Hi there. I was wondering how you reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows Xp at the same time?

6 Comments

1. Canoro says:

   September 2, 2010 at 9:21 am

   yeap. that’s the only way, a clean install of windows. you have to have a bootable Windows XP CD and boot from the CD.

   since you already have a backup of everything important this is want you want to do:

   you boot from the Windows XP Bootable CD. you will notice a step that ask you where do you want to install XP.

   what you want to do here is to eliminate both partitions C and D.
   now that you don’t have partitions in the hard drive, tell the windows setup that you want to create a new partition.
   it will ask you how big do you want it, you will answer that you want the whole hard drive, you want the max you are allowed.

   after that you will choose what type of format do you want to use (FAT32 (File Allocation Table 32-bit) or NTFS(New Technology File System)).
   FAT32 is better with multimedia(movies, audio, games), is faster, and NTFS offers more security (encryption) and hard drive compression. you choose.

   after you format your hard drive tell windows to install in the new partition and thats it! Good Luck!
2. Moe D says:

   September 2, 2010 at 9:21 am

   all what u have to do is insert the xp cd in the cd tray, and then restart the computer and boot it from the cd rom, then just follow the steps u’ll be good
3. nyneseclx says:

   September 2, 2010 at 9:21 am

   Put the disc in the comptuer.Turn it off. When it restarts it will ask you if you want to boot from cd. Press any key for yes. Then when it starts up it will give you the option to recover, or format. Click format then it will give you a choice of partitions.
4. Wassup says:

   September 2, 2010 at 9:21 am

   saerch it on google
   i was 12 when i formatted it but B4 u do it, go to Device Manager and PRINT OUT A COPY OF IT! this is so u can refer to which drivers to install
   i think u restrart windows with the windows xp cd inside and then u boot from the cd and follow the instructions to format, then reinstall, but id refer to google
   just type in "format computer and reinstall window xp"
   that should do it & good luck =) =]
5. havetowait says:

   September 2, 2010 at 9:21 am

   Depending on the age of the computer, if it’s fairly new, Dell integrated a ghost partition onto the hard drive. This makes returning the operating system to a factory state very simple. Try using this method first before attempting a "clean" install.

   Dell PC Restore by Symantec may not be available in certain countries nor on certain computers.
   Use Dell PC Restore by Symantec only as the last method to restore your operating system. PC Restore
   restores your hard drive to the operating state it was in when you purchased the computer. Any programs
   or files added since you received your computer—including data files—are permanently deleted from the
   hard drive. Data files include documents, spreadsheets, e-mail messages, digital photos, music files, and
   so on. If possible, back up all data before using PC Restore.
   To use PC Restore:
   1 Turn on the computer.
   During the boot process, a blue bar with http://www.dell.com appears at the top of the screen.
   2 Immediately upon seeing the blue bar, press <Ctrl><F11>.
   If you do not press <Ctrl><F11> in time, let the computer finish starting, and then restart the
   computer again.
   NOTICE: If you do not want to proceed with PC Restore, click Reboot in the following step.
   3 On the next screen that appears, click Restore.
   4 On the next screen, click Confirm.
   The restore process takes approximately 6–10 minutes to complete.
   5 When prompted, click Finish to reboot the computer.
   NOTE: Do not manually shut down the computer. Click Finish and let the computer completely reboot.
   6 When prompted, click Yes.
   The computer restarts. Because the computer is restored to its original operating state, the screens that
   appear, such as the End User License Agreement, are the same ones that appeared the first time the
   computer was turned on.
   7 Click Next.
   The System Restore screen appears and the computer restarts.
   8 After the computer restarts, click OK.
   9. You will have to run Window’s Update as well as Live Update for your virus protection as these will be seriously out of date!
6. rt says:

   September 2, 2010 at 9:21 am

   You could use software like partition magic or you could boot your computer and press F8 to get to an dos prompt.

   You could format the whole drive from there by typing in
   format C: