Re: Clean Re-Install of XP Pro

From: Phil \(a.k.a. purplehaz\) (software_at_for.me)
Date: 03/31/04 

Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 10:36:10 -0500

*Warning - you will lose all data*

Boot to a win9x floppy boot disk, run Fdisk, delete partitions, create new
partitions, reboot to win9x boot disk again, run format. When done boot to
XP floppy boot disks, install xp. Get boot disks here: www.bootdisk.com

Or,

Boot to the xp cd and follow the on-screen instructions to delete the
partition, create new partition, format, and install. The cd is bootable and
has all the tools to format and install.

Robin McInnes wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I can see there are many posts on this topic, and I have browsed some
> of them, but I cannot see one which is totally specific to my
> problem. I hope I do not offend anyone here by inadvertently asking
> an often answered question.
>
> After experiencing a (relatively) minor problem with MS Outlook I
> sought advice via MS online support. An 'online service professional'
> then began corresponding with me with various suggested fixes for the
> problem, none of which worked. He then advised me to uninstall Office
> manually by deleting registry entries and explorer folders. I
> followed the instructions to the letter, but something went wrong and
> now there are odd symptoms appearing in other programs which lead me
> to believe something may be wrong with my Windows XP installation
> itself. Online professional agrees, because after over a month of
> emails he helpfully suggests that the only solution to my original
> problem is a complete re-install of Windows XP!
>
> At first I was reluctant, but on reflection it doesn't seem a bad
> idea to do a complete spring-clean of my system and start afresh with
> a clean install of XP onto a completely clean hard drive.
>
> The only other time I've done a complete re-install was when I used
> Windows 95, and I seem to recall that I started in MS-DOS and typed
> 'format c:' to clean my hard drive before re-installation of the OS.
>
> I notice from other re-install postings that the method these days
> seems to boot up from the XP CD and follow the instructions. So I
> decided to check that I could do that and found that I could boot
> from the CD drive, but that when I 'pressed any key' to do so I was
> presented with an unexpected set of options:-
>
> The screen advised me that my computer was 'already being upgraded to
> XP' and I was offered the options to either continue with the
> upgrade, cancel that upgrade and begin a new installation, or of
> course exit the screen.
>
> To be told my computer was 'being upgraded' threw me, and I am unsure
> what I should do now.
>
> Also, on some of the links in previous posts there is mentioned
> something called fdisk, which is another thing I recall from that
> previous reinstall of Win95. Can one now disregard fdisk if using the
> XP CD?
>
> I am presently running XP Pro SP1, which to my knowledge is _not_
> being upgraded, on a 1GHz Intel Celeron Packard-Bell machine.

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