How to uninstall XP, reformat and reinstall?

[Duane Cahill]

Posted this to the ...general group before I found this one (which looks to
be a better forum):
=
OK, it seems like this should be simpler than I'm making it.

I've been having problems with stop errors, and couldn't seem to resolve
them. So after some amount of misery and backing up the files I'd need on
the D: drive, I decided to reinstall XP.

First step, the CD gave me a choice of repairing or reinstalling. What the
heck? I repaired. Didn't help, still got the blue screen of death.

Second step, go back and reinstall. I thought from what I'd read that this
would completely reformat my C: drive and install only the Windows XP OS
onto that drive.

Wrong!

What I now have when I boot up is a choice of two Windows XP OS's -- one is
on my C: drive and one is on my D: drive.

So what I really want to do is reformat my C: drive, get rid of XP off my D:
drive (but leave my backup files there), and start over again with XP
installed onto the C: drive.

How can I do this?

Thanks in advance,
Duane

 

[Rich Barry]

Duane, FYI there's a option during Installation when you choose New
Install>Advanced. This option gives you the
choice of which partition you want XP installed. Anyway, if you have a
dual boot with two partitions C and D then
you have to find out where the Boot.ini file is located. If on C then
make sure you don't format or delete it or four
other files. Ntldr, Cmldr, Bootsect.dos and Ntdetect.com. In C:
select WinExplorer>Tools>Folder Options>View.
Click on Show Hidden Files and Folders and uncheck Hide protected
operating system files. You can Delete
Everything else.

 

[Steve C. Ray]

If you want to clean everything from your HD and reinstall XP, boot from the
XP CD. (You may have to set your CD drive as the first boot device in your
BIOS). When you boot from the XP CD you can partition, format and do a clean
install of XP. Follow the screen prompts.