I googled for some formatting windows XP tutorials...but they are not to good.....i was wondering if someone could give me a few links to tutorials on formatting windows XP...i pretty good with computers but i havent formatted in over 4 years, so i cant really remember...so a tutorial on formatting windows XP well basically the drive and a tutorial on installing windows XP would be a great help... and does anyone know how to make a Windows XP cd bootable thanks
I really don't know where any good tutorials are, but if you're just reinstalling it's not that difficult. Once you've booted from the Windows XP installation disc, the rest is pretty automated and self explanatory. One thing I would recommend you to do; I'm not sure how big your drive or drives are, but you should partition the boot drive just about 5 - 10 GB and install XP on that partition, and then partition another system drive with your remaining hard disk space. PC's seem to run Windows a lot better with this setup. Go into your BIOS settings on startup and make the first boot device whatever optical drive is holding the Windows XP disc. If you need help getting to the BIOS settings, reboot, and some PC's will tell you something like, "To enter setup press F2 now." This may only flash for a few seconds so be quick. If it doesn't display the message, hit F2 or Delete during the boot up, and it should enter BIOS. Good luck.
(RE)formatting a computer is pretty self explanatory as rc said, Once you get to the blue setup screen its mostly downhill from there, just follow the prompts and enter the info it needs. Now, for booting from CD, in your BIOS menu..there should be an option in there for "boot order or boot devices" you'll need to go in there and change the boot order from your HDD (hard-drive) to your CD/DVD ROM drive, so your boot order should be. 1st boot device - CD/DVD ROM 2nd boot device - HDD Now, when you put your XP setup disc in your drive and reboot, your computer will read the CD and normally give you a prompt such as "Hit any key to run setup or boot from cd" And thats really all there is to it. One thing, "really important" after you repartition, reformat, and get the setup files copied, you're going have to restart your computer. And when you do this, your computer will still try and boot from the disc, because you have to leave it in your drive, so don't boot from cd again, because you've already done it. Just let it run and it will automatically go with the HDD and continue with XP setup.
I have been having a problem after this process. I have been trying to format my HD, and when the computer does restart. It go's to the begining of the 'blue screen' and ask for me to pretty much re-start the whole setup like it never took place. I have tried to repair, but no luck either. This HD is BRAND NEW. But i havnt used it, I thought i'd hook it up and this is whats happening now. ANY suggestions anyone. Thank You.
After the first run thru setup, and your system is still set to boot from the CD, you'll get the prompt asking you if you want to boot from the CD....don't. Setup will continue on it's own after that prompt. If setup is having a problem with a brand new drive, your best bet is to run your CD that came with the drive to create the first partition...you can also format the drive. If the drive didn't come with a CD, you can get an ISO to create one from the manufacturer's website. For those using SATA drives, you need to know if your motherboard supports those drives natively (meaning you don't need additional XP drivers)...or if you have to have your drivers ready, and press F6 when prompted at the first part of XP's setup screens to load the necessary drivers.
First, is the HDD SATA?, because if it is, you may have to install the drivers that came with the drive BEFORE installing XP. For example, In order for me to reformat windows, I have to make a floppy (yes, a floppy) disk with the drivers installed on it, then when I run XP setup @ the blue screen there is an option saying "hit F6 to install a third-party sata driver, I have to hit that key and installed my SATA drivers BEFORE I install windows or it won't work. Its a pain, but thats how they made it, try that and see if thats the answer your looking for, if not....post back with more info.
