WinXP Reinstall: I'm Stumped

[Dell Christopher]

I always thought a fresh install wiped the hard drive clean. Specifically,
that ALL data would be lost.

I've just done a reinstall, having booted from the CD and choosing "L" to
delete the existing partition. Furthermore, I watched the bottom of the
blue screen while it was "deleting files". Nevertheless, upon completion, I
still found the same personal folders (with documents/photos inside) in the
C directory. The My Docs folder was empty, except for the sample My Pics/My
Music sub-folders. I also got the " a xxx folder already exists" when I
started reinstalling Ad-aware and Spybot S&D.

It seems all that was erased was the data and sub-folders in My Docs only.
Everything else seems intact, data-wise. I am at a loss as to what I'm
doing wrong since it appears this is STILL not a clean re-installation. Do
I really need to add a separate step of using a program (e.g. Darik's Boot &
Nuke) to wipe the HD clean first, and then perform the re-installation? Any
feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[SingaporeWebDesign]

Hello,

You do not need any 3rd party software to perform a clean installation.

Are you sure you deleted the right partition?

Try reinstalling again, and this time, delete all partitions till it shows
only one entry - "Unpartitioned Space"

Note that some system manufacturers use a partition to store their recovery
data, in which case you should not delete that partition, but you can
proceed to delete the other partitions that are created by you.

--
Singapore Website Design
http://www.bootstrike.com/Webdesign/
Singapore Web Hosting
http://www.bootstrike.com/WinXP/faq.html
Windows XP FAQ

 

[smlunatick]

Hello,

You do not need any 3rd party software to perform a clean installation.

Are you sure you deleted the right partition?

Try reinstalling again, and this time, delete all partitions till it shows
only one entry - "Unpartitioned Space"

Note that some system manufacturers use a partition to store their recovery
data, in which case you should not delete that partition, but you can
proceed to delete the other partitions that are created by you.

--
Singapore Website Designhttp://www.bootstrike.com/Webdesign/
Singapore Web Hostinghttp://www.bootstrike.com/WinXP/faq.html
Windows XP FAQ









- Show quoted text -

I've also encountered this problem. Tried to do a completely "fresh"
XP install. Removed all the partitions (unallocated space shown) and
re-did the XP install. Not only did the "defective" XP installlation
return but no data file was ever erased. I had to "nuke" the
partition first, delete the partition and then re-do the XP install.
The only thing I see as the "culprit" is the fact that this was a
generic OEM XP PRO install. The OEM CD was a genuine original CD also.