Q: I am going to reformat my hard drive and need some advice. What are the steps so I can get my operating system back up and running? I have windows xp and all my video card cd, sound card cd, mother board cd and so one but what do I do once the HD is formatted? I have backed up all my needed files and am ready to go. Also, is it a good idea to partition my HD and how do you do that? What can you do with it partitioned? Can you still use that space or is it only for the OS? Thanks a million! One more thing. What order should I install the drivers in? does it make a difference? Ex: motherboard first, then...sound....then.........
A: You understand what reformatting is right? your clearing all data in order to start off in a clean OS. Just making sure. Windows Xp is usually bootable, so pop it in the CD drive, and reboot. Now as soon as it turns on, begin tapping F12 on your keyboard. This should bring up advanced boot system devices, so boot from your CD Drive. It should bring you to a blue screen and your options will be to partition your HD or reformat it completely. Partitioning your HD is basically having 2 Operating Systems on one HD. So you can keep your old one (but it would be a waste of space) and your new one, which would be clean and new, with nothing but the basic software in it, and you can select which one you want to boot from when you turn on your computer. If I were you i wouldnt consider partitioning your HD. What's the point? you already backed up your files, why would you want the old partition? And partitioning your HD is self explanitory at the blue screen setup. It gives you options. It doesn't make a difference what order you install your drivers, although the mother board should be first.