Reinstall of windows xp

[biozombie]

I wanna clean install windows xp again but I get the message important files need to be copied cannot complete task. How else can I blank out my hard drive and start over new?

 

[Tuntis]

Erm, what is exactly your problem?

 

[biozombie]

It's just time for me to have a fresh start on my computer. I want to delete my partition and start over new. I got a new motherboard and processor and want a fresh start with them. Windows tells me important files need to be copied when I try to delete my partition. I've already saved all my files I wanna save onto discs but don't know what it's talking about when I can't delete the partition due to it needing to copy important files. :knock:

 

[iss]

Are yuo booting from the XP CD or trying to do this from within windows?

 

[Arcanum]

Well, you could try to format the partition if it's FAT32.

Just use a Win98 bootdisk with a format.com on it, works every time, with no exceptions/errors/problems - I can send you a copy of mine if you want to...

If it's an NTFS partition, simple deleting of everything on it should yield same results, however, that cannot done so simply as formatting FAT32 as DOS doesnt recognize NTFS by default.
In that case, you could use FDISK...

The message about important files shouldnt appear, unless youre trying to delete the Windows partition from Windows itself (not very smart). Could you explain in more detail your procedure when you try to delete everything? So we could see where you're doing it wrong...

 

[Samstoned]

ok on the install dis on boot let it load
you are booting from install
do this if you are not
if you have password protected any file undo this operation and recopy/save them
so on disc boot xp loads up and after prompt to install it wil show you the disc indo high light this disc and choose delete
after a few confirmation prompts you will be back to the install screen
now it shows a unformatted hard drive choose this and format after that it should go smoothly
PS if you have a sata drive read the sticky here bout loading drivers for MB