I don't want to throw my pc away, but I want to clean or reformat the hard drive. How do I do that?

Question

Windows Xp hom, 576 of RAM, not sure the size of the hard drive,IBM

Answer 1

Be careful. Before you make a move, backup any files you want to some sort of external storage -- format completely erases everything.

When you are ready, open My Computer.
Right-click on C: and click Format.
Before you know it you will be looking at a blank screen and you will have to reinstall Windows and everything else.
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Are you sure you wouldn't want to try a system restore first?
WindowsXP System Restore – excellent link – explains with graphics
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx

WindowsXP Repair Explained
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/options_to_use_when_a_system_will_not_start.mspx?mfr=true

WindowsXP Repair Tools
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm#How%20to%20Repair%20Windows%20XP%20by%20Installing%20Over%20top%20of%20Existing%20Setup:

http://www.download-download-this.com/4.html?OVRAW=Windows%20Installer%20corrupted&OVKEY=window%20installer&OVMTC=advanced

Fix and/or Repair Windows
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_install.htm
http://www.onsitechicago.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=23&nav=0

How to Perform a clean WindowsXP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Answer 2

Do you have a full copy of Windows XP home and the registration code? Did you back up your information? If so just put the windows disc in and follow the instructions. the ram doesnt matter. The size of your hard drive doesnt matter unless you plan to partition the hard drive.

Answer 3

seeing how you have about 512mb of ram i can tell your system is quite old cupple years atleast. you should have a windows cd. if not its hard to format your hard drive and start fresh.. but say you do have a windows cd, just restart your computer, put the cd in, and after bios, it will say start from cd..... press ne key... press any key, and it will give you some steps to follow. it will ask a format question, format ntfs,fat,leave current, do a quick format for ntfs, and it will install the rest. bam all done :) just fyi make sure you have all your drivers as in video drivers,sound,modem,ethernet, etc. or you wont have sound, very good vid qual or internet access.

Answer 4

if you have a brand-name PC most don't come with Windows disks these days, but provide a way to burn off a set of recovery disks. If this is the case with this pc, and they haven't been burned yet you still can. look in the Start > All Programs menu for the manufacturer's folder, and in there look for the manual. (If it's not there go to their website under "Support" for the manual -- "drivers & downloads" usually.) the manual will explain how to burn them off.

note: you also might have a recovery partition. that's an alternative to using the disks. you would press a key or combination of keys at boot to start the process. look in the manual for that too (something like: "Recovery Options").
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Answer 5

If you have the original CD put it in and from the windows directory on the CD, run the format with the /u switch for each partition. A couple of runs will pretty well wipe it out. If you don't have the original CD, copy out format.exe to a CD and run it. Problem will be trying to reload an OS with out the key if you don't have one.

Answer 6

in case you reproduction your OS from thiscontinual to a distinctcontinual and that actual works it is going to nonetheless have the comparable problems it has now as to the reality that the errors are in the OS registry. the only thank you to do away with the OS and do a clean set up from the CD.

Answer 7

Are you throwing it out? If so, we just take our hard drives out and destroy them. You can toss the rest of the computer whole.

Answer 8

Buy a Mac and ask them to put your stuff onto the mac and they will do it for free