reformat hard disk

[jos1]

I have a corrupted copy of Windows XP on my hard disk. I have removed it and am using a spare
which is fine. I tried to reinstall windows using my official Microsoft CD on the corrupted disk without success. I thought that it might offer a reformat but it didn't. So what next please and I am not bothered about losing all the data on the bad disk

[ChuckFickens]

if you put the cd in the drive and restart the computer so it boots from the CD (you may have to press f12 or similar to change the boot order, look for messages at startup) then it will offer you the option of reformatting the drive.

[vehelpfulguy]

Here is a step by step guide to installing Windows XP.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp _sg_clean.asp

Near the start of the install make sure you chose to "set up Windows" as that will do a full install. Dont chose "Repair" as that just does a tidy up.

Note step 5 (of the step by step install process not the pre installation checklist).

Step 5 is called Choose an Installation partition.

At this point I would DELETE the partition (with a D) - you may need to press others keys to confirm it.

Then when prompted say you want to CREATE a partition (make it all the disk).

You will then be asked if you want to format the partition, say Yes.

At the end of the format the Windows install will continue.

[jos1]

Thank you. I now have two working disks in my computer. I have gone past the silver surfer stage and am probably a 'gold' surfer and forget how to do such things these days without haing my memory jogged. I also have a Hitachi 250GB disc which is corrupted and will not set up windonws due to an error as 'error code 800b0100' whatever that is. I think I should reformat this disc and start again unless you know this error. Hitachi or Microsoft are not much help.and I would like to use this disc as a spare as I have three slots in my machine.