'Cleaning' a drive

Hi walter,

Do you have a complete Windows XP Pro disc or do you have a "system recovery disc" supplied by your PC's manufacturer?

product (!) recovery disc, fishin. (When I re-installed Windows before, it copied the complete program)

Hi Walter,

First of all have you backed up any data you'll need?

The easiest way to format your computer would usually be to use a product recovery CD as that will setup all your programs too. The last time you set up your PC you installed a 2nd copy of WinXP rather than clearing everything out, no? Did you see any option when you used your recovery CD to format the hard drive, partition it, do a "clean install" or some such?

The 2nd easiest way would be to use a WinXP setup CD. During the early stages of installation it comes to a point where it lets you re-partition your hard drive (this would wipe everything out while it's at it).

Your 3rd bet would be to get your hands on (or download) a Windows 98 or ME startup disk. It includes format.com & fdisk.exe which will allow you to do what you gotta do from a DOS prompt. Lemme know if you need any help with this.

Thanks, monger!

I'll try it, option 1, I mean.

And yes, I've backed up what I need: only the favorites from IE and aol :wink: (Which I know now, where to be found ).

Thanks again!

what do you mean "rumbling" ?

There had been some minor 'disturbances', USAFHokie.
Thanks for asking!

But since I followed monger's kind advice, I've a clean drive "C" with fresh installed Win XP prof now again .... and weeks to wait, until I re-installed all my software :wink:

well "rubling" and "disturbances" isn't really descriptive... but you might want to run scandisk as well, to check for bad sectors and whatnot. repartitioning and formating may temporarily solve the problem... until you write over them again. and if the drive itself is "rumbling" and/or clicking... you might wanna think about guying a new one... cause that could be a sign the io heads are about to crash into the platters (BAD).

Indeed, it is a very bad description.

I just wanted to say, that Windows wasn't running smoothly. Now, re-installed, it's all okay.

Thanks for your help.