I need to completly reformat my computer

[Inspector Jihad]

my dad is going to be working away from home for a while and he needs a comp to take with him. I dug up our old family computer and I realize thats its totally infested with viruses and spyware and etc. I want to do a complete reformatting of the computer, but i cannot find any of the original discs that came with the computer? Is it still possible to do so?

 

[RelaxTheMind]

What kind of computer is it and what OS is it running? some manufacturers like to hide the i386 folder on the computer somewhere. Therefore making it possible to do a format re-install given that u can burn it to a cd and have bootable floppy disks.

 

[spherrod]

you can reformat a drive during Windows setup usually - what OS are you going to install? Do you have an OS disc to use?

 

[firewall]

Yes, you can depending on whether you have the setup files for it stored locally on the HDD.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

its a sony vaio running windows xp

 

[chipy]

i'm not a computer expert but...

if you are planning on reformatting the computer (which i believe erases the entire hard drive for all practical purposes, including the OS), and you want to let your father use it, you will eventually have to install an operating system on there (most likely Windows).

in which case, use the OS's install CDs to format/reformat the computer.

does that make sense? i think my logic is right... someone correct me if it isn't.

thanks
chipy