Format My Pc.

[pop3]

I would like to format my pc, I am running window's xp pro, The guy in the shop say's it's not easy to format properly ? I am not an expert on computer's so is it better to go to the shop or is it a job that somebody with basic computer skill's can do ?

[ajarnmark]

I would like to format my pc,  I am running window's xp pro,  The guy in the shop say's it's not easy to format properly ? I am not an expert on computer's so is it better to go to the shop or is it a job that somebody with basic computer skill's can do ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do you want a complete clean-up? means u dont have anything on ur pc to save...... if yes then burn it on the CD and then format the whole hard disk. Following is a basic procedure to format ur hdd:

1. Boot from a bootable CD-ROM

2. When gives the prompt A:\> then type FORMAT C: /S /Q

3. Wait for a while and all ur data on C drive will go

4. Now install windows from the CD-ROM

If any complication then hire me to do it for u I will charge u a nominal price 5555555

[Mali_in_CM]

Well...

Depends on the CD and on whether the existing format is FAT or NTFS.

Boot on a DOS floppy and use fdisk to remove/recreate partition.

Then:

format c: /s

[Buff-horns]

I would like to format my pc,  I am running window's xp pro,  The guy in the shop say's it's not easy to format properly ? I am not an expert on computer's so is it better to go to the shop or is it a job that somebody with basic computer skill's can do ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

what he means is that a normal format wont be enough because when you reinstall xp it will find bits of the old system and try to repair or generally foul up.

you need a disk utility for your hard drive and take it back to virgin state .

more a low level format is needed.you need to get rid of xp completely.

i have been thru this myself . this worked for me.

[billd766]

If you are not 100% sure of what you are trying to do, Please P;ease don't do it yourself.

You may find that you have lost everything you ever had and your PC still may not work. Ask around the farangs near where you live for a recommendation for a good PC guy and there are a lot out there. He will save all of your data onto an external drive and format the hard drive, reload a clean copy of Windows and dump all your data back again. If you ask him nicely he will probably let you stay and watch and if he is a good guy he will explain what he is doing along the way.

I am no novice and I have done both of my laptops and my desktop one at a time and it tool me about a day for each, though having my 14 month old son around probably didn't help.

What I have done is partitioned the hard drive and put as many programs as I can on the partition except Windows and some programs which don't allow the choice of drives.

That way if you do have a C drive crash most of you data should be safe as you can format the C drive and the data will be on the other drive.

I wish you the best of luck and I hope that it works out well for you whichever way you do it.

[ajarnmark]

I would like to format my pc,  I am running window's xp pro,   The guy in the shop say's it's not easy to format properly ? I am not an expert on computer's so is it better to go to the shop or is it a job that somebody with basic computer skill's can do ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

what he means is that a normal format wont be enough because when you reinstall xp it will find bits of the old system and try to repair or generally foul up.

you need a disk utility for your hard drive and take it back to virgin state .

more a low level format is needed.you need to get rid of xp completely.

i have been thru this myself . this worked for me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

well buddy, the age of low level format is almost gone, what u suppose to do is to rewrite your master boot record (mbr), so when u boot the computer with floppy or cd, on the propmpt type

FDISK /MBR

to get rid of the mbr, as far as the computer tracking the old data is concerned, it is not the case if u have formatted the whole hard disk alreay with a new mbr too.

As far as saving data is concerned then u probably have to do it before going for any maintenance operation, so save it on disk and do the operations.

I agree that these tasks can claim whole of ur day, whether u do it by urself or ask someone to do it for u.

[Buff-horns]

I would like to format my pc,  I am running window's xp pro,  The guy in the shop say's it's not easy to format properly ? I am not an expert on computer's so is it better to go to the shop or is it a job that somebody with basic computer skill's can do ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

what he means is that a normal format wont be enough because when you reinstall xp it will find bits of the old system and try to repair or generally foul up.

you need a disk utility for your hard drive and take it back to virgin state .

more a low level format is needed.you need to get rid of xp completely.

i have been thru this myself . this worked for me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

well buddy, the age of low level format is almost gone, what u suppose to do is to rewrite your master boot record (mbr), so when u boot the computer with floppy or cd, on the propmpt type

FDISK /MBR

to get rid of the mbr, as far as the computer tracking the old data is concerned, it is not the case if u have formatted the whole hard disk alreay with a new mbr too.

As far as saving data is concerned then u probably have to do it before going for any maintenance operation, so save it on disk and do the operations.

I agree that these tasks can claim whole of ur day, whether u do it by urself or ask someone to do it for u.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

you can do it that way but it wont find bad sectors and virus's lurking on the drive.

i prefer to do the job thouroughly laying down zeros across the drive. and start with a virgin state hard drive .

[lomatopo]

A related question...I have an IBM Thinkpad with Windows XP. It has the Microsoft Windows XP Professional Product Key on the PC, but I did not get a Windows XP Pro CD when I purchased the unit. In the event that I need to replace or upgrade my HDD can I use any Win XP Pro CD (borrow one from someone), but use the product key on my sticker?

[ajarnmark]

A related question...I have an IBM Thinkpad with Windows XP. It has the Microsoft Windows XP Professional Product Key on the PC, but I did not get a Windows XP Pro CD when I purchased the unit. In the event that I need to replace or upgrade my HDD can I use any Win XP Pro CD (borrow one from someone), but use the product key on my sticker?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes u can

[Ajarn_Jonesy]

A related question...I have an IBM Thinkpad with Windows XP. It has the Microsoft Windows XP Professional Product Key on the PC, but I did not get a Windows XP Pro CD when I purchased the unit. In the event that I need to replace or upgrade my HDD can I use any Win XP Pro CD (borrow one from someone), but use the product key on my sticker?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes u can

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I AM GOING reading all this stuff............Some of these things your saying are really outa here........ IF you purchased the computer new chances are that you a restore disk with it... this is used to restore your pc to the original state.... Personally I don't like to use it as it really is nothing more than a shodow image or the original....

For the WIN XP DISK and PRODUCT KEY.. This most likely will not work with someone elses disk... UNLESS the disk came with the same brand computer....There are many different builds of XP PRO and HOME. This PRODUCT KEY may not work with other builds...

As for formatting the drive ... GET AN XP DISK... boot to the disk choose install new version of xp choose F8 for the license agreement and then choose to setup on C:. Follow the steps It is really very simple. MAKE SURE TO CHoose to format the drive with NTFS file system......

OHH And almost forgot... all these other ways they have told you can work, but file HDD will still be formatted anytime you do a fresh install.. ....

1 other thing as for losing data... you have to format a drive 5-7 times to completely remove all traces from the hard drive. ....

All of this sounds more complicated than it really is.... But Ajarn Mark Seems to have a pretty good handle on it...