How do I reformat XP?

[goldenboi]

I still have the XP disc. Now wut.

 

[blahblahblah]

Put it in your CD-ROM drive and restart your computer.

 

[goldenboi]

seriously? the xp disc? what about al the options they ask? What do I choose?

 

[P43.2/1Gig/X800P]

i think it chooses the best options for you just keep hitting the next button

 

[blahblahblah]

seriously? the xp disc? what about al the options they ask? What do I choose?

What options? You just select the option to reformat and reinstall Windows XP. It is pretty automated (except a couple of spots where you have to agree to licensing terms and whatnot).

Just pop in the Windows XP CD, restart and make your selections. It is brain dead easy to reformat and reinstall Windows XP (unless you have a Serial ATA harddrive, which you probably don't).

 

[goldenboi]

ok. so I enter my win xp cd now. then i press restart. it will take me to the setup?

 

[blahblahblah]

ok. so I enter my win xp cd now. then i press restart. it will take me to the setup?

Just do it. I can't explain it, but I know it is easy. Trust me.

 

[goldenboi]

k this guy @ another forum said to use BCWipe first. Should I?

 

[blahblahblah]

k this guy @ another forum said to use BCWipe first. Should I?

It depends

A) Do you keep state secrets on your computer?
B) Are you selling this computer to another person?
C) Do you have incriminating evidence (as in highly illegal stuff) on this computer?
D) Are you highly paranoid about your safety?

If you answer yes to any of the above, yeah go ahead and use that program. Otherwise you are fine.

 

[Beast206]

Sorry to intrude here, but wouldn't wiping a system take forever?

 

[63]

A) Do you keep state secrets on your computer?
B) Are you selling this computer to another person?
C) Do you have incriminating evidence (as in highly illegal stuff) on this computer?
D) Are you highly paranoid about your safety?

A) Yes
B) No
C) I killed JFK
D) No

 

[blahblahblah]

A) Yes
B) No
C) I killed JFK
D) No

Thanks for telling me who killed JFK. That question has been bugging me for a while now.

Sorry to intrude here, but wouldn't wiping a system take forever?

It depends. To do a complete wiping so that the government can't recover data is like 7 wipes (IIRC). That would take forever. You can set it to fewer passes if you are selling your computer to a person and want to make sure they can't easily pick and important information on your computer (like credit card numbers, etc). Reformating your computer once is not enough when you sell it to another person, you need to do several passes with data to make sure the data is firmly erased, which is why those programs are useful.

 

[Beast206]

True there. I forgot that you can alter the amount of passes. hehe. Yes, I think 7 passes was DoD specs. I've seen some that use as many as 36 passes, but good lord, I don't have that kind of time.

 

[FictiousWill]

It wouldn't take forever. A few hours max. For a decent size drive, say what 100gigs, I'd estimate 4 to 5 hours for a 7 wipe. I pulled that number out of my ass. But I like it.

 

[Beast206]

I have a short attention span, so 4 to 5 hours would be a bite. lol. I think it would take a bit longer than that, but it would still be reasonable if you had something you really, really wanted to keep hidden.

 

[FictiousWill]

I doubt anybody has anything so very illegal. 99% of all "illegal" hard drive data is probably just copyrighted material.

 

[Beast206]

You underestimate the depths of human depravity. I think you are correct for the most part though. It's probably not a bad idea at any rate though.

 

[FictiousWill]

Ooooh. Gotcha. Didn't even think of that. :x

 

[Kazuki_Fuse]

You can download Windows XP boot disks that take up I think 6 disks from the microsoft webpage cause not all XP cds are bootable. you can then choose to format within the boot disk program.

 

[goldenboi]

K I hit the Reapir XP Pro thing and I reinstalled Windows? So now I'm @ exactly what i was b4! All my data is still here! I want to get rid of my data b/c I have corrupted files, viruses, worms, you name it. I've tried like 20 prgms to fix but no go. My sound files are corrupted and crossing with each other. Maybe I should BCWipe..

 

[snak3y3z1001]

K I hit the Reapir XP Pro thing and I reinstalled Windows? So now I'm @ exactly what i was b4! All my data is still here! I want to get rid of my data b/c I have corrupted files, viruses, worms, you name it. I've tried like 20 prgms to fix but no go. My sound files are corrupted and crossing with each other. Maybe I should BCWipe..

delete the partation then.

 

[goldenboi]

how.....................................

 

[FictiousWill]

google. Come on now.

 

[Hazar]

Sorry to intrude here, but wouldn't wiping a system take forever?

No, it doesn't.

Half-a-day at most to get yourself back on your feet.

 

[Roland Deschain]

Once you get to the blue screen, don't hit repair, but say you want to install a copy of XP. Then you'll get into another screen and there you will see your partitions. Delete the ones you don't want, then create new ones, and choose the one where you want to install XP (you have to format the new partitions which may take some time).

 

[blahblahblah]

Once you get to the blue screen, don't hit repair, but say you want to install a copy of XP. Then you'll get into another screen and there you will see your partitions. Delete the ones you don't want, then create new ones, and choose the one where you want to install XP (you have to format the new partitions which may take some time).

Exactly. Most likely he will only have 1 partition.

Goldenboi, if you are literate you should be able to figure it out. It really is not that difficult to do. You are making it way more complicated than it really is.