we recently changed my harddrive & was given an xp disc, stupidly I installed it only to find we do not have the proper key to completely install the xp now I am unable to complete the installation or delet what I already have installed. please, is there any easy way to delet my harddrive there is nothing on it apart from this as I said it is completely new, it's just my fault for trying to install a used xp!!! could really use your help on this people as is my hubby's computer & he is now on mine all the time.
thanks in adavnce
Rosy

If you are keeping the hard drive, just leave it until you have something to install on it. When you install a version of Windows (which you have a key for) you will have the option to format the drive, which will remove everything on the drive.

IF you are trying to sell the drive, or otherwise want it to be completely blank right now, try http://www.dban.org/. You burn it to a CD/DVD, then boot from the CD/DVD.

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so if I get windows 98 will that do it as hubby only wants for game playing & 98 will do or will this function only work on XP upwards
thanks so much for your reply

Rosy,

Does the other drive still work or is it dead? If it still works, you can go to the new HDD manufaturers site and download their installation utillity disc, With this disc you should be able to transfer the complete data from the old drive to the new and continue to use the computer.

You will need to "slave" the old drive to the new one...

also with the utillity disc you will be able to re-format and wipe the failed xp installation from the drive.

windows 98 will work just as well on the new drive. I would suggest that you make a 30 gig partition on the new drive to install W98 in aas to avoid the issues with using a large drive.

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no the drive was a new blank hd that needed an operating system so nothing to transfer but think I just need to know if buying a proper new version of 98 once installing that if it will allow me to format the hd or if I need to wipe it clean first

If the WinXP installation used the default file system for WinXP (NTFS) then Win98 will not be able to work with the drive. You may need to use a utility to wipe the formatting from the drive. There are many ways to accomplish that.

Delpart is one that works well. You could also download a disk utility from the hard drive manufacturer to prep the drive.

how will I know if it used the default file system for WinXP (NTFS) is there anyway to find this out, sorry if I am asking silly questions but I don't know a great deal about computers I am not blonde but please treat me that way, thanks for all your help so far

You mentioned Win98. Do you currently have any Win98 disks?

If your hubby has games that are on disk you may want to check to see what versions of Windows the games will run on before determining what to do.

tried the delpart connection & made a disk to delete the hard drive but it does not self run & as I don't actually have an operating system completely install not sure how to go about running the actual disk, is still stuck in the install bit of win xp
think it might be easier to just get a genuine XP & this should format HD automatically is that right? The HD I got was a hitachi Deskstar 7K160 80GB U133 8MB
which I put in with 2 memory sticks of 512ram each to make it bigger but can't find any links to get an installation utillity disc from them not sure if I am asking the right questions or using the right jargon IYKWIM.

Rosy, check your private messages.

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