Formatting

[roast_beef]

My brother tried to do a clean installation of winxp because of all the junk his computer has accumulated over the years. He ended up copying the new winxp files over the old partition instead of formatting a new one. Additionally, a few of the files were missing or corrupted (scratched disk? no idea...) but he continued anyway. Now the computer tries to finish the installation, but because it is missing these files, it just reboots and wont boot from the winxp cd. Is there a way to format the HDD and start clean? I don't have another computer I can use...

Thanks.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

This guide should help you: Steps to Clean Install XP . Pay particular attention to steps 10b and later. You can click the pics on the left to show what each step looks like.

 

[setishock]

You can also use the formatting software from the hard drive makers website to wipe the whole drive. Then pop in the OS cd and go for it.