How Do I Reformat XP to do a Fresh Install?

well, hopefully you have the rescue/setup disks that came with your computer..that would be the first thing we need to know...

Hey ningian,

So you want to completely wipe out your system and install a fresh copy of XP... If you have the install CD, pop that into your CD-ROM drive, and restart the computer... Make sure it boots off the CD, from there you will have the option of choosing if you want to format and install a fresh copy of the OS. It should detect the old install of XP (if that is what you originally had installed)... Just follow the on screen prompts... Should be fairly simple.

I would first back up everything you have that you want to keep before you flush your system, because once it is gone - it is gone... ;)

Good luck,
-SlickVic78

I do it the safer and sure way. :) Get a winme boot disk for bootdisk.com and then just run fdisk and delete partions and recreate them from stratch. Some time I delete the partions and then write zeros to the entire drive. Makeing sure its clean.

Then you just do format c: or whatever and then enter winxp cd and follow on screen directions.

This one:
http://www.24by7.ca/files/bootme.exe

How do I use the MS-DOS® debug script to remove my DOS or non-DOS partition?

Overview

To debug your hard drive, perform the following steps:


NOTICE: Performing the following steps will lead to the loss of all data on the hard drive. The purpose of this DEBUG script is to remove all formatting and partitioning information from your hard disk when FDISK is unable to do so. Please ensure that all necessary backups have been created prior to proceeding.




Additional Information


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Download a Boot Disk Containing Debug

In order to completely erase partitions on your hard drive, you must have a bootable disk that contains the debug command.




Run the Debug Script

The following debug script removes DOS and non-DOS partitions on the hard drive. This debug script allows you to convert a drive from an incompatible partition structure to one that will work with FDISK.EXE such as converting Linux partitions to MS-DOS partitions.


Insert the boot disk that contains the Debug command into the floppy disk drive.

Restart the computer.
A black screen with the Microsoft Windows® 95 Startup Menu appears.

Press the <5> key, and then press the <Enter> key.
The boot process concludes with an A:\> prompt followed by a blinking cursor (underline).

From the A:\> prompt, type the following commands, and then press the <Enter> key after each command:

NOTE: Type the bolded text only (the debug prompt is a dash). You may receive an error if you type anything other than the bold text. The non-bolded text represents the system response that will appear after typing each command and pressing the <Enter> key.
debug
-F 200 L1000 0
-A CS:100
xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301
xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200
xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1
xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80


NOTE: Type 80 for the primary hard drive - HD 0, or type 81 for the secondary hard drive - HD 1.
In most cases, the primary hard drive is required 80.


xxxx:010C INT 13
xxxx:010E INT 20
xxxx:0110 (Leave this line blank. Press the <Enter> key to continue.)
-G

The message Program terminated normally appears.



Press the power button to turn off your computer.

On the ensuing startup, the hard drive must be partitioned and formatted.
I hope this helps on how to wipe the drive clean, i would also do a wipe of the master boot record as well;
To do that reboot the computer to the floppy disk and at the a:\>fdisk /mbr then press enter it should go back to the a prompt again
a:/>
at that time you can either partition the hard drive up to 32 gig or use your xp disk or restore disc.
I would recommend a win98 boot disc due to the partition limitation in win 95 boot disc.

hope this is what you were looking for.
(REMEMBER THIS WILL WIPE EVERYTHING OFF OF THE DRIVE! SO IF YOU NEED TO DO A RE - INSTALL BACKUP YOUR DATA OR LOOSE IT.)

-http:\>www.bootdisc.com has numerous boot disc tpo download
you can also check your manufacturer to see if they have boot disc as well.
(Some personal advice, if you do just a format all that does is wipe that partition from the boot record. it does not wipe the drive clean it just over writes what was on the drive. a debug command or write zeros is your best option to kill data completely. there are programs out there that will wipe the drive several times so forensic tools cannot recover any previous data written to the drive.)
If your computer is a dell you can download a boot disc from their site called cdenab.exe that will do the debug command. if it is a gateway you can download their boot disc to write zeroe`s using gwscan.



Hope this helps and i have not confused you too much.
Good luck!

ironleg1963

hxxp://fdisk.radified.com/delete_partitions.htm and
hyyp://fdisk.radified.com/

explains all you want to know.