Ok well I have alot of stuff on my 40 gig hard drive. Theres alot of stuff I dont know if I need or not. So I want to re-do my drive. I have NTFS on my Windows XP. I take classes at a vocational school half the day instead of high school the whole time so if I do indeed do this I know what im doing. Although a couple of my friends say that now a days Microsoft wont let you put windows back on to your drive if u re-partition it (errr reformat). Is this true? Also im told there is a secondary MBR and some critical system files on NTFS drives in the middle and front of the drive. If i do indeed reformat and repartition will I have to put those secondary files on too or are they optional? Thank you for your help!
In a nutshell…
What do I need to know/know before I repartition/reformat my drive.
Also Im having problems defragmenting my drive. It says that it could not defragment some files. But when I view the list of files nothing is there. Any tips? I defraged 4-5 times.
hi davidned,
repartiton and reformat are two different things. repartition means to resize, move, create new partitions. reformat means to wipe out the hd, losing all data and reinstall windows over the entire hd, as far as i know the only option with windows is to reformat. do you have a reinstall cd that came with the computer or a actual copy of windows xp?
all there is to do is put the reinstall cd or xp cd in the drive then set your boot order, sequence etc with the option to boot from the cd-rom drive first. to get into the BIOS to make the change you would hit the a key like f1, del,f2,f10. you might have seen "F2 to enter setup" during a boot.
once in the BIOS or setup look for boot menu or sequence etc. change to boot from cd-rom first,save changes,exit– computer should boot from the cd, follow the prompts to reformat/reinstall windows.
if this is a commercial computer visit the makers website, most have very good online support.
if its not or you dont have a cd of drivers etc, then some investigation will have to be done to identify any video,audio, chipset components in order to download the correct drivers.
Is the dell resource cd the same thing? After u reformat dont u have to repartition? Well anyways was my friend wrong about not being able to reformat it?
hi davidned,
you would need a cd labeled a reinstallation CD to reinstall windows OS.its all automated, you just follow the prompts. but first visit the dell website for FAQ/knowledge base/forum before you do anything.
