How to reformat a windows xp netbook

And it is necessary to erase all data on the disk to protect your personal files from being stolen or copied. And some people wipe their Windows hard disk for reinstalling system. Wiping the Windows disk and having a fresh reinstallation is a good way to deal with those issues and to speed up your computer. When it comes to wiping a Windows XP hard drive, people may want to reset their computers to default settings or insert the system disk into another computer to format it.

Default resetting will delete programs, data and restore settings, system back to the original condition. And formatting just hides data from the operation system and rebuilds its file system. It is a professional data destruction tool to erase data on a disk clean by overwriting data.

Once inside the Device Manager, you can click on each category to see what devices are installed. Method 2. You may also use the Windows XP Setup disks. If using the disks you will have to install each disk when prompted during the setup. Press any key to boot from CD when prompted. This prompt will appear shortly after the POST power-on self test.

Go to source. Press the F8 key to agree to the Microsoft end user license agreement when prompted to do so. Since there is already an existing Windows XP installation you may receive a prompt to repair it. Press the ESC key to bypass this option and continue formatting the disk. Select each field that does not say "Unallocated Space. Use the arrow keys to select fields to be deleted.

Press the D key to delete each field. When prompted, press the L key to confirm partition deletion. This will clear old data from the hard drive of the computer. Repeat steps 6 and 7 until the only field left is "Unallocated Space. Press enter to create a new partition of the maximum size.

Method 3. Use the arrow keys to select the new partition. Press enter to install Windows XP to the unallocated space. This will be followed by a list of installation options. Select Quick Format installation. You will want to select the NTSF file system. That is the preferred file system of Windows XP. If you're reformatting to recover from error, you will want to do a Full Format otherwise your error may still exist.

The PC should restart, then select your language and local preferences when prompted to do so. There are quick selection options or you can click on custom settings to receive more options. Enter your desired password. When the administrator password prompt comes up you can enter your desired password.

Pick a password only you would know, but difficult enough for anyone else to guess. You can try running XP with the Win 7 drivers installed but you would be asking for trouble. I probably wouldn't even bother trying to be honest. That's what I figured. Thank you for your reply Benny Keep up the good work man. I'll be back when I mess up my new Netbook. Hello there! I'm new here but I hope you guys can help me out I'm doing all the steps really carefully, but when I arrive on step 5c "Now press 3 on your keyboard and type the drive letter of your USB flash drive.

Hi pinkfloyd, glad you liked the tutorial. Never had this problem myself, but it shouldn't be too hard to fix. It may be due to some sort of write protection that the flash drive is bringing that up, but then it might just say that instead of "not a valid drive", I'm not sure. If you're using the correct size flash, and it's USB 2. If that still doesn't work and you're certain all the formating steps are correct and everything it would probably be worth trying another flash drive.

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Puget's reliability report shows nearly flawless record for Samsung SSDs godrilla replied 23 minutes ago. The "Don't Repair" key is usually Esc. Delete your current XP installation. Select the NTFS hard drive option using the arrow keys, then press the "Delete" key usually D that's listed at the bottom of the screen. This will indicate to Windows that you want to delete the selected installation.

Press L when prompted. Doing so erases the hard drive and returns you to the installation menu. This will select your computer's hard drive as the installation point.

Format your computer's hard drive. Doing so will set up the hard drive for a Windows installation. This process will take several minutes to an hour depending on your hard drive's size.

You can select the Quick option here as well, though your hard drive might be improperly formatted if you do so. Wait for your computer to restart. After the computer finishes formatting, it will restart into the user options setup window. Make sure that you don't press any keys until you arrive at the user options setup window. Part 3. Click Next. It's in the bottom-right corner of the window. You can also click Customize Enter your name, then click Next.

Your name goes in the "Name" text field. You can also add a business name in the "Organization" section. Enter your product key, then click Next. Type the character key that you retrieved earlier into the "Product Key" boxes. Add a password, then click Next. Type your preferred password into the "Administrator password" and "Confirm password" text fields at the bottom of the window.

You can also change your computer's name in the text field at the top of the window. Set a date and time zone, then click Next. Click the "Date" drop-down box, select the current date, and then repeat with the "Time" and "Time Zone" boxes. Check the "Typical Settings" box, then click Next. This will cause Windows XP to install using default settings. Check the "No" box. It's at the top of the window. If your computer is part of a workgroup, you'll instead check the "Yes" box and enter your workgroup's address in the text box.

This will complete the installation setup process, at which point Windows XP will resume installing. You may have to wait for 30 minutes or so before the installation finishes.

It might be on a sticker on the bottom of your laptop if that's what you're using.