Windows XP Formatting Guide

There comes a time when your computer is just too cluttered with mess that you suddenly feel like it has come to a halt. Your load times get slower, and you often run into errors or the “Blue Screen of Death”. One of the best solutions is reformatting your hard drive. What is reformatting? It is essentially reinstalling your operating system to like-new conditions. A benefit is correcting accumulated errors from installing/uninstalling programs, which may happen from deleting files that are necessary to your operating system. It will also clear your hard drive from unwanted clutter, which can be duplicate files or unused registry files. This article will guide your through the steps to installing Windows XP, or reformatting your hard drive.

Preparation

Before you decide to reformat your computer, you want to backup any important documents or files that you would like to keep. Anything you don’t backup will be permanently deleted. Your best option is burning your files to a DVD due to its high capacity. CDs can also be used, but you will have to use several of them, and files larger than 750-800MB will not fit on a single CD. Of course, if you have access to a server for storage, you can upload your files.

You will need to have a Microsoft XP installation disk before reformatting. In most cases you can boot the installation disk from your CD drive, but in some cases you will have to boot from a set of floppy disks. You can create the boot disks by downloading a handy file provided my Microsoft located here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994. I believe there are six floppy disks in total for the standard installation of XP.

Another important preparation is insuring you have the necessary drivers to run your computer devices. The installation of Windows XP will include most drivers required, but in some cases you will need to install the drivers manually. The most important driver you should have is probably a network driver in order to connect to the internet to download any missing drivers you didn’t backup. You can find the drivers for your computer devices at each manufacturer’s website.

Booting Up and Reformatting

If you have changed the order of your boot up sequence you will have to enter the bios and change the first boot device to either the CD Rom device, or the floppy device depending on what type of boot disk you will be using. After changing the order, reboot your computer with the boot disk in the drive. The first screen you should see after booting is a message telling you your hardware configuration is being inspected. Once that is completed your computer will proceed to load the installation files. During the beginning of the load you will be prompted to install any third party raid drivers. Press F6 if you want to install the raid drivers. If you are using floppy disks you will be prompted to switch each floppy disk after they load.

After loading the installation files you will be shown a few choices to proceed. You have the option to set up a new installation of XP or you can repair a previous installation. Choose a new installation.

You will then be prompted to read and agree to an End-User License Agreement. Press F8 to continue. The next screen will show you the available partitions or hard drives to format. You have the option to create separate partitions or a single partition on a hard drive. In this case you want to just create a single partition (the first choice) on the hard drive you are reformatting.

Before proceeding, you want to delete the previous partition on the hard drive. This will delete everything on the hard drive, at which point nothing will be recoverable. You will be prompted to confirm the deletion. After deleting the partition choose the first option to set up a new Windows XP installation. Select the unpartitioned space you just deleted to install Windows XP. From this point forward, Windows will take over and prompt you to enter a few configurations during the install, such as a name for your computer, time zone, etc. If you are unsure what to do during the install just choose the default options.

The installation will take up to thirty minutes depending on your computer. Everything is pretty much straight forward after the installation is complete. You may be asked to activate your copy of XP, or you may be able to skip that process depending on the version of XP you have. If you have a limited number of activations, you probably will have to contact Microsoft to get your copy activated. After booting to the desktop you should connect to Windows Update to update your new installation with the latest service packs, security fixes, and drivers. The last thing to do is to install any missing drivers, and reinstall any programs you intend to use. Keep in mind the less stuff you reinstall the less bloat your computer will have, resulting in faster operation.

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May 24, 2007 at 5:46 pm | Software |