How To Perform A Clean Installation Of Windows XP

What’s the point in a fresh install?

A fresh installation of Windows XP can resolve multiple software issues with your computer. It will also remove ALL viruses and generally increases performance. It is not always necessary but it will almost always result in better stability and performance. For this to work the drive must be formatted first or XP can be installed to a new drive.

First steps

If you can still boot into XP and you’ve decided to reformat your PC or Laptop then there are some steps you should take before doing so.

• Backup all your data. This includes emails, My documents (for each user etc. plus any contacts) also stuff residing on the desktop.

• Backup all the drivers on the computer. (There’s nothing more annoying than reformatting your PC and finding out you cannot go on the internet because your wireless card is not installed. There are some good programs out there which can help you do this. “DriverGenius” is a good example.

• Decide how you are going to reload everything. Many PC’s and laptops come with “System Restore” CD’s which basically do everything for you. If you have one of these then don’t worry about backing up the drivers as they’ll all be put back by the CD. If you don’t have a system restore CD don’t worry. Most people don’t. You make have a hidden recovery partition on your hard drive which will do exactly the same thing. On most Packard Bell, Compaq and HP machines they have a recovery partition which is usually accessed by pressing CTRL and F10 on start up. The rest is very self explanatory. If neither of the above options applies to you then you will need to reload XP manually. For which you will need a copy of the XP operating system on CD. If you purchased your PC with XP already installed then you’ll need to have an OEM version of XP. Before going any further make sure you have the product key for your copy written down. It should be on a sticker attached to your PC. If you’ve got this far then you’re ready to proceed.

Installing

• You need to make sure your PC is set to boot from CD. (If you’re not sure how to this check google as there is no scope for covering this in this article)

• Put your XP CD in the CD drive and restart the PC.

• Soon you will see a the writing “Press any key to boot from CD....” when you see this press any key.

• The Windows setup will begin and you’ll see messages like “ Press F6 to install any third-party or RAID drivers” if you want to install any third party or RAID drivers then press F6 (this doesn’t apply to most people)

• Eventually you’ll see a screen saying “Press ‘R’ to enter XP repair or enter setup. You need to choose to enter setup. Press ENTER.

• On the next screen press F8 to accept the license agreement.

• On the next screen you will see the previous version of XP. Press “Esc”. You will now need to delete the previous installation by pressing ‘D’ and then ‘L’ to confirm.

• Now you can just press “Enter” to begin your installation. You will be asked how you wish to Format the partition. Pick NTFS “Quick install”. The normal one just checks the hard drive for errors first and takes ages.

• Go and make yourself a tea or coffee now as it will be 10 minutes or so till you’re required again.

• The next time you are needed you will need to specify the date, the time, the country etc. (it’s very self explanatory from here on in) You will also need to input the product key at this point as well.

• A short time after this you may be prompter to specify whether you are in a domain or workgroup. If you don’t know just put workgroup and continue.

• You will see the screen flash black several times. Don’t worry this is perfectly normal. Do not turn off the PC now until the installation has completed and only restart the install if the PC has frozen for more than 10 minutes.

• When the installation is completed (Roughly 30 minutes) the first thing you need to do is load your drivers back on. If you used a program to back them up then use the same program to reinstall them again. This can save you loads of time.

• Now reconnect to the internet and run windows update. You must keep loading updates on until they have finished. This may require several reboots.

• Once you are satisfied you have loaded all the windows updates you can load on your antivirus software. If you haven’t got one try AVG. They have a free version and it’s very good.

• One of the downsides is you will now have to reload any programs you previously had on the computer. I would recommend you only install programs you use and not anything you seem to have a disk for.

• All that’s left to do now is load your data back and emails back on and reinstall any printers or peripherals that you may have.

This is a pretty brief description of the steps needed to reinstall windows XP and does not cover the endless problems you can and will encounter during this process. If you do not feel confident about doing this or you need it done in a hurry I would advise getting a professional in to do it for you.
If you do manage to complete the steps above ok, then congratulations you should now have a faster and far more stable PC that is virus free (for now).

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