, your cat 5 wired connection
board, all the chip set ect. there is a disk that come w your computer to do
this but the dell lady told me that these things have to be done in a certain
order so i should call back in.

i made the second call and got everything going and then did a restore and
go everything back

trust me folk - any directions in articles on microsoft are no help at all
regarding this post. read the stuff recommended here for two days and got no
where! then i called dell and got it solved and got up and running in a few
hours

another thing with re formating - you ahve to update window which is fairly
easy on ms site. but try to find the SP2 file to download for single users.
there is simple no way to find it by doing searches for sp2 on microsofts
download or update site. Guarenteed it is an impossible file to find. you
will find downloads for sp2 that way they are for IT professionals who are
going to update maltiple computer. so finely at midnight i said ok i will
that the IT professional version of sp2 as i could not run my Retrospect
restore without sp2 installed on the newly formated drive.

sure enough - after i clicked on this download there was a tiny message at
the bottom - fi you are only updating one machine to sp2 click here - wow -
there it was the sp2 download. takes a long time to down load and install
and we have a 8 down connection.

bottom line there is not a single article that i could find on microsoft's
site that will solve this guys quesiton!
 
matt85643 said:
Ok just to be sure, I delete the existing partion then create a new one and
thats it??
Click to expand...


Well, you still have to format the new partition after creating it,
but, yes, that's essentially it.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
Talahasee said:
One of several downsides to using XP is that it saves at
least one redundant copy of itself (likely it saves 2 or 3
redundant copies of itself) for recovery.
Click to expand...


No, it doesn't. Where'd you ever get such an idea.


I recently upgraded ( FINALLY !!!) from a 160 Gb hdd to a
200, but only got about 170 Gb from my new hdd after I had
installed XP Pro and my half-dozen "core" apps. Office Pro,
Norton, Agent, etc.

The tech at the store said, "That's XP!" It takes up that
much space!
Click to expand...


The "tech" at the store is a complete idiot. That most definitely is
not "XP." WinXP, like other operating systems, measures kilobytes,
megabytes, and gigabytes as:

1 Kb = 1024 bytes
1 Mb = 1024 Kb = 1,048,576 bytes
1 Gb = 1024 Mb = 1,073,741,824 bytes

However, a common marketing ploy used by hard drive manufacturers
to make their products seem a bit larger than they really are is to
assign the value of an even 1,000,000,000 bytes to the gigabyte.



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
Talahasee said:
If he wants to "wipe his hard drive clean", he should
delete and reinstall the partition as well.
Click to expand...


Why? What would that do that a format will not? Please provide a
sound technical reason, assuming the OP has no need or desire to change
the partition's size.



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
Windows predates these new SI units. The whole computer industry have always used 2^n except for drive mfgs. A sector has just under 600 bytes (timing bytes + data bytes). HD mfgrs have been known to count these in the past. Want a 1.44 MB floppy, sorry they are sold as 2.MB.
 
=?Utf-8?B?bWF0dDg1NjQz?= said:
When ever I reinstall windows It doesnt delete everything on the Hard Drive.
Which means I can get my stuff back from previsiliy. I don't know why but my
computer is using 13GB when I don't have any of my documents on the computer
(They are all on my flash drive) and when ever I reinstall it all it still
has the same ammount of space being taken up. Help me please!
Click to expand...

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316941
 
Back
Top