wipe out hard drive

[mark]

How do I reformat my hardrive using the Recovery Console
on my Windows XP Home CD. I guess I need to wipe
everything off and start over.

 

[Jim Macklin]

You just boot the CD and begin a new install and select the
option to format and repartition.


message | How do I reformat my hardrive using the Recovery Console
| on my Windows XP Home CD. I guess I need to wipe
| everything off and start over.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

How do I reformat my hardrive using the Recovery Console
on my Windows XP Home CD. I guess I need to wipe
everything off and start over.

You don't use the Recovery Console. Just boot from the Windows XP
CD and follow the prompts for a clean installation. It will do
the reformat for you.

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

 

[Alex Nichol]

How do I reformat my hardrive using the Recovery Console
on my Windows XP Home CD. I guess I need to wipe
everything off and start over.

Be sure - don't guess - before taking such a drastic step. If you
decide to, 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

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

I would advise first using the Repair Installation option instead, to
retain installed software, settings and data (though it removes all
Windows updates, so make *sure* you have the firewall enabled before
ever going on the Net at all, to get new ones or for anything else).
Also have a backup of essential data, just in case