How do I go about reformatting my hard drive to remove XP Pro and then do a clean install? I did an upgrade and would rather do a clean install of it to clear out everything else. One of the major problems I am having is with XP Pro and IE 6.0 when I go to view a message board it'll let me but I can not reply. It gives me a white screen. Problem #2 is probably the most annoying, if I want to d/l anything from the net it won't let me. It gives me a little square box at the upper left hand screen and says DONE but it's not on my machine anywhere. I also am getting a severe error message can't load xAlien (whatever the heck that is). Any and all help welcome Peg

you need to get the boot disks from bootdisk.com,choose home or pro depending on which one you have

FORMATTING While running your current version of XP , insert the XP CD in the drive. When the setup menu appears, select "New Installation" (clean install) from the pull-down menu. Also, select "Advanced" and place checkmarks in the two boxes. 2. Next, your computer will start copying files and then reboot. At this point, select the same drive/partition that Windows XP is currently installed on. Select the option to "format" this partition using either FAT32 or NTFS. 3. After the drive/partition is formatted, XP will begin the setup process and install "clean". 4. After registering and activating XP, be sure to run a "Defrag". For details: http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp Note: It is important to visit the web site of the manufacturer of your computer to obtain any special XP drivers.

Hi Peg - if you have the disk for a full installation, you can use the files & settings transfer wizard ( from the xp disk ) to backup your system to another hdd or to cd's. Then you can set your cd drive as first boot option & use the full install cd to format and install- read the options carefully and you shouldn't have any problem. If you're not sure how to set the boot options in the BIOS, the cd can be run from windows if your current system is functioning enough to do so. Andy -- I tried the xp bootdisk from bootdisk.com & it did not work for me.- that was before I discovered that XP can repair itself without losing any data. best of luck --kiwimon

when you format a hard drive, what is the prompt that you put in after A? I thought it was FORMAT C: Thanks for your help. True novice here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sharon its sound like ntfs, use the xp cd and go to recovery console and type diskpart and then format c:

format c: