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Ok im a noob, lets get that out of the way. now i installed my new HDD and will over the next few days put my torrents and few installers (PR installers ect) on it so i can reformat my main HDD.

how do i reformat?
how do i go about reinstalling my XP ?
should i back up anything else?
How do i make sure i dont reformat my "other" HDD that i will put all my stuff on?

keep it simple please

If you have a HDD you want to keep unformatted then it's best to disconnect it before the re-formatting process and connect it after.


To re-install XP, simple pop in the disc, and there should be an option to boot from cd (Porbs by pressing something like F8 during boot, if not pop into the BIOS and set the CD drive as the first boot device), and from there the XP installer will load.

There will be a few on-screen prompts as to what partitions etc you want to format and the install on. By removing your disk that you want to keep intact makes this stage pretty much fool proof. just highlight the C:\ partition and hit F (Or w/e the key is to format it), let it run then install the OS to that partition.



Like I said several times, physically remove the HDD you wish to keep intact to make everything foolproof.


In terms of what else to back up, just big downloads and any work files that you can't live without. Music is also a good idea aswell unless you have it all on CDs.

Type in Youtube reformatting windows, Watch a couple of vids on there m8 and you will do it no problem. thats how I learnt.
If you have Win7 its much easier and simple but XP/Vista isnt that much harder.

Quick Link becuase I know your lazy
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=reformatting+windows&search_type=&aq=f

Save all Drivers/Pics/Vids/Software/Games or anything you think is importan on ur new HD
Before you do anything you will need to go to BIOS screen and select the first boot to:
1. boot from CD/DVD drive
then restart again and press any key to boot from cd/dvd then it will begin to reformat.
the video's on youtube will explain alot better in more detail.

Bumped thread for help:
After 18 months Ive decided its time for the HDD to "come clean", as Im about to delete windows vista and install Win7. I already saved my data on an external drive.
My question is the same as OP's: how do I completeley reformat a hard drive in windows vista?
Can I format the hard drive by inserting the OEM Win7 disk and boot from it, or does it need a clean HDD with no OS on it?
(I am changing windows vistax86 to win7x64)
Thanks in advance for the help!

Restart your PC with the Windows 7 disk in and press whatever key your PC accepts to go into your BIOS.

Find boot priorities, and make sure that booting your CD drive is the PC's first priority.

Restart your PC

Press any key when prompted to press any key to launch from the CD during PC start-up.

Run through the installation, and when asked "Which drive do you want to install to", you should see 2 HDDs, one is 100mb system reserved, the other is the big bulk of your HDD. Click it and click the 'format' button.

Install Windows 7 to the newly formatted drive.

WARNING: Clicking 'format' will essentially make your HDD a clean slate, it will NOT back anything up.

Heskey wrote:Restart your PC with the Windows 7 disk in and press whatever key your PC accepts to go into your BIOS.

Find boot priorities, and make sure that booting your CD drive is the PC's first priority.

Restart your PC

Press any key when prompted to press any key to launch from the CD during PC start-up.

Run through the installation, and when asked "Which drive do you want to install to", you should see 2 HDDs, one is 100mb system reserved, the other is the big bulk of your HDD. Click it and click the 'format' button.

Install Windows 7 to the newly formatted drive.

WARNING: Clicking 'format' will essentially make your HDD a clean slate, it will NOT back anything up.

Thanks for the help, Im writing this with the new OS. Ahh so much better already than windows vista was(though this one has it's annoying "features" too but Im used to it). Oh and its nice to see a RAM usage under 35% in native mode once again