[hawee]

Hi
I'm selling my notebook and i wanted to do a clean hd clean, and reinstall xp. How do i wipe the HD clean without purchasing anything software?

Thanks

 

[schusterjo]

Do you have the xp cd? or just a recover cd?

 

[guitar]

reformat it

 

[schusterjo]

IF you have the XP CD then do the following

When it comes to formatting this is what I suggest, make sure you have any and all drivers you may need to get back onto the web ext.. I personally like to download my mobo drivers from the manufacturer's website and burn them to CD. not mandatory cause XP usually has all drivers to get you going and you can update them later after you reinstall and get back on the web.

Make sure you have XP and install Key

Very important after formatting with Killdisk (below) put the XP cd in and start booting (if yo have Sata please see section below Killdisk (download and place it on a floppy before format). select Format with " NTFS" when you get this option (do not select quick)
Follow the procedures listed below and you will insure a very clean install.
Oh ya once you get loaded make sure the very first thing you do is Visit Microsoft updates.
Keep going back till they tell you there is no more. (between reboots go back)

Download and install procedure of [email protected] KillDisk free version

This program will allow you to do that. It is actually a better format. uses the 0 fill method.

Here is a guide with pics on how to use the program
http://www.killdisk.com/modes.htm

After creating the floppy or CD shut down the computer.
1.Put the floppy or CD in
2.boot computer it will come to a screen that ask what program you want to use. select "0"
for eraser.
3. That will bring you to the first screen showed in the guide I provided a link to above.
where it says "Fixed" those will be your hard drives installed on the computer. The little arrows under are the partitions. If you want to format the entire drive just highlight the fixed line (just like they have it in the pic.) If you wanted to format a single partition you would highlight the arrow with the partition you want to format.
4. Once you are sure you found the drive or partition you want to format press F10
that will take you to the 4th pic showed in the guide. Type "Erase-all-data" in the box press enter.

That's it. once finished press ESC a few times it will bump you out to Dos A: prompt at that time shut computer down remove the disk from the drive.

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BIOS settings

When you turn on the PC hit the Delete key when prompted and you will enter the BIOS. Here you set the first boot device to be the Floppy, 2nd CDROM drive, the option is usually found under the Advanced Options section but this depends on your BIOS and you may have to look around for it.For the hard drive, select the autodetect option and enable it. Once you have done this save and exit.

Installing the SATA controller driver

Once you have set the PC to boot from the CD make sure the XP CD is in the CD drive and start the installation as per usual. Within the first minute or so of the installation Windows will prompt you to press F6 to install RAID or SCSI drivers, do this. Windows will continue to install then ask you to locate the driver. now with the floppy disk created earlier in drive A: select the driver and hit Enter.

With the SATA drivers installed you can now continue the Windows installation as usual.

A
Step by step guide how to install a Sata drive.
The partition part is not exactly what you need to do. Don't have to partition at all if you want. but usually I make a15G for my OS
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