• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

I want to format my PC

M

MikeyPutsOut

Member
well, actually only my C drive partition.

I've accumalated alot of crap, spyware, and viruses from some very unreliable sources.... and well, I just need to get rid of everything. Fortunately, the OS (Windows XP) was very recently installed, so I don't have alot of stuff on my PC (any of which I can just delete and download again)..... anyway, how do I do this?
 
If you boot from your XP installation CD you will be given the option of reformatting the drive you're installing it to. Or maybe you have to remove the c partition and create it again, I'm not really sure.
 
Put in the Windows XP CD, and boot from it.

Go through a few steps into Setup, and you will come across it asking which partition to install it to. Select the first partition (C:, your existing partition) and press Enter. It will ask you to format the partition or keep the file system intact. Select format, in whichever file system you wish (FAT32 or NTFS) and it will do it, then install Windows XP on that partition 🙂


Confused
 
If you are worried about viruses you might want to go ahead and delete the partitions once you get into the text portion of the installation and create new partitions.
 
Originally posted by: geekender
If you are worried about viruses you might want to go ahead and delete the partitions once you get into the text portion of the installation and create new partitions.
Click to expand...

That's the best way to do it
 
Okay, I'm not very great with computers, so I'm sorry if this Questions seem routine:

How do I BOOT from the XP disk?
And how do I change the partitions? (umm.... you know what, forget this question.... it doesn't matter because the partitions aren't even formatted yet)

And also, I reinstalled windows, but I don't recall coming across anything asking to format the drive.

you've been real helpful guys
 
Originally posted by: MikeyPutsOut
Okay, I'm not very great with computers, so I'm sorry if this Questions seem routine:

How do I BOOT from the XP disk?
And how do I change the partitions? (umm.... you know what, forget this question.... it doesn't matter because the partitions aren't even formatted yet)

And also, I reinstalled windows, but I don't recall coming across anything asking to format the drive.

you've been real helpful guys
Click to expand...

You boot from the XP disc by having it in your cd-rom when you start your computer. The booting order in BIOS must have the cdrom first though (or at least before anything else bootable, like the disk drive if you have a floppy in it).

The partition thing in the XP setup is shortly after you accept the license agreement, if I remember correctly. You will be presented to a screen where you can select which partition you want to install XP on, there you can delete, create etc. different partitions. When you have selected a partition to install it to you will be given the option to format it using NTFS or FAT.
 
Originally posted by: pelleplu
Originally posted by: hjo3
Or you could just right-click the C: drive and select "Format."
Click to expand...

But that wouldn't work if he was already running windows on C: (as far as I know)
Click to expand...
Yeah it would. FORMAT.COM would get loaded into memory and run from there. Of course, you'd want to shut down all programs (like AV) before trying this. Windows would probably crash at the end if he tried to do anything. But I've done it before w/ Win 95.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top