Okay, my PC has been bogging down for quite some time, and the usual methods I had of speeding it back up don't seem to be working. I'm running Windows XP - service pack 2 (unfortunately *mutters*) on a custom built (three years ago) machine. My basic question is this: If I want to completely erase everything, have my computer's hard drive as clean and fresh as it was the day I purchased it (well, excepting Windows XP) How do I do that? Do I simply insert my Windows XP disk and re-install, and it'll delete everything that I may not have already deleted (and uninstalled a few programs that no matter HOW I've tried to uninstall, still come up in my Add-remove Programs file?) Or do I have to basically delete everything on my hard drive before attemtping to do the re-install? I know this probably sounds stupid . . . but I'm at the point where something I installed at god knows what point is messing everything up, and I just want to start over. All my most important files, notes, have already been backed up to an external hard drive, so I know that deleteing them off my primary internal drive will not make me lose them. I've made sure that the most important programs I will need to re-install, I have the disks or backup copies of on disk. Any help at this point is very much appreciated, and if this is a duplicate of a question already asked, I greatly apologise. Thanks. ~~ Kaileen
Do save first what you do not want to loose ! If you have a google account you can always upload to yourself things you want to recuperate after the installation. A clean install means you will format the drive where you will put the O/S first ! Formatting does not erase what is on the drive -- it replaces the structure info of what was there before. Then it is only a matter of entering your Bios -- making your Cd-Rom as the primary place for the system boot and putting your Windows Cd in. On Reboot you will be ready to do a fresh new installation. Dont forget to enter Bios again to change the boot order back after you are done installing.
make sure youve backed up everything you need to keep onto cds or whatever then Just stick the windows CD in the drive while your booting up the computer. boot from the cd and follow the instructions on the screen. it will give you the option to format your hard drive during the setup
for what your asking a low level format is the only option. if your bios doesnt have this feature you can often get a utility to do the same from the drive MFG. it takes forever and a day on very large drives as it writes a 1 then a 0 to every sector on the drive, this will compleatly remove any and all data ever on the drive, viruses included. kc
