[yvonnet]

As many of you will know from the previous thread:

http://www.thecomputerforums.co.uk/f...843/#post20872

I have a four year old PC (OS Windows XP Home) which is slightly cranky. It's still very fast but has all sorts of little glitches that I think could be sorted out by taking it back to factory condition.

After much discussion in the previous thread I decided to purchase a Windows XP Home OEM disc which I now have.

My question this time is - do I just insert the disc and away I go and install Windows XP again on my PC, or should I format my C drive first (after backing everything up).

I would like to end the operation with a completely clean and fresh machine and am prepared to spend oodles of time reloading software etc.

Thanks, and any comments and advice is welcome

Yvonne

[Wolfeymole]

Is this for the tower Yvonne?

[Dave Hybrid]

XP will automatically format the drive if you want it to during the setup.

I'd advise backing up anything first prior to booting from the CD and running the setup.

Thanks.

[hAvAAck]

if you pop the CD in it will help you format, if that's what you decide to do.

[yvonnet]

Yes, it's for the tower, and I know it will help me format, but is that what I should be doing to help me achieve my aim?

Yvonne

[Dave Hybrid]

If you are currently running the same version of XP as you purchased then you can do a repair.

Boot from the CD and select the SECOND repair option.

All data and settings will stay the same, just the bugs and problems will be ironed out.

If the versions are different it will simply not give you the repair option.

A full format and install is all you can do at that point and any data will be lost.

I'd still recommend backing up anything important.

[Wolfeymole]

Look here Yvonne.

Now ignore all the writing ok and scroll down the page to the screen shots pictured on the left side.

At about pic No3 it says "Cannot find a previous version of XP"

Yours will say "Found a version, what would you like to do?"

Repair it.
Delete it

Choose to Delete it and format the partition once deleted.
Format the partition in NTFS.
Once the partition has been formatted XP will load and install.

[yvonnet]

Just realised that I hadn't said thank you for the help with this - both computers fully formatted and fired up again, but none of it would have been possible without everyone's help - thank you.