How to wipe drive and reinstall windows on my Dell

[Mojo67821]

This isn't a 'windows on a mac' question, but i don't want to join other boards to ask it so maybe you guys can help.

I'm on vacation next week from work and while I have the time I want to wipe my hard drive on my Dell and reinstall XP. It's crapping the bed so I want to reinstall the OS and start over. It's a decent machine so I don't want to junk it.

Can anyone tell me how to reformat my drive and reinstall Windows XP on my Dell? I have the CD I'm just not sure how to do it.

Just to reiterate, this is NOT a bootcamp question. It's regarding a windows only pc. Thanks.

 

[36183]

get the windows install CD, insert it into your CD drive, reboot follow the steps.

 

[Mojo67821]

get the windows install CD, insert it into your CD drive, reboot follow the steps.

Wow, that's it? Thanks.

 

[iSaint]

Whatever happened to "format c:/" ?

 

[Xephian]

get the windows install CD, insert it into your CD drive, reboot follow the steps.

That won't erase it completely.

Insert Windows CD, reboot into BIOS, set the boot priority to CD-ROM and save, press any key to boot into Windows installation, follow the on-screen steps to format your drive, etc...

 

[Mojo67821]

That won't erase it completely.

Insert Windows CD, reboot into BIOS, set the boot priority to CD-ROM and save, press any key to boot into Windows installation, follow the on-screen steps to format your drive, etc...

how do I reboot into bios and set the boot priority?

 

[Xephian]

how do I reboot into bios and set the boot priority?

It varies between mobo's, but for mine and most, it's "del" to get into BIOS. Or on some, you can just press "esc" to select boot devices. Once you get into the BIOS you can go to "Advanced BIOS features" to set boot devices.

Sorry for not replying to your message sooner.

 

[Subiklim]

Hopefully you have the OS disk. Dell CHARGES now for it. Two prices, one for the disk image on your drive, and a higher price for a physical CD. Cost-cutting up the wazoo.

 

[Mojo67821]

It varies between mobo's, but for mine and most, it's "del" to get into BIOS. Or on some, you can just press "esc" to select boot devices. Once you get into the BIOS you can go to "Advanced BIOS features" to set boot devices.

Sorry for not replying to your message sooner.

I do have the original disc.

I don't necessarily need to wipe the drive clean, I just want to reinstall the OS in hopes that it runs better. In other words, I'd like to restore my comp to it's original condition to improve performance.

do I still need to boot into bios and erase the drive to do that? I assumed when you do an OS reinstall that it wipes the previous install out.

 

[Subiklim]

I do have the original disc.

I don't necessarily need to wipe the drive clean, I just want to reinstall the OS in hopes that it runs better. In other words, I'd like to restore my comp to it's original condition to improve performance.

do I still need to boot into bios and erase the drive to do that? I assumed when you do an OS reinstall that it wipes the previous install out.

If you don't wipe the drive clean you're not really doing anything. All the crap that's making your computer run slowly is still there. PC people say you need to format and reinstall windows once a year (sometimes more).

You do need to go into the bios to set your boot sequence, though it may already be set properly. It's not that hard. Hit F2 when you're booting, and it's pretty self-explanitory from there.

Again, if you don't format the drive you're wasting your time.

 

[jdechko]

Yeah, one of the biggest problems is that unless you reformat, the install doesn't really clean up what's already there. You're best to completely reformat with the Dell disk and start over (which is what you want to do anyway). I think the key on dell machines is the Delete key. Hold it down when the Dell splash screen (bios screen) comes up (before the Windows splash screen). It should boot you into the BIOS, then find the "startup" option and move the CD-ROM drive up to the top of the list (above the HDD). Put the CD in the drive and restart. It should prompt you to press any key to boot from the CD. Follow the prompts on screen and when you get the option, tell it to reformat the C: drive. That will wipe away any information you've got on there (be sure to back up first).

 

[Mojo67821]

Yeah, one of the biggest problems is that unless you reformat, the install doesn't really clean up what's already there. You're best to completely reformat with the Dell disk and start over (which is what you want to do anyway). I think the key on dell machines is the Delete key. Hold it down when the Dell splash screen (bios screen) comes up (before the Windows splash screen). It should boot you into the BIOS, then find the "startup" option and move the CD-ROM drive up to the top of the list (above the HDD). Put the CD in the drive and restart. It should prompt you to press any key to boot from the CD. Follow the prompts on screen and when you get the option, tell it to reformat the C: drive. That will wipe away any information you've got on there (be sure to back up first).

Thanks, that's the best explanation yet. I'm definitely going to give this a run next week when I'm on vacation. It's a good machine and I think I can get some more life out of it.

 

[Mojo67821]

dammit. I can't get this frigging thing to work. I've reset the bios boot order, and it won't boot from the Cd. I've tried 2 different xp install cd's that I have, so it's got to be something I'm doing wrong.

I reset the boot order, restarted, and the cd spins and does nothing, then it boots into windows.

Anyone help?

 

[balamw]

Download the XP boot CD from http://www.bootdisk.org/ (he's now asking for $4 to support bandwidth costs.)? Boot from that first and then load the MS CD?

Any time I want to get a bit more life out of a system and am planning to wipe the HDD anyhow, it's time to buy a new HDD. I usually just buy whatever the sweet pricing spot is (depends on the machne, but you can get big and fast drives for <$99), find a rebate if possible, and then perform the fresh OS install to the new drive.

B

 

[Mojo67821]

Download the XP boot CD from http://www.bootdisk.org/ (he's now asking for $4 to support bandwidth costs.)? Boot from that first and then load the MS CD?

Any time I want to get a bit more life out of a system and am planning to wipe the HDD anyhow, it's time to buy a new HDD. I usually just buy whatever the sweet pricing spot is (depends on the machne, but you can get big and fast drives for <$99), find a rebate if possible, and then perform the fresh OS install to the new drive.

B

I just bought a macbook pro, so I'm not going to buy a new drive. I just wanted to clean my PC up (it's only 2 years old) so that it runs a little better, since it's pretty much slowed to a crawl lately.

I think my problem is that I don't understand the process fully. I've never done this before, which is why I feel like I must be missing something.

 

[Mojo67821]

okay okay... for whatever reason, the bootable drive is my dvd drive, and not my cd drive, which makes no sense to me whatsoever. I just put an install disk in all of my drives and went from there. Ha.

 

[andrewface]

step 1: purchase baseball bat and take dell into large field
step 2: smash dell into tiny bits (see film "office space" for example)
step 3: visit any apple retail store or apple.com to purchase a macbook or macbook pro
step 4: download bootcamp and partition hard disk
step 5: install windows