RE: Reformat Hard Drive?

First, thanks each of the posters here.

Second, the more I read about doing this, the more I think I'm in over my
head.

My concern is that reformatting the hard drive and doing a clean install of
Windows XP is going to eliminate everything on my C drive, including IBM
preinstall, etc..

And I don't believe I can back up the stuff on my C drive, right? (I have
already backed up my D drive, which is where my data is stored).

It's a laptop, not a desktop, and to make matters worse, the screen doesn't
work. So I'm connected to an external monitor. But if I reformat the C
drive, I'll lose the program and settings that enablesallows my laptop to
work with the external monitor, yes? And if that happens, when I try to boot
from the Windows XP disk, I won't be able to see anything on the laptop
screen, so I won't be able to do anything anyway, right?

So, can I simply reformat the D drive? (Assuming for the moment that the
hard drive itself isn't corrupted). And if so, will that really resolve my
problems since those are just data files?

Sorry folks, definitely out of my element here but trying to understand.

Thanks again.

P.S. Using PC Doctor right now to test the hard drive . . . I'm working from
a second machine.

"jkl" wrote:

Hard drive has become unstable; programs freeze up repeatedly; programs
sometimes don't open; repeatedly get the unbootable boot volume (despite
taking steps to fix that) when starting computer. Am thinking I will back up
data and program files, erase hard drive, and reinstall programs. Worried
that erasing hard drive will elimante files installed at factory that I can't
reinstall because I don't have them. I have Windows XP Professional disks,
so that shouldn't be a problem, but how do I do the above without ending up
making my computer useless?

TIA
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contact
    ... Have a laptop which I just reformatted the C drive with and have done ... I did a full reformat in NTFS a clean install. ... Windows HOME and DOMAIN? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Windows wont read my DVD-Rs?
    ... >I am on an HP laptop with a DVD-RW drive. ... I know it's Windows and not the drive because if I open my ... the program will ask me if I'd like to make an image of the disc ... > told me to reformat. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Windows wont read my DVD-Rs?
    ... I am on an HP laptop with a DVD-RW drive. ... I know it's Windows and not the drive because if I open my ... it will recognize the disc and if it is already ... told me to reformat. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Cant read 3.5 in floppy
    ... Do not reformat anything. ... >I have a laptop that uses windows 98. ... > and now I can't read the disks on my PC which has is XP. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: multiple windows opening
    ... After uninstalling, one must download/run a removal tool to rid the machines of the "leftovers" and then reboot, preferably *before* installing another anti-virus application or security suite (e.g., OneCare). ... run Windows Update manually to make sure the machine's fully patched. ... Windows Firewall and Defender on its own. ... I have had windows live one care from the first setup of this laptop. ...
    (microsoft.public.security)