Aspies For Freedom

Hi,

Could somebody please advise me?

I need to format the hard drive on a laptop and re-install Windows XP. I have found info at the following links and I just wanted to check that this was right? Especially as the first link give specific files I have to delete but the other links don't refer to this.

Also, most of the links say that I have to just insert the XP disk and boot the computer from the disk. Is this right?
How does the hard drive get formatted then? Does this just happen automatically or do I have to type a format command in somewhere (like I used to do when I formatted floppy disks - although I appreciate floppy disks and hard drives are not the same!).

I would really appreciate any help.
Also, I have learning difficulties, so it would be great if you could explain it as simply as possible for me.

Thanks



http://www.cyberwalker.com/article/454/45#reinstallxp

http://faq.oit.gatech.edu/0305.html
http://www.whitecanyon.com/format-hard-drive.php
http://lifehacker.com/software/windows/g...157578.php
http://www.ehow.com/how_6026_format-hard-drive.html
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic53502.html

Well, I just did it a couple of weeks ago.  I'll tell you how it went for me.
Your situation might be different.  I have an HP laptop and used the disc it came with to reinstall XP.

1) backup!  make sure you have everything you want to save backed up somewhere safe, ON ANOTHER DRIVE.
2) Not really necessary, but I deleted everything before hand after I backed it up.  Doesn't matter, really.
3) reboot with the XP disc in the drive.
4) At the prompt, tell it to do a complete fresh NEW install, not an upgrade.
5) It should ask you what drive to partition, I told it to wipe the partition out and made a new one.  This will wipe everything out, effectively.  It won't wipe it out enough for the FBI, but for normal people, everything's GONE at this point.
6) make new partition.  Format the new partition (NTFS).  Follow prompts, and it'll install.
Mine didn't even ask me for the key, as it was a fresh new install.  I found that to be interesting.  I figure it was a distro that didn't to help automate HP installing them on their PC's before shipment.  Just a guess.

Side note, for some reason FDISK (the program that does the Partitioning of the disk) couldn't partition the entire disk, it left 8Meg free.  I don't know why, and I don't care, but knowing that might help the not knowing what's going on factor on your side

Anyway, after that, it's a fresh shiny new XP installation.

I hope this somehow helps.
I describe what I went though.  Your millage may vary.

I scanned quickly the first link you sent, I don't think you have to worry about much of that if your disc is setup like mine.  Mine did all that "wiping" automatically with the new install.  (and note that I booted directly from the cd-rom, so any nasties (boot virus I'm thinking) shouldn't have run.  That's getting more complicated that you should have to worry about.

Thanks - I'm going to give this a try over the next couple of days.