chiefward
Covington, GA
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I need to reformat a hard drive and it's been at least 10 year since i've done that. Would someone please give me the step by step instructons. It is a desktop and I have the orginial xp program disk.
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Hokie
Huntsville Alabama
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Try this site http://lifehacker.com/software/windows/g........stall-windows-xp-from-scratch-157578.php
~Hokie
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Rick Jay
Greater Springfield area, MA
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Hi,
If the XP disk you have is an original install disk and not a restore disk, it will give you the option during the installation to partition and format the drive. If it is a restore disk, it should still do what you want, but it will restore the drive to it's original OEM state: formatting, OS and possibly applications. It won't give you the option to repartition the drive.
I'm assuming here that you're reformatting and reinstalling WinXP, correct?
~Rick
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chiefward
Covington, GA
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Rick Jay. That is correct. I want to completely delete everything on the hard drive and reinstall windowsXP. This is my grandson's computer and he has numerious viruses and adware that we are unable to get rid of. Can't even sign on to the internet.
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Rick Jay
Greater Springfield area, MA
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chiefward,
OK...then you should be OK if you just boot off the WinXP disk and follow the instructions. That should get rid of all the malware.
I have heard of a few nasty malware programs that sometimes survive that process. (Not sure how, but apparently they do.) If that should be your case, then I'd recommend completely wiping the drive with Darik's Boot and Nuke first, then reinstall XP. Of course, you won't know if this is necessary until after you go through the entire XP install process first.
Darik's Boot and Nuke is also contained on the Ultimate Boot CD, which is a free set of utilities that I highly recommend for anyone who does a lot of computer work.
Good Luck,
~Rick
* This post was
edited 08/28/08 03:13pm by Rick Jay *
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wittmeba
Roanoke, Va
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Rick Jay's got it. Just put the CD in the drive and reboot...follow the prompts.
To Rick's comment, you cant partition the drive. It will be whatever it is now.
I prefer only having the OS on my C: drive and everything else on D, E, F etc. I bought Partition Magic from Symantec online $30.00 and it works great. You usually dont lose data this way.
Be sure to save anything you cant recreate- data, favorites, emails, etc.
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Rick Jay
Greater Springfield area, MA
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wittmeba,
Just to clarify, from the original WinXP install disk, you CAN partition the drive at the time of the install if you want to. (Well...with XP Pro anyway.) However, those partitions other than c: won't be formatted until after the OS installation is complete. We have our students do that all the time as part of their XP installation lab.
With a "restore disk", you're stuck with the original partitioning/formatting scheme.
But BIG DITTO on backing up all of the data, etc. Unfortunately, however, it's possible that some of their malware could be attachments in their e-mails, so caution needs to be exercised there.
~Rick
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Vapor_Trails
Yucaipa, CA
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If there are viruses on the disk you need to remove them before you F-Disk. Some of those idiotic script kiddies have written code that will resurface after a format. The best way to do it is to connect the drive to a non-infected machine and wipe the viruses from it (either open the case and use an IDE cable or put the drive in an external enclosure). Then it's safe to reformat and reinstall XP.
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init6
Near Fredericksburg, VA
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To wiper her clean, just run the restore disk that comes with the machine. It also loads the OS back on there for you as well.
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wittmeba
Roanoke, Va
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Rick,
Just for my edification, how is that done? I have had a split drive for years and dont recall ever during a re-installation having that option. I know it is an option during the original first install, but how/when on a re-do?
Also, if/when you make this choice, does the reformat on the non-OS drive(s) happen automatically when the OS installation is complete?
Thanks,
Bruce
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