I've backed up everything on CD and I'm ready for a fresh start.
Back on Win 95 I used to restart in DOS, do a complete format and then reinstall from scratch. (With a floppy)
So what's different about XP? I can't restart in DOS mode.. so I guess I'm limited to whatever reinstall options are on my install CD, right?
My esteemed oracle says:
"If you still have your win 95 cd you should be able to create a boot disc from that. You need to read the "readme" file on it, boot from that disc and then run the fdisc programme and choose "delete partition". the fdisc does what it says on the tin - it fucks up your hard disc. Before you can reinstall you'll need to use fdisc to recreate the partition. ONce you've done that stick your XP cd in and boot from that and it should prompt for all the install processes. make sure you have the XP licence key which you'll need during the reinstall otherwise you are completely fdisced"
DF(s-r) If that means anything to you I take my hat off...
Nickipee
At work, we have some arcane DOS software that ran on an older computer. A few months ago our hard drive was dying and we had to swap out hard drives and reinstall windows 98 via CD. As I recall reinstalling Windows 98 was not too hard.
So ... I say use your CD for whatever installation options you have. You might/probably need a boot floppy with the CD-ROM drivers. I can't remember ...
Hope this helps ... sorry I cannot be more definite.
Thanks guys :) Everything's working fine... a slight nightmare of course but I managed to get the drive formatted first by booting from the CD. On the 2nd try.. LOL
By the way, I found a rather awesome site just now.. whenst looking for an old version of a favorite program.. you know, newer versions aren't always better.. link
Highly recommended :)