I would like to learn how to reformat my hardrive without overwriting My first time help?

Question

I am running windows xp home.

Answer 1

Why do you want to format your harddrive is it not working ?. If it is to clean the hard disk run the defrag utility and it will neatly rearrange your data on the hard disk. There is no way you can format your hard disk without overwriting ( deleting all files) and you should take a backup of all your files on a CD/DVD /Tape before formatting your hardisk.

Answer 2

The only way I know to format your system without overwriting anything involves having two hard drives installed.

First, gather up everything that you cannot easily replace or simply want to save, and move it to hd #2.

Then, format hd #1 and reinstall windows.

Next, move everything you put on hd #2 back to hd #1.

You might have to reinstall some things anyway due to registry enries being deleted. There is a way to back up registry entries too, but it is not something I'd recommend unless you know exactly what you're doing. You can royally fudge up your system if you mess with the registry.


If you don't have a second hard drive, you can get a portable external drive for fairly cheap these days. (It's also good for moving files that don't fit on a cd to another computer if you don't have a network.)

Answer 3

try defragmentation if the problem is with speed of execution. if not, the Windows XP SP2 comes with a repair option. Try that and the programme would stay in place and a few settings too. This is a boot CD, so all you have to do is boot your system using this CD and key in the serial key, the rest is taken care off easily.

or if the drive u want to reformat is not containing the OS, then do the following after taking a backup of that drive:

Press 'Windows key+R' > write 'command', press 'OK' > window opens- write 'C:', press 'enter' key > now write: format 'drive', press 'enter'.
(the drive means the drive u want to format, eg. D: or E: or F: or so on..)

Answer 4

This is not something that you want to do without a lot more computer knowledge. When you format your hard drive it removes all information from it. Your computer becomes STUPID. It doesn't even have a CD driver and it is not a simple matter to install one. So I do not recommend trying it on your own. I have done this many times and new problems come up especially when your working with an older unit.

Answer 5

I would look around for an old computer at a garage sale or something that has a hard drive you can practice with,, or even try like the Goodwill stores, they have computers too,

Answer 6

i'm not sure if there's a way you can do that. i only wish there is. the best thing you could do is back-up your files thn reformat.

if you're into XP

you could try to reinstalling XP by booting from it and selecting repair.

Answer 7

Reformating means total erasure of datas in your hard drive and I mean all of your datas.