But how would I clear everything or w/e?
In the simplest case, you would
1) put your computer's hard drive into a different computer as a storage drive so you could rescue your stuff (documents, pics, etc) before you do anything drastic.
2) then you would put the hard drive back into your computer again
3) then you would boot from the WinXP CD-ROM disc and try
Method 2: Reinstall Windows XP by starting your computer from the Windows XP CD. If your computer has its WinXP MCE license stuck to it like it ought to, use that license key so you can save your other license key.
4) if that works, then don't stop there. Run a full diagnostic on your hard drive using the
manufacturer's diagnostic utility (scroll to bottom of page), run
Memtest86, and run a full virus scan with
a high-quality virus scanner.
5) if the repair installation in step 3 didn't work, then start Windows Setup from CD-ROM, get to where it shows the partitions on the HDD (if any), delete them all, and exit from Windows Setup. Now start Windows Setup a
second time and follow through. If your computer has its WinXP MCE license stuck to it like it ought to, use that license key so you can save your other license key.
Also, could you think ofa reason why this would happen?
Power surges or sags in your electrical power. Viruses, exploits and worms (were you downloading?). Fan failure --> overheated component (chipset or CPU). Hardware that is simply dying and corrupting your data.