Clean Hard Drive?

Question

I would like to clean my hard drive and reinstall Window XP.About ever 4 to 6 month I take my tower to the shop and get clean I would like to do this my self.

Answer 1

The best way to do it would be to make a backup af all of your personal data on the comp, word documents, pictures, music, internet favorites, etc. Then when you reinstall your OS select the option for a new full install and do a full format to the whole drive. this will clean and correct any inconsistencies as well as virus and such on the drive. then just move your backed up data back to where it was. The easiest way would be to back everything up to another hard drive if you have 2. If not it can be done to a cd or DVD, but it will take longer to burn it to a disc and copy copy it back the moving from hard drive to hard drive.

Good luck

Answer 2

Now why would you do that (clean and reinstall XP)? Since you've been doing it for quite sometime now I assume, don't you think is such a big waste of time and resources. You will install the whole system including the applications for that matter.

Now if you simply want to clean hard disk there are a lot of application that can help you do that within xp environment, try downloading ccleaner.exe its free and it will help you keep your xp in top shape.

But if you insist. The best way to cleanout a hard disk is via low-level format. You will need a system disk to do it and run the fdisk.com/exe command. This will delete and reset the entire hard disk. Read procedures on the net before you do it and good luck.

Answer 3

That sounds like a royal waste of time.

Better just to clean windows out every once in a while - simply press ctrl+alt+del and bring up the task manager, switch to 'processes' and search online for each item in the list - find out which ones to leave, and which ones to remove (along with instructions for removing them).

Run lavasofts 'adaware' program every couple of days to keep spyware and stuff off your machine.

If for some reason you MUST wipe out windows every so often - here is what I would do:

1) Get a spare hard drive close to the same size as your windows partition.

2) Get a copy of 'Ghost' software by Norton.

3) Load up the spare drive with windows XP and install any updates, fix patches, and any other software that you need.

4) Put both drives in your machine and use 'ghost' to copy drive to drive. If you don't already have one, make a partition just for windows, and then store all of your other data on a seperate partition. This will make it to where you can wipe out XP on a regular basis without losing any of your data. You can keep the spare drive handy for whenever you want to reload windows, and it will be just like brand new. Anytime you want to upgrade or change any settings, simply install the spare drive stand alone, and make the changes, then copy the drive back to the main one again.

Answer 4

Depends on what you mean by clean.
KILL DISK will do a full format, and take everything back to destroy previous image info.
If you need a Clean Up, just Ghost your Image to a External Drive, Reformat the System, load enough to get your image back, usually with a Ghost Boot Disk, or Boot CD, and that will do the job that way

Answer 5

You should buy your own copy of the operating system and then its just a matter of booting up from the CD ROM drive and formatting your file system and installing the OS. I am sure all the money you have spent on the shop cleaning your system, by now you could have purchased three OS disks.

Answer 6

To do it yourself, make sure you save off all the files you want to keep and then perform the reinstallation of xp. It will prompt you to reformat the drive. Reformat it will clean everything and install xp operating system for you. Once this is done, then reinstall all the necessary drivers and application programs you want.

Answer 7

is this a re-installation of XP? if so, basically boot from the disk and keep on with the academic, and press 'r' to fix even as suggested. If it really is an older gadget say homestead windows ninety 8 or a sparkling reproduction of XP then: enter BIOS and be particular the CD Rom force is the first boot gadget Boot from the CD even as triggered. enable the setup to 'run by potential of' the information There might want to be a license contract the following, for you to press F8 to agree and to proceed with the installation. Now you'll attain a setup demonstrate (it is going to experiment for variations of homestead windows already put in between those 2 factors.) interior the setup demonstrate, you've 3 options. installation homestead windows (Re-installation might want to correctly be there reckoning on the integrity of the installation, and the version of homestead windows) Delete Partition and supplies you up If The partition is deleted, then it desires to be re-formatted, pick your document format heavily, if its win98 then FAT32 is a thanks to pass, if its Vista or XP then i counsel NTFS. after all of this, basically sit down again and wait, and keep on with the academic even as presented =] sturdy success

Answer 8

so u have the recovery disk for your computer just do what the directions say on it and it will make it fresh like u just got it from the store again

Answer 9

Do you have the windows xp disk and product key? If so, its easy enough to do.