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Originally Posted by Stuart W
WARNING!
If you are going to format your C: drive, do you have all the drivers for your hardware?
Do you have somewhere to backup your documents?
Do you have the install disks for all you applications?
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Excellent point. If you are asking this question about how to format the HD, it suggests you haven't tried this before. If you are not sure how to do it, go carefully, and be absolutely certain this is the right way.
You can check what hardware drivers you might need by looking in the contol panel > system > Hardware & Device Manager. That will list everything youv'e got. Some of the hardware will have standard windows drivers, it's the odd unusual bit that will catch you out. Download the drivers now, especially anything needed to get you back on line like NIC cards, cos once you start the format, and can't get back on line to get further help, you really are in trouble
Check if your PC will reboot from the CD - many manufacturer's dont have that setting by default in the BIOS. You may need to change that to get it to work.
I do hope you have the proper Windows XP disks, not just a manufacturer's version. I hope your on broadband too, cos your going to do a lot of downloading of patches and updates once you start.
I would suggest the first thing you do once you reconnect to the internet is to get your A/V and firewall software up to date. Ideally you will have loaded them before you reconnect, but they must immediately be patched. It doesn't take long to get infected
Be prepared to set aside a day for this. Depends on how much you have running, on your PC how long it will take to get back to normal.