Hey guys, your help and expertise will be greatly appreciated... I'm desperately
in need of assistance here...

Recently my comp is totally wrecked up, programs doesn't run like they ought to and
startup is a total havoc. My comp is also stuffed with alot of useless info and programs
and I think it is in serious need of reformatting. However I'm a total comp *****
in this and will need your CLEAR and CONCISE step-by-step explaination... sigh

This guy set up my comp for me bout 2 years ago and when he installed WinXP Pro,
i kinda remebered he ****ed up something regarding partitions. Think he made another
partition and thus my comp has been running on 2 partitions but actually only in
fact i'm utilising one... cuz its showed i only have 1 harddrive (c

So right now, i'm pondering how to totally delete EVERYHING from my comp... is tat
reformat of harddrives? I wanna wipe everything out from my comp, like its totally
cleaned and then starting from scratch, reinstall my WinXP Pro again... how can i
do that? And also considering my problem about partitions mentioned above, I would
wanna merge them together and fully utilise the 2 partitions as 1 after i reformat.
How can i do that? I really have no idea at all... I've tried searching for similar
topics but learned little from those replied suggestions.

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

First go into Bios and find the boot menu make sure it is set to boot from Floppy first(if you have a floppy drive) then your cd rom then your Hard drive.

Put your windows Cd in your cd drive and save and exit from Bios.

1. Start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM. To do this, insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD drive or DVD drive, and then restart your computer.
2. When you see the "Press any key to boot from CD" message, press any key to start the computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.
3. At the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to start Windows XP Setup.
4. Read the End-User License Agreement, and then press F8.
5. Follow the instructions on the screen to select and format a partition where you want to install Windows XP.
6. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete Windows XP Setup.

Please note that during setup your computer will reboot. When it does you will be asked to press any key to boot from cd DO NOT press anything otherwise it will just start the setup again from scratch.

Regards Howard

howard-hopkinso 1. how do i get into BIOS? 2. I no longer need a floppy boot disk?

Thanks in advance. BTW--I agree with your "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" attitude. bettyboop911

Normally you can get into Bios by pressing either the F2 or Delete keys during bootup. If you look at your bootup screen it usually tells you what to press in order to enter Setup.

If you don`t have a floppy drive then that`s ok just set you boot sequence to CD as the first boot device then your Hard drive.

Regards Howard

Howard: 1. Where can I get a floppy boot disk for my PC, and
2. When I boot from the floppy disk, will that take me directly to Windows XP setup?

Thanks again. Wanted to have a backup way of doing things, in case I can't get to boot menu.

You don`t normally need a floppy boot disc for WindowsXP just boot from the CD.

If your struggling to get into your boot menu take a look at your mobo manual.

Or let me know what make and model your mobo is and I will try and find out for you

Regards Howard

You can get a boot disk form www.bootdisk.com

i want to reformat my laptop (LENOVO G400). I have 2 OS installed: windows xp sp2 and opensuse 10.4. i have three partitions: c for windows, d for file saving and g for opensuse. i want to reformat my laptop but i don't know how to go along with this kind of setup, dual booting. i want to have just 2 partitions and 1 OS. but how do i do that?

thanks a million in advance to anyone who could help me!

ok im a complete tard and you'll probably laugh.. but my computer needs reformatting, and I think I can follow the directions here. but is the windows xp disk the same as the disk that says operating systems? Cuz if not I must be missing my windows xp disk! I have the blue operating systems disk, and the applications and drivers disk, and microsoft office professional edition 2003, please help