Formatting c: drive

[wiser3]

My brother in law has been collecting a lot of junk on his system. Which means it becomes unstable. To make it more stable he keeps reinstalling Win XP Pro over the current installation.

During the reinstalls he often makes user accounts with slightly different names then before. This results in folders for these users that we can't delete, as only those users have permission to delete them. A lot of the data is duplicate content and is backed up elsewhere. These folders are now taking up so much space he's running low on HD space.

I'd like to format his c: drive and do a fresh install of XP Pro. But i can't format c: because i'm booting off it and it's in use.

How do i format drive c:?

 

[bcastner]

Boot from the XP CD.

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/q313/3/48.asp&NoWebContent=1

Two notes:

. It is rarely necessary to reinstall XP. While common under Win9x it is decidedly uncommon for XP;

. By default user profiles are restricted in permissions to the user. In order to delete uneeded profiles, logon as the Administrator and either:

. Open System in Control Panel. On the User Profiles tab, under Profiles stored on this computer, click the user profile you want to delete, and then click Delete.

. Use Delprof.exe:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...familyid=901A9B95-6063-4462-8150-360394E98E1E

 

[techsupportgirl]

Hi wiser

Either start your computer and put the Windows XP CD into the CDrom drive or from inside Windows put the CD in and reboot.

**Make sure this sytem is capable of booting from the CD drive and that this option is set in the BIOS or you aren't going to go anywhere **

Your computer should automatically detect the CD, and a message "Press any key to boot CD" will be displayed for 5 seconds.

Press a key and the CD will begin to load files that are needed to begin the installation.
When asked if you wish to install Windows XP press Enter.

You will be presented with the End User Licensing Agreement. Press F8 to accept and continue or press F3 to cancel the install.

Select the partition in which you wish to install Windows XP and press the Enter key.

The next screen asks if you wish to use the NTFS or FAT32. Your decision. NTFS provides security. FAT32 does not.

If you previously had an Operating System installed you will be given a choice of Format options . Select the Format option of your choice. When asked to start the format, press the "F" key. The formatting process may take quite a bit of time.

Setup will begin an automated loading of files which will take several minutes.

***Note - If you are clean installing using an XP Upgrade CD you will be asked for a qualifying product at this point. Just pop the CD for your older version of Windows into the drive while the XP setup completes an authenticity check. Following this you will be prompted for the XP CD and setup will continue.

After this is complete the computer will restart. Leave the XP CD in the drive but this time DO NOT press any key when the message it "Press any key to boot CD" is displayed. In 5 seconds setup will continue.

The Windows XP Setup wizard will lead you through the process of gathering information about you and your computer.

You must be connected to the Internet to activate XP. If you do not activate within 30 days XP will not work until you do so.

After the Activation Screen you will be given the opportunity to Register Windows XP. Registration is optional and choosing not to register will not have any negative effect on your system.

You will be required to enter your account password to gain access to the Windows XP Desktop.

That's it!

Report back and let us know how it went.