reformatting question

  • Thread starter Thread starter katie
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katie

Ken,Why is reformatting and reinstalling the wrong answer
to almost every problem? But how do you boot from the
Windows XP CD? Thank you.
 
The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except for you mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

1. Open your BIOS and set your CD Drive as the first bootable device.

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

7. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.


--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Ken,Why is reformatting and reinstalling the wrong answer
| to almost every problem? But how do you boot from the
| Windows XP CD? Thank you.
 
In
katie said:
Ken,Why is reformatting and reinstalling the wrong answer
to almost every problem?
Click to expand...


Although this is an often-repeated legend, it isn't true. With a
modicum of care, it should never be necessary to reinstall
Windows (XP or any other version). I've run Windows 3.0, 3.1,
WFWG 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP,
each for the period of time before the next version came out, and
each on two machines here. I never reinstalled any of them, and I
have never had anything more than an occasional minor problem.

It's my belief that this mistaken notion stems from the technical
support people at many of the larger OEMs. Their solution to
almost any problem they don't quickly know the answer to is
"reformat and reinstall." That's the perfect solution for them.
It gets you off the phone quickly, it almost always works, and it
doesn't require them to do any real troubleshooting (a skill that
most of them obviously don't possess in any great degree).

But it leaves you with all the work and all the problems. You
have to restore all your data backups, you have to reinstall all
your programs, you have to reinstall all the Windows and
application updates,you have to locate and install all the needed
drivers for your system, you have to recustomize Windows and all
your apps to work the way you're comfortable with. Besides all
those things being time-consuming and troublesome, you may have
trouble with some of them: can you find all your application CDs?
Can you find all the needed installation codes? Do you have data
backups to restore? Do you even remember all the customizations
and tweaks you may have installed to make everything work the way
you like?

Occasionally there are problems that are so difficult to solve
that Windows should be reinstalled cleanly. But they are few and
far between; reinstallation should not a substitute for
troubleshooting; it should be a last resort, to be done only
after all other attempts at troubleshooting by a qualified person
have failed.

And reinstalling Windows prophylactically--without the intent to
solve a specific problem? That's simply nonsense. Almost every
time I see someone do this foolish thing, he ends up with
problems he didn't have before--for example, because he didn't
realize that he needs a new driver for some piece of hardware.


But how do you boot from the
Windows XP CD? Thank you.
Click to expand...


Make sure the BIOS boot order is set to CD first, then power off.
Turn the computer back on again with the Windows CD in the drive.
 
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