I need alittle help

[Northwings]

Well i messed up my windows, and the only way i know to reformat is if you have the xp disk, and u go to do promp and type formate c:\ and than affter that you install xp threw the disk. The problem is i dont have the disk cause i bought a new computer, and no xp disk came with this. Is there away to reformate but keep xp on my computer, just get it brand new ? if this doesnt make sense just tell me what ur unclear of . thanks alot

 

[Praetor]

1. "Reformat" typically means (roughly) to "completely delete every trace of everything, including the operating system (WindowsXP) from the C drive". Thus when you reformat you wont be able to preserve XP. You can format your drive via a bootdisk or even just before you start the installation fo the operating system

2. Typically "reinstall" means to "reformat" and then install a copy of the operating system onto the newly cleaned drive however there is the option to just install the operating system without "reformating" -- it's not as clean and sometimes has complications but in most cases it'll work. To do so, pop the WXP cd into the drive, boot up, select the option to install the OS and for the last step, select "Do not format" or whatever it says.

3. An option you might want to look into is to use the System Restore function of WindowsXP; it comes default as enabled so you might have the initial system restore point