How To Reinstall Windows XP

September 2nd, 2007 | Published in Tech

Hopefully, you won’t ever need to do this, but sometimes reinstalling Windows is the only way to save a truly messed up PC!

Checklist

Before you begin, make sure you have the following items:

Your Windows XP installation CD
A valid Product Key for Windows XP
The CDs and serial numbers or product keys for all of the software you will need to reinstall after Windows XP has been reinstalled
The Hardware Driver CD that came with your computer when you purchased it or another working computer with internet access so you can download any drivers you may be missing after reinstallation of XP (you will also need a CD burner or USB key to transport the downloaded drivers from the working, internet-connected PC to the one you are working on)
Time to work on this. Plan to do this over a weekend or when you have a day to devote to the work.

Steps

Back up your Files. Take the time to backup all your important files by burning CDs, copying them over to another computer on your network, or uploading them to an online storage site. When you reinstall Windows, all the files will be gone, so be thorough!
See what Hardware and Software you have installed and make notes. Write down the hardware and software you currently have installed, then go locate the CDs for the programs/drivers so you can reinstall them after your reinstall Windows. Use Belarc Advisor, a free download, that will give you a list of the programs installed on your PC, including serial numbers. Print out the results of its scan and keep the list handy.
Put in the Windows CD and shut down the computer.
Start the computer back up and boot from the CD. Depending on what computer you have, you may have a little message that displays as your booting that says "Press X to Boot from CD", where X is some key on your keyboard you will need to press like F1. If you can’t boot from the CD and don’t see a message, you may have to change an option in your computer’s setup program. Look for a similar message that tells you how to boot into Setup (like "Press F1 to enter Setup"). Once in Setup, look for an option to change the boot order. Change it so the CD is the first option, followed by the Hard Drive, floppy, etc.). Save the changes (depending on your computer the options for saving changes will be different, but it will say somewhere on the screen how this is done). Exit setup and restart your PC - you should be able to boot from your CD now.
You will soon see the setup Windows XP screen, which is just a blue background and white text. Click "Enter" to continue and "F8" to Accept the License Agreement.
If prompted to repair your installation, hit "Esc". On the next screen, you will want to delete the current partition where Windows is installed. With the down arrow key, highlight the partition to select it.
Press D to delete the partition.
Press L to confirm the deletion (Windows wants to make sure you are ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE, because there is no going back!)
Now, you will need to create a new partition, so again use the arrow keys to highlight and select the unpartitioned space.
Press C, then to the next question press Enter.
With the new partition now created, you will need to format the drive. Choose the option to "format as NTFS." Quick format is fine. Hit "F" to proceed with the format.
Now Windows XP will begin installing. The Setup program will now copy files to your PC.
When the file copy is complete, the Setup will reboot your PC.
When your PC reboots, you will see the message that says "Press any key to boot from CD." DO NOT PRESS A KEY!!
Setup will now boot from your C: drive.
Setup will now continue and you will need to follow the steps to enter in information like your area code, your name, your password, your time zone, etc.
Setup may need to reboot during this process, so let it!
When it’s done, you will be prompted to log in for the first time. You are now done with the XP reinstallation.
Use the driver CD to reinstall any missing drivers. See what’s missing by right-clicking on "My Computer" and choosing "Manage." Then click on "Device Manager" and look for any devices with an exclamation mark next to them. You may need to download the latest drivers from the internet and then install them on your PC.
Now, using the CDs and the printout of your software serial #s, proceed to reinstalling the software programs you need on your PC.
FINALLY! You are finished! Don’t forget to put some anti-virus and anti-spyware, so you don’t get into this mess again!