How to reformat my HD?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Hello,
i have a question concerning reformatting my hard drive. My pc has been
under the influence of alot of aware and spyware in the recent weeks. It made
sure that some software and internet applications have been working quite
slower. By defragmentating my HD and installing the Windows Anti-Spyware Beta
software my pc has been able to function like it used to be a couple of weeks
ago. Still i have noticed that the pc isnt able to function like i was used
to. To bring it back to its original standard, i think it would be better to
reformat my HD and install the different anti-virus, spyware and adware
programs. But first i need to reformat my HD, which isnt that simple at this
moment.
When i right-click on my HD icon and click on 'reformat...', the pc
eventually says that i'm not able to reformat, because there are other
programs running at the moment. I do a quick check if that's the case, which
in first notice is not correct. I do not have any other programs running, nor
is there any other screen open what so ever.

My question that you probably can guess by now is how can i solve this error
and what measures do i need to take for a succesfull reformat process?

Thx in advance.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Hi,

From the sounds of it you only have 1 drive in you computer, correct?
If so, you will not be able to format the drive from within windows. The
program refered to that is running is windows itself.

If you are looking to format the drive and reinstall windows from scratch
and have already backed up the infmation on the disk the easyest way to
format will be to boot from the Windows XP CD.

Put the CD in the drive, restart the PC and press any key to boot from the cd.
It should start with the blue screes,
1st screen press enter to install
2nd screen F8 to accpet the licence
3rd screen you will need to need to delete the partition and recreate the
partition, once you delete the partition you will need to recreate it, i
suggest using the NTFS file system

It will prompt you to format the disk before the installaion can complete

"CanonB" wrote:

> Hello,
> i have a question concerning reformatting my hard drive. My pc has been
> under the influence of alot of aware and spyware in the recent weeks. It made
> sure that some software and internet applications have been working quite
> slower. By defragmentating my HD and installing the Windows Anti-Spyware Beta
> software my pc has been able to function like it used to be a couple of weeks
> ago. Still i have noticed that the pc isnt able to function like i was used
> to. To bring it back to its original standard, i think it would be better to
> reformat my HD and install the different anti-virus, spyware and adware
> programs. But first i need to reformat my HD, which isnt that simple at this
> moment.
> When i right-click on my HD icon and click on 'reformat...', the pc
> eventually says that i'm not able to reformat, because there are other
> programs running at the moment. I do a quick check if that's the case, which
> in first notice is not correct. I do not have any other programs running, nor
> is there any other screen open what so ever.
>
> My question that you probably can guess by now is how can i solve this error
> and what measures do i need to take for a succesfull reformat process?
>
> Thx in advance.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

You cannot reformat the system while Windows is still running.

Have you saved your important files and documents to off-line media (CD / DVD)? Do you have the XP CD, which you will need if you do re-install the operating system?

See Paul Thurrott's website on guide for XP clean install
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp
--
Maurice N
MVP Windows - Shell / User
-----

CanonB wrote:
> Hello,
> i have a question concerning reformatting my hard drive. My pc has
> been under the influence of alot of aware and spyware in the recent
> weeks. It made sure that some software and internet applications have
> been working quite slower. By defragmentating my HD and installing
> the Windows Anti-Spyware Beta software my pc has been able to
> function like it used to be a couple of weeks ago. Still i have
> noticed that the pc isnt able to function like i was used to. To
> bring it back to its original standard, i think it would be better to
> reformat my HD and install the different anti-virus, spyware and
> adware programs. But first i need to reformat my HD, which isnt that
> simple at this moment. When i right-click on my HD icon and click on
> 'reformat...', the pc eventually says that i'm not able to reformat,
> because there are other programs running at the moment. I do a quick
> check if that's the case, which in first notice is not correct. I do
> not have any other programs running, nor is there any other screen
> open what so ever.
>
> My question that you probably can guess by now is how can i solve
> this error and what measures do i need to take for a succesfull
> reformat process?
>
> Thx in advance.