How to Reformat Windows XP Home Edition

It is sometimes advisable to format the hard disk before reinstalling Windows XP.

Microsoft Windows XP contains a disk formatting tool. This tool can be used when installing Windows XP to a hard disk drive or to format a disk (such as a floppy disk or flash drive) when Windows XP is already installed.

When reinstalling Windows XP, the formatting tool can be used to erase the hard disk before copying the operating system program files to the disk.

Things You'll Need

• Windows XP Home Edition installation CD

Instructions

1. Turn on the computer, and insert the Windows XP installation CD into the optical drive. Press "Enter" when the "Press any key to boot from CD" prompt appears on your computer screen.

2. Press "Enter" to begin when the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears. Press "F8" to accept the licensing agreement.

3. Press "D" to delete the hard drive partition. Press "C" to create a new partition, and select "Format the partition using the NTFS file system."

Tips & Warnings

• Windows XP setup will commence automatically once the formatting is complete.

References

• Microsoft Corporation: How to Partition and Format a Hard Disk by using Windows XP Setup Program
• Windows Networking: Installing Windows XP