How to reformat a computer?

I believe there is no way to reformat your computer without the CD, unless you are willing to use system restore?

1.FIRST THING TO DO IS TO PRESS THE RESTART BUTTON.
2.IF DOES NOT WORK REFORMAT YOUR COMPUTER,USING OPERATING SYSTEMS LIKE WINDOWS XP,VISTA ETC.TO BACK UP YOUR FILES DONT REFORMAT DRIVE D:,ONLY DRIVE C: BUT BEFORE THAT TRANSFER FIRST YOUR IMPORTANT FILES INTO DRIVE D:,

Install the XP discs and restart the machine. It should boot from the discs. Then follow the onscreen instructions. You will want to reformat your main drive. (C:)

You can download Windows XP USB edition from the following link
http://www.fullandfree.info/software/windows-xp-portable-usb-stick-edition/

Good Luck!

when you install a operating system and dont want both on your computer you format ur hard drive then install

Insert the Microsoft Windows XP Professional CD-ROM into your computer.
Restart your computer, and choose "change boot order", and choose to boot from the CD-ROM.
Follow the on-screen prompts.

this is normally on the back of your computer

There is nothing left to do for this one here. The best thing to do is to take your computer to the manufacturer for repairs. Other than that the best thing to do is to purchase an external optical drive / cdrom or dvd drive and purchase another windows xp disc and reinstall it. or if you have the windows cd for this computer that you could use that as well. Those are your best options.

Hello fyregoddess,
Welcome to Fixya! My name's Chris and I'm from Scotland.
This could be because you 'purple' disk is not a Windows XP operating system disk, but a Windows recovery disk. It is necessary to have an actual XP operating disk in order to reformat.
If you think you DO have an actual XP operating system disk (with Serial Number), then it is possible that you have actually been attempting to 'Repair' the computer, not reformat it.
If it is indeed an XP disk, then, when you load it up and attempt to install it, it will give you the option to format the disk with ntfs or FAT32. If you didn't see this option, then you have a recovery disk, and your system has likely been upgraded to XP Service Pack 2. In this case the recovery disk is for XP (the original, part 1, if you like), and will useless for repairing purposes.
If you can borrow an XP disk from a friend, that would be the easiest option. Then you could reformat.
Alternatively, you could download a program that has the recovery utility for XP Service Pack 2, and try repairing the system that way.

You can download it here:

http://wvw.downarchive.com/software/aio/6753-megaiso-2008-multiboot-recovery-cd.html

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and download the RAR files. When you have the RAR files, you have to unpack them (using WinRar or Peazip. Peazip is free). This will give you an .ISO file that you burn onto a disk with a program like ImgBurn or Nero. I recommend ImgBurn because it is easy to use and is completely free.
Load it up on start-up and it'll give you a choice of operating systems. You should choose Windows XPE.

Now you will be doing the same as you were doing before (when you used the 'purple disk'), but you won't face the 'newer version' problem, and it should restore all the systems settings for you.

I know that sounds like a lot of scary work, but unless you can get your hands on an original Windows XP disk and reformat your computer with that, then using the Multiboot Recovery method will be the only way to 'Repair' your system.

I wish you good luck with this, and feel free to leave a Comment if you have any problems. Alternatively, you can try the Chat Live Now button and myself or one of my Fixya expert companions may be able to guide you one step at a time.

Happy Holidays!
:)

Chris

You will have to go into the program files and manually delete the operating system (os) not needed, make sure you have the right one. However, you will most likely still have the "choose your os" screen come up. The comand prompt that tells the machine to do this stays behind most of the time. If it does, then you will need to back up your files, reformat the hard drive, and install a new os.