How do I wipe my HD and do a complete reinstall?

yossarian084yossarian084 Norwich, VT, USA Member
edited March 2006 in Science & Tech
I have a work laptop that is all messed up and I just want to reformat the HD and reinstall Windows. I know its easy, but I'm not sure where to start.

Comments

  • ArmoArmo Mr. Nice Guy Is Dead,Only Aqua Remains Member
    edited March 2006
    slap in your XP cd, when the machine is botting up, press any key to boot from CD. through the options of the install it will detect the old instalation and ask you what to do, you can continue to install by pressing ESC i think it is. and you can delete the partition, and recreate it, that should pretty much wipe out everything on that partition, then you can choose a quick format ( formats only the 1st million and last million clusters on the partition ) or a full format which depending on the size of the partiton can be a LONG time. we are talking like 3-4hours for an 80gig drive. after that it will start installing.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    The Windows CD should be able to do it for ya... when you insert it - it will go through the setup wizard which will ask you for partition information. You can very easily setup partitions during the setup. You can create one big partition which is probably what you'll do, and then it will ask if you want to format in NTFS(if this is XP or 2000), youc ando it as a quick format or full format. I usually do the full format which isn't as thorough as a Low Level Format, but you don't wanna wait for a LLF to finish to be frank.

    Again... the Windows Setup is nice and friendly :D
  • deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
    edited March 2006
    Get into your laptops BIOS and make sure the first boot device is set to 'CD'

    Insert a windows XP disk.

    Reboot.

    Follow the onscreen instructions. Make sure you delete the partition (drive) that windows is on and recreate it.

    ta-da!

    edit: Note to self, refresh the thread before posting stuff.
  • LINLIN Tri_State Area
    edited March 2006
    i'd burn everything i wanted to save first, - which you probably know.. but so many tech support people just don't mention that, especially when the OS is part of the install/recovery CDs..


    LIN
  • yossarian084yossarian084 Norwich, VT, USA Member
    edited March 2006
    Thanks guys. Wish me luck.

    I'm going in.......
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    I'm going in.......
    Did you make it out? :sad2:
  • yossarian084yossarian084 Norwich, VT, USA Member
    edited March 2006
    I did make it out but Im having troubles with windows installer. I'm trying to install Limewire and it says I need to update the Java app. I try to do that and i get an error message saying it wont install because WI wasnt installed correctly. I have installed a bunch of other programs tho with no problems. Whats going on?
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    Go to microsoft.com and download all the updates for your OS, get Directx9.0c or higher, XP SP2, etc. Then try to download LimeWire and the Java stuff again.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    i get an error message saying it wont install because WI wasnt installed correctly.
    Check out this thread for a possible fix to your Windows Installer problem. I just had a very similar problem after upgrading a system with WinXP Pro OEM. Post number 3 in the linked thread explains the solution. Hope it works for you.
  • yossarian084yossarian084 Norwich, VT, USA Member
    edited March 2006
    One problem maybe that my widows copy was ripped from work and Im not convinced the key is valid. I cant get any of the MS downloads because validation thinks its an illegal copy. Any other sources for the WI program?

    I have installed several other programs since the reinstall of Windows XP.....
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    One problem maybe that my widows copy was ripped from work and Im not convinced the key is valid.
    Well then, no, the key would not be valid if it's assigned to another computer.
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