[roobyroob]

I wanted to completely wipe my computer clean and so I put my XP disc in thinking this would do it but alls I've managed to do is install 2 versions of XP. Could anyone help me delete one of the versions?

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Now, are you saying that each drive has a XP install on it? If so, which drive is the boot drive. Lets say your HD's are the "C" and "E" drives( cdrom in between as the "D" drive). If you disconnect the "E" drive from the data cable, does the computer still boot up? If so you can wipe the whole XP system off the "E" drive by going into disk management, then right clicking on the "E" drive, then click format. After that yopu can make folders on the drive for any data you want to store on it. It might be a good place to store system backups also.

SRX660

[SRX660]

Now, are you saying that each drive has a XP install on it? If so, which drive is the boot drive. Lets say your HD's are the "C" and "E" drives( cdrom in between as the "D" drive). If you disconnect the "E" drive from the data cable, does the computer still boot up? If so you can wipe the whole XP system off the "E" drive by going into disk management, then right clicking on the "E" drive, then click format. After that yopu can make folders on the drive for any data you want to store on it. It might be a good place to store system backups also.

SRX660

[rocaddict]

There's an easier way ...

If you want to wipe everything off of both drives then:

Boot from the XP CD and proceed as if you were installing. When you get to the point where it asks you to confirm what partition to installation, just D elete all of the partitions, create one on the first drive in the list, and proceed.


If you only want to wipe one drive, and you know which drive it's listed as:
Just delete the partitions on that drive and tel the setup to instalin that "unallocated space"

[roobyroob]

Thanks for the replies. I'll get everything I want off the computer and then I'll let you know how I get on.

[roobyroob]

I managed to delete the other drive but I still cant completely wipe the computer. I've tried formatting the C drive and I get a message saying Windows cannot format the drive and to quit any utilities or programs that are using the drive. Any ideas?

[Murray S.]

Howdy:

Sounds like you are trying to wipe C: drive through Windows and that can't be done.

You will need to boot the computer using your XP cd. From there just follow the prompts to remove all partitions and re-install Windows.

Murray

[roobyroob]

Thats exactly what I've just done and yet all the files are still in Program Files. I should have 127gbs but even after deleting everything I can still only manage to free up 40gb

[Samm]

Hi there

I think you may have misunderstood what Murray was telling you...
You need to boot from the XP CD i.e insert the CD then reboot the system. You may see a message asking you to press a key if you wish to boot from CD. If there's no message & the system boots straight into windows as normal, then you need to change the boot order in the bios.

Once you've booted from the CD, you can then choose to delete the C drive. Once deleted, you then need to create a new partition using all of the unallocated (free) space. It will then need formatting. Choose to install XP to this new partition.

NB If you currently have XP installed to another partition (eg the D or E drive), you will not be able to access this after wiping the C drive. This is because there will be crucial boot files on the C drive that are required to boot XP, even if XP actually resides on a different partition. This is why you will need to reinstall XP after wiping the C drive.

[roobyroob]

Thats what I've done. I've booted from the XP disc and got rid of the partition drive so now I have just the C drive. Sorry, I'm not really clued up on all this so I'm probably not getting something thats really quite simple.

[Murray S.]

Thats what I've done. I've booted from the XP disc and got rid of the partition drive so now I have just the C drive. Sorry, I'm not really clued up on all this so I'm probably not getting something thats really quite simple.

You need to wipe ALL drives/partitions. When you boot using the XP cd, one of the options you get should be to remove ALL partitions. Are you doing that?

Murray

Edited by Murray S., 21 July 2008 - 07:57 AM.

[roobyroob]

Yeah I did that.

[Murray S.]

Good.. What version of XP are you using - Home or Pro?

Murray

[roobyroob]

Home

[Murray S.]

Take a look HERE for a tutorial.

It says for XP Pro but it will be very much the same.

Murray