So I finally got the money away from cigar purchases to pick up an external hard drive; and my question/need info is: what procedure/ program is best to wipe the HD clean and do a complete reload of windows XP?

It has been a good 2 years since a good cleaning.

I know there are some great comp whizzes here. So give up the info, and Thanks in advance for the advice.:-)

Lord Bless!


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A simple format.exe will work or you can do diskpart.exe. If you are installing windows from a cd, it will overwrite the disk during the install, just as Ghost would.

I would consider partitioning the drive with a partition big enough to store your completed "gold image" and a couple of back up's.

Good luck.
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Microsoft makes a tool for pulling your data off prior to a reload. You can point it to a folder or external drive. I forget the name of it. You should be able to find it with a Google search.

Then I would just pop in the XP disc, and delete the old partition during setup. Next choose the unallocated space to install to and go.

Make sure you install SP3 if it's not slipstreamed into your media. Then install IE8 or IE9 and all the security and critical updates. Make sure to put a decent AV product on when done. AVG free is decent. MS Security Essentials is very effective but tough on resources.
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Here's user guide for the USMT (User State Migration Tool) for XP:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb457090.aspx

Here's the download:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl....aspx?id=14110
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Good luck, Kevin, I'll be needing to do something similar when my daughter heads to college this fall. For me, I'd rather have someone who knows what the heck they're doing as I'd likely screw it all up. Mike & Moses' posts read like a Charlie Brown teacher to me, I have no doubt that they make complete sense, though :-)
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Your question confuses me BUT gives me enough tidbits to THINK I know what you are trying to do.
Like Moses I like the old program FORMAT C:/........BUT I am getting the impression you bought an
external drive to store files on that you want to KEEP prior to wiping the drive and formatting it.
If that is the case then in a lot of ways you are just going to end up with only a LITTLE less trouble than
where you started. Personally I like the white knuckle ride of formatting the drive and starting from scratch.
Data is such a ball and chain. :-)
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I kept the instructions general on purpose. As more details are presented, I can offer more details on the how to. Diskpart is enough to do the job; format is not really needed as a blown partition table is essentially a clean disk.

Yes, formatting or low level format will make the disk more efficient. Consolidating and copying your data is the first step. 2nd step is getting your drivers on to USB. See if you BIOS needs an update while you're at it.

USMT is a good tool (or an industry standard), but may be too advanced to copy files over for just one user. By the time he figures out how to use it, all his files could've been manually copied over.

I'd also consider moving to Windows 7 over XP; not that XP is bad, but it's getting long in the tooth (better than Vista that for sure).
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I'm with you on moving to Win7. XP came out in 2002. MS usually has a 10 year life expectancy on its products. Not that they'll fail, but they go into extended support, then a year or two later are deemed end of life. Typically this can mean no updates, no support, and even the removal of self-service stuff like knowledge base articles for that product.
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Another vote for 64-bit Windows 7. Everything XP did, Windows 7 does a little better. It's really well worth it. I'm running W7-64 at home, home laptop, work, and work laptop. If you're going to the trouble of a full wipe / re-install...I wouldn't even think about anything else.
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Are you sure you want to install Win 7?
I know you just clicked yes, but are you really sure?
Did you intentionally just click a button that would initiate an install of a new OS?
If you click "Continue" the installer will proceed to install windows 7...
Are you going insane yet? Click yes to reconfirm.

:-)
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There is a tool for moving from XP to Win7. I recommend win7 for the new security features and performance enhancements.

Note that blowing away a partition table does not mean that the data is gone or not recoverable. Any viruses, in the boot block for example, will still be there.

I would suggest that once you have deleted the drive, you use CCleaner in its most secure setting to erase everything, well, everything that isn't in a bad sector/block. You will also need to remove the boot block, probably by hand.
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Not sure what this means could you explain?

The most I want to move off is pictures, word files, docs--not a whole lot of stuff. What are partitions and what are their functions?
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DBAN!

Use DBAN to wipe.

Free and easy.

If you have any questions I'm sure I can answer them I've reloaded XP at least 250 times.

I agree if you have the specs, go Windows 7. It's much better than XP.
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Ouch my head!
I didn't get to read any of the stuff after Gerard responded. Just scanned it.

I do plan on upgrading my OP system in when WIN 8 comes out. I am just interested in reformatting the HD, and cleaning stuff up for the time being.
I will research the different ideas...but the low level format will probably be where I start.

I have a Mid tower almost built; just lacking a CPU, motherboard, Graphics card, and monitor....it's taking awhile. I'm pretty good with the hardware side of stuff, but have always had difficulty with software/programing.

Keep the ideas coming, we always talk by phone or Skype....:-)
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I haven't read into Windows 8 but I always wait a year or so before moving to the current OS. Just get the general consensus as to whether people like it and it's stable enough to upgrade. Saved me from going to Vista :-)

http://www.dban.org/ <--That's DBAN, a little reading for you. It's a ~3 hour wipe.
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That's some good advice Bill thanks...I'll be picking up Win 7 then.:-)
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Partition is like slicing the harddrive into pie pieces. Instead of just having a c: drive, you'll have an additional letter like d: or f:. The advantage is that if you screw up your PC, it tends to stick to just the partition. If you blow away c:, you still have a copy of your machine on the other partition.

Most PC manufacturers have a small partition on their drive when you buy a computer. Partitioning is not as popular as it was, but it's still a necessary if you want to build you computer "the right way". There are plenty of good web sites that can walk you through this.

As for how big to make the 2nd partition, consider doing 10% of the total drive space.

As how to do this, there are several ways. If you are formatting the disk, fdisk is the easiest way to create a partition. Diskpart can create a partition as well.
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So, you have a stick of RAM, a fan and that's it? :-)

One thing you'll want to do is max out the RAM on the motherboard. Whatever you think is excessive now, won't be in 4 years. At that 4 year mark, you PC will at least be decent since it will be average by then.
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....we have it in the labs here and the "in house" reviews here are very mixed. I've seen at least one blog call it "...the new Vista...".

Not for me - W7-64 is just too good.....:-)

Edited to add - you can get a slug of great utilities on a bootable CD for free (Including DBAN). Having all this stuff on a bootable CD is way, way convenient when you're working on PC's. Visit:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

...download the ISO, burn a CD. I use this all the time, here in the lab, and at home when I'm building or working on PC's
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IF the disk fails you're still focked
:-)
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