I have been running my XP machine fine for the past months but recently I got a new computer for college (both machines are Dell). Using the new computer made me realize that my other computer has become severly junked up beyond saving.
Back in the day of my 98se machines, when this happened I would just delete the main partition with fdisk, recreate it, run a format C: from the dos prompt of a 98 boot disk, then install a clean copy of windows. I never lost anything important because I saved all my documents and stuff to external hard drives.
Now, my concern is this...
How would I go about wiping clean my current computer? I'm not worried about losing anything because everything important is on external drives, I'm nervous that XP won't like me messing with partitions, or that maybe even when I try to reinstall windows it will give me errors. Also, my internal hard drives are in a raid 0 setup... this PROBABLY is managed by bios, but I'm just making sure its ok.
If someone can point me in the right direction for "re-doing" this computer, it would be greatly appreciated!
(I'm not sure where this post belongs so I just made it here in the water fountain..)
I have been running my XP machine fine for the past months but recently I got a new computer for college (both machines are Dell). Using the new computer made me realize that my other computer has become severly junked up beyond saving.
Back in the day of my 98se machines, when this happened I would just delete the main partition with fdisk, recreate it, run a format C: from the dos prompt of a 98 boot disk, then install a clean copy of windows. I never lost anything important because I saved all my documents and stuff to external hard drives.
Now, my concern is this...
How would I go about wiping clean my current computer? I'm not worried about losing anything because everything important is on external drives, I'm nervous that XP won't like me messing with partitions, or that maybe even when I try to reinstall windows it will give me errors. Also, my internal hard drives are in a raid 0 setup... this PROBABLY is managed by bios, but I'm just making sure its ok.
If someone can point me in the right direction for "re-doing" this computer, it would be greatly appreciated!
(I'm not sure where this post belongs so I just made it here in the water fountain..)
I have a bootable CD for just this reason. It used to be a floppy, but, well, I have not had a PC with a floppy drive in some time! Anyway, it boots into DOS 6.22 and has all the good old stuff like FDISK, ATTRIB, and the like on it. I use it everytime I get a new PC to blow away manufacturer's stuff and lay down my own OS installation. Guess I will have to refigure this myself or make it into a bootable DVD soon. Sigh.
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I have a bootable CD for just this reason. It used to be a floppy, but, well, I have not had a PC with a floppy drive in some time! Anyway, it boots into DOS 6.22 and has all the good old stuff like FDISK, ATTRIB, and the like on it. I use it everytime I get a new PC to blow away manufacturer's stuff and lay down my own OS installation.
I hate what manufactures give, that why i go to computer shops that dont give u the operating system and make custom pc's.
If you have the original xp disks then when you boot it, There will be a prompt asking which partion To use and How to format
The key is original. If what you have are the CDs the manufacturer of the PC provided to you, then what you likely have is essentially a restore to "factory specs" from the hidden partition.
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True that - that is one of the lamest habits of PC manufacturers - I think you should always get a *full* copy of your OS ...
Originally Posted by AKAJohnDoe
The key is original. If what you have are the CDs the manufacturer of the PC provided to you, then what you likely have is essentially a restore to "factory specs" from the hidden partition.
Also, many manufacturers provide something like a ghost image on CD... very similar to the restore partition.
In any case, if you use the "partition manager" from an XP bootable CD, just delete the "c:" partition (or whichever one you have it setup on"
Press D
Press enter
Press L
select free space
press (c)reate
size it
install it
no big deal as long as you have the CD
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I would really try gParted Live. Its a bootable linux distro, with one purpose - to format / create / check partitions. It boots into a GUI. Its awesome. I love it. TRY IT!
These are all great ideas thanks everyone for your responses!
So basically just boot up with a xp pro CD from dell and it'll walk me through the deletion and recreation of the partitions? I guess the dual hard drives in a raid striping setup isnt a problem because thats managed by bios.
my brother did just this and lost all his drivers.
dell included a hidden partition with a restore app on it.
all you have to do is hit a function button at the start up and it'll go start to the restore thing. this will take you back to the very first time you ever started the computer up.
I forgot what the function button was(you might also have to hold a button while you press it too).
but it's documented on the internet.
let me go find it...
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okay it's ALT-F11 at the dell sceen(the first one). then it'll go to a SIMPLE 2-3 step process to restore the original image. this is how the dimension 3000's restore is. it might be a little different if you have a different model.
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my brother did just this and lost all his drivers.
dell included a hidden partition with a restore app on it.
all you have to do is hit a function button at the start up and it'll go start to the restore thing. this will take you back to the very first time you ever started the computer up.
I forgot what the function button was(you might also have to hold a button while you press it too).
but it's documented on the internet.
let me go find it...
-------------------------------------------
okay it's ALT-F11 at the dell sceen(the first one). then it'll go to a SIMPLE 2-3 step process to restore the original image. this is how the dimension 3000's restore is. it might be a little different if you have a different model.
And then you'll be back on base XP, pre-SP1, with no way to get updates :)
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if it is a dell machine, boot it and press f12, that will get you to the option of starting a utility partition (if present)
You can still boot the CD and delete the partition to re-install manually, see the above post with how to select the partition to delete... you will see the utility partition there, just leave the other partitions alone when you delete the C: partition
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Also, Im not sure about the rest of you but I'have had 2 Dell laptops and 2 dell desktops and they all have come with XP "Reinstallation" CD's... basically its the full os on CD install how you wish..
I also have a Toshiba laptop, but it only came w/ a ghost image on dvd.
You could also download the drivers before hand.. I typically keep a copy of my drivers on a usb drive.
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