Format HDD - Reinstall Windows - How??

[Winston]

I'm having trouble with my display driver, in all likeliness caused by some data loss occuring during a BSOD incident a couple of days ago. Numerous attempts to remove and reinstall both the graphics card and drivers have proved unsuccessful. Can only operate in safe mode now.

To make a long story short, I've decided to format my 2 hard disks (3 partitions total) and reinstall Windows XP. I'm in the process of backing up data - - to DVD's.

My question is a simple one. How exactly do I format and reinstall in the easiest and least error-prone way? It's been so long since I've done it, I'm a little unsure of how to go about it.

Any helpful advice or tips on things to remember during this process is greatly appreciated.

No need to offer advice on the graphics card thing. It's just the final catalyst for my decision to reinstall, as there are other issues also (P2P client not functioning properly, USB 2.0 operating at 1/6th the speed it's supposed to, etc.).

Thanks!

[loinburger]

Just boot off the XP CD, it should give you the option to reformat and reinstall. It might be necessary to change your BIOS settings so that it'll boot off the CD before the HDD -- you either need to hit F4 or F8 (I forget which) while booting to enter setup. Odds are that you won't need to fiddle with your BIOS settings, though, every computer I've used that has a CD/DVD ROM defaults to booting off of the CD/DVD.

[Caligastia]

Just boot from the XP CD. Delete all partitions, create new ones and install Windows.

[snoopy369]

More commonly "Delete" to enter setup, but it varies by the BIOS quite a lot.

[loinburger]

My bad, F4/F8 is for booting in safe mode.

[Winston]

It's really that simple, eh? I had a vague notion of this being the preferred way, thanks for setting it straight for me!

I will remember to change the boot sequence in the BIOS. It's the Delete key on my machine. (Edit: No sweat, loinburger! I knew this one, one of the rare instances! )

The thing I dread the most is having to customize all the settings, bells and whistles all over again. I've started taking notes (on paper) of some of them, it's quite tiresome..

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by Winston
It's really that simple, eh? I had a vague notion of this being the preferred way, thanks for setting it straight for me!

I will remember to change the boot sequence in the BIOS. It's the Delete key on my machine. (Edit: No sweat, loinburger! I knew this one, one of the rare instances! )

The thing I dread the most is having to customize all the settings, bells and whistles all over again. I've started taking notes (on paper) of some of them, it's quite tiresome..

To avoid having to do that the next time you should use the files and settings transfer wizard.

[Winston]

But it's also about reinstalling all the software and asigning file types, customizing interface within different programs and so on. I hate just thinking about it. Well, at least I'll have a machine that actually works. This is long overdue.

[SlowwHand]

And don't forget the joy of Windows Updates. Guaranteeed to make your day brighter.

[Winston]

Ain't that the truth. It'll take me hours and hours to get updated again. But it's a nice service still, I like it.

[SlowwHand]

Try it on a 56k sometime. You'll be crying like a little girl before you're done.

[Caligastia]

It would be faster to get MS to send you the CD.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Not that a clean install won't do the trick, but have you tried going back to a restore point when things worked good?

[Winston]

Yes, I tried that. There was only one restore point available, it was yesterday, and as one would expect, it didn't make any difference with respect to my display problem, which had first occured shortly before.

Appreciate the heads up though, I might have missed it. That system restore thing has never been my favourite thing to do..

[Spaced Cowboy]

Okay, but this time make a restore point after you get it set up properly. That was you'll always have a clean restore point to go from if things get messy.