Reformatting a computer

Factual Questions
1

Hey all.

I recently picked up a new pc, and wanted to give the older one to a family member. This computer has all sorts of old components, bits of software, etc. that have been collected over the past couple of years, so I figure the best thing to do is reformat the hard drive and do a clean XP install (I have the CD of course).

The last time I did this kind of thing, I could simply type c:/format c. Can I still do this, and then use the BIOS to ensure I boot Windows from CD the first time? I guess I am not so concerned about the boot thing as I recall seeing that in the BIOS, but am unsure about the format process itself.

Also, as an aside, is there anything I should be concerned of before reformatting the machine? It is not anything fancy, just a 1.4gHz, 384meg RAM, etc. pc that uses an Intel cpu and no idea what the motherboard is.

Any tips/advice would be most welcome. Thanks!

2
  • Make a bot disk (I forget how. Seems I’ve always just had one)
  • Stick it in and BOOT
  • At the A prompt, type: FDISK
  • View all partitions, and remove 'em all, primary DOS partition last (There’s a menu for all these commands)
  • Once all partitions are gone, create a new DOS partition.
  • Reboot onto the boot disk
  • From the A prompt: FORMAT C:
  • Once formatted, stick in your Windows XP CD and reboot.

Should launch automatic like, but you may have to snoop around for your CD ROM drive and from there type: SETUP

**Careful! If all you have is XP Upgrade, I think it’s gonna look for a previous version of Windows. There may be a way around this, but I dunno. I had to load Win 98SE and upgrade from there, then go online and get my drivers (video, audio, etc.)

Have fun!

3

http://www.bootdisk.com/

4

There’s no need to “pre-format” the disk. You will have a chance to do this during the “text-based” portion of XP setup. Just boot off the CD and a few steps in to it setup will examine your disks, You will be given the option to create (and\or delete) a partition, and re-format any existing or new ones. For best results, use XP’s native filesystem (NTFS) instead of FAT32.

Also, every Microsoft OS since Windows 98 is capable of doing a clean install without have a previous OS in place. If your XP CD-ROM is an upgrade disc, it will ask for you to insert your previous OS disc at a certain point during setup. After “verification”, setup will continue.

5

Bah…I knew I was doing it the hard way. :smack: