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Format Harddrive and install XP

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by MeetHere, Mar 24, 2007.

  1. #1
    It seems i am having lot of trojans, spywares and viruses on my hard drive..

    I want to format it and reinstall clean XP again.

    Can anyone guide me how to format and install XP ?
     
    MeetHere, Mar 24, 2007 IP
  2. bestnaughtydeals

    bestnaughtydeals Guest

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    #2
    XP is specually designed to protect you from yourself. For that reason you can't format C. What I have done to get past this is put the hard drive on another computer as a 2nd hard drive.. then formatted it on that computer... then moved it back to the original computer. Then it will accept the XP installation.

    Make sure you have the full XP cd and not a restoration XP cd or something like that. Also make sure you have your serial number or you might be seriously screwed.

    Some other things you might want to do instead of formatting and reinstalling every 6 months is to get a spyware protection program like Spybot Search and Destroy, which is free.

    You should also always have a virus protection program running such as AVG which is also free.

    Firewalls often come with extra protection as well and Zone Alarm is the one I use however not everyone uses it.

    If you let the computer do regular spybot / virus searches you won't have as many infections.

    If you get these programs and run them you might be able to clear most of the problems you are currently having and not need to reinstall.

    Defragging the computer once in a while helps alot too. :p

    I hope this helps, and good luck!
     
    bestnaughtydeals, Mar 24, 2007 IP
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  3. TheDrew831

    TheDrew831 Active Member

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    #3
    a drivers disk should come with your computer with windows xp on it just pop it in and windows installer will come up and just select "Fresh Install" or if you have a dell when your computer is booting up (the bios) press Ctrl+F11 and it's step by step process
     
    TheDrew831, Mar 24, 2007 IP
  4. nwk

    nwk Well-Known Member

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    #4
    Formatting is easy if you have a bootable xp cd:
    Just Follow the steps if you have it:

    1. Put the cd in the drive and restart ur PC;
    2. there will be a prompt like this "Press any key to boot from cd...".
    Press enter and it will now start loading setup files.
    3. It will guide you to installation process.. there will be an option to choose which drive you are goin to install the windows. Choose c:( if you want to format only c drive) and then choose "format with NTFS file system"
    4. It will start formatting and start installation automatically...

    *If you want to format the whole Hard drive or have any doubt feel free to contact me.. :)
     
    nwk, Mar 24, 2007 IP
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  5. Colbyt

    Colbyt Notable Member

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    #5
    You can download the ultimate boot disk (just search for those words) burn the iso image to a cd and boot from that cd.

    Then just load one of the dos sets there are on the cd. From there you can do anything you want to drive c:

    If you want to make it a virgin use fdisk to delete all partions and then create a new one. If you do that follow the directions to restart the machine and then format drive c

    You can now install xp from the cd. Be sure to pick the ntfs option for the file tables when installing. XP will format the drive again.
     
    Colbyt, Mar 24, 2007 IP
  6. bestnaughtydeals

    bestnaughtydeals Guest

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    #6
    From my past experiences having the xp cd do a 'fresh install' has not actually formatted the HD but leaves all kinds of files on it, which not only take up space but might include the viruses that you were trying to wipe in the first place. That's just MY experience though. The other people replying seem to think its as easy as they say and it never has been for me.
     
    bestnaughtydeals, Mar 24, 2007 IP
  7. MeetHere

    MeetHere Prominent Member

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    #7
    I think Win XP Cd's are bootable , isn't it..

    Thanks for reply everybody.. Still looking for a reliable help
     
    MeetHere, Mar 24, 2007 IP
  8. nwk

    nwk Well-Known Member

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    #8
    You can check out if your win xp cd is bootable or not.
    Just put it in your drive and restart. If the option "press any key to boot from cd" appears it is bootable..(In some case this doesn't appear in bootable cd also.
    but normally this is enough to test to check if it is bootable or not)
     
    nwk, Mar 24, 2007 IP
  9. Colbyt

    Colbyt Notable Member

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    #9
    Try what NWK posted first. Full version, retail and OEM XP cd's are bootable. I don't know about upgrade or private label ones like Dell and HP.

    If it allows you to format the drive that is good enough. BUT you do need to format to kill the critters. A simple re install will not do the job.

    I know the method I posted works because I just did it 2 weeks ago.

    EDIT: you may need to change your bios settings to force a boot from the cd.
     
    Colbyt, Mar 24, 2007 IP
  10. MeetHere

    MeetHere Prominent Member

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    #10
    I want to format whole hard drive..
    Do i need to do it before or after inserting CD ?
     
    MeetHere, Mar 24, 2007 IP
  11. bestnaughtydeals

    bestnaughtydeals Guest

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    #11
    This guide has pictures and everything... so its probably the help you are looking for.

    LINK to GUIDE

    That one is for XP home, but if you have a different one the same site has others as well.

    I just did a google search and found it. Maybe you should have done that first. ;P
     
    bestnaughtydeals, Mar 24, 2007 IP
  12. nwk

    nwk Well-Known Member

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    #12
    To format the whole drive follow these steps(better write down on a paper):
    1. follow the steps I have given in my first post until the option"choose the drive to install ".
    2. Select each drive and press "D", confirm it by pressing "enter" and "L". Finally the whole drive will be reduced to one single drive;
    3: Press "c" and enter the size of the drive, this will create a new drive.
    4: Format the new drive by pressing "enter"(NTFS is prescribed);
    5. It will guide you through the rest of the installation process :

    Most of the steps are auto guided. Just read the instructions it's easy to understand..
     
    nwk, Mar 24, 2007 IP
  13. Duality

    Duality Notable Member

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    #13
    Ok, I'll explain.

    1. Restart your computer
    2. When it is starting up, press delete to access bios
    3. In your bios, navigate to Boot > Boot Priority, and then change it from hard disk to CD-ROM
    4. Save the configurations and restart the computer with the XP disk in it
    6. It will ask you to press any key to boot from CD, so press any key
    7. It will load some files then the menu will come up showing your hard drive partition.
    8. Follow the instructions to format the partition, then re-install XP there
    9. After it finishes installing, set up your internet
    10. Get your latest drivers and come back to DP and post how everything went ;)
     
    Duality, Mar 24, 2007 IP
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  14. MeetHere

    MeetHere Prominent Member

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    #14
    MeetHere, Mar 24, 2007 IP
  15. CaptainB

    CaptainB Peon

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    #15
    It's surprisingly easy. Write down nwk's directions, but all you really need to do is boot from your XP cd and follow the directions.

    Lifehacker is great but that tutorial makes it look harder than it is.
     
    CaptainB, Mar 24, 2007 IP
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  16. nwk

    nwk Well-Known Member

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    #16
    I would say the link given by bestnaughtydeals is better. It has visual explanations. But you have to take some more steps to format the whole drive. The link has given steps to format only c drive.
     
    nwk, Mar 24, 2007 IP