# Reformat hard drive

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reformat-hard-drive/336241>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 19, 2005, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reformat-hard-drive/336241 "2005-12-19T02:34:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reformat-hard-drive/336241/1 "2005-12-19T02:34:02Z")

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Can I have the quick and dirty lowdown on reformatting my hard drive?

I have XP Pro and a disk drive in two partitions C: (13.9G) and D: (92.8G). I’ve made all the backups to My Docs and other relevant files, and have the CDs for Office, Photoshop and other programs I want to put back on.

I want to get rid of a lot of the Sony Vaio bloatware (like proprietary CD burning programs, etc.).

Will it allow me to make new partitions on my newly formatting drive? I am finding C too small and get warning about it all time.

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**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reformat-hard-drive/336241/2 "2005-12-19T07:17:55Z")

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Not sure if this is what you’d call “quick and dirty”, but these links explain how to format your hard drive and perform a clean install of XP.

[How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348/)

[Perform a clean install of Windows XP](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316941#XSLTH3169121122120121120120)