Reformatting my XPS

[Drackard]

Hey Guys, I have recently decided to reformat my XPS (Please do not ask why i have had to explain to so many mates that have asked why lol), anyway, i went to the manual to see how i would go about doing it and it says to:

1. Insert XP setup disc
2. Press F12 at startup and load from Cd-Rom drive
3. Select continue installing XP
4. Agree to terms and conditions
5. Select Partition

however, my current XP is of course installed to C:/ and that is my only HDD as i only have 1 SATA, When i go to continue it says something about installing Multiple OS's to 1 partion can be dangerous or isnt recommended or something. But this isn't what i want, i want to reformat completely, rather then add another copy of XP ontop of my current one, how would i go about doing this ??

Thanks in Advance

 

[Ren.182]

Select the option to continue anyway, and it should give you the option to format on the next screen.

 

[Drackard]

It wouldn't go right ahead and just install an extra version of XP ontop of the current one would it ?

 

[Ren.182]

No, if you continue anyway it gives you the option to format the partition. You can just click on delete partition on the partition select screen and it will delete that partition for you. Make sure you ramake it though

 

[oldagerocker]

I might aswell post my problem in here since its similar.

My old IDE hardrive is knackered, its getting slower and worse and coming up with bad sectors more. So i bought a new 80gb Sata drive to stick windows on and i'll just use my old IDE as a spare storage drive until i can afford to replace it properly.

I need to take windows off my old disk (prefereably keeping the data, music, games etc) and put windows on my new sata disc. So how can i uninstall windows like that and reinstall it, or should i just format the old drive and start from scratch?

 

[Chris D]

If you want to be entirely sure, then select the partition (there'll only be one), press D to delete it and then L to confirm. Should wipe it all. Then recreate the partition with C, press enter to accept the maximum size and then press enter again to install it on that partition. It will then give you the format options, just choose NTFS (Quick) and it will then install XP for you.

oldagerocker, if your hard drive is coming up with bad sectors then I wouldn't put it under the strain of installing an OS on to it and you should concentrate on getting your data off it ASAP as it won't be long before everything is gone.

Set up the SATA drive, do a fresh install of XP on to it and then once you're in Windows copy the necessary data across from the IDE drive.

 

[oldagerocker]

Ok, thanks Chris. I'll leave windows alone on the old drive, stick windows onto the new one.move over the important data and then format it... and, well, il have to find something to do with it til it does completely go

Anyway, sounds really simple

 

[Chris D]

Yeah, it's easy.

Probably best not to have the IDE drive connected while installing Windows on the SATA drive though... saves the horror of accidentally deleting/formatting the wrong partitions during the setup

If you can't fit everything on the new drive then just get the most important bits. Anything else you don't wanna lose just get loads of blank DVDs and copy it onto them.

 

[DrDevin]

I take it you have or can get the right drivers for the PC once you reformat?

Remember to install service pack 2 (unless the windows disk has it), then your motherboard drivers then everything else (videocard/soundcard etc) to avoid problems.

Just making sure you remembered them as to save you the hastle of getting them or something screwing up if you forgot to install one of them!