Can I delete Windows OS?

[jenjen26]

Hi.
I want to completely delete everything off of my computer and then start over by installing a new Windows OS. How do I do this? I don't have any files on there I need to save. Then once everything is erased do I just insert the CD of the new OS I buy and it will load?
Thanks.

[confus-ed]

Welcome to wd forums Jen.

There's probably a few ways to do this, but the simplest to me (given that I can't think windows will let you erase itself), is to get/make yourself a windows 98 boot disk (bootdisk.com (http://www.bootdisk.com) has self extracting images, all you need is a floppy disk), then boot to that by changing the boot order in bios to start from floppy disk. You can then use the command FDisk (http://www.fdisk.com/fdisk/) found on that disk to delete all of the information on your drive, by deleting the partition info & thus effectively removing everything :)

A windows system cd then should be able to take care of everything as far as re-setup goes (note: you may need to change the boot order yet again, to make it look at the CD instead of 'a:' ! ..depends on bios features)

[NooNoo]

I would boot from the xp cd
When you get to the screen that asks you what partition you want to put windows on, read the entire screen - there are instructions on how to remove a partition. Remove the current windows partition, then create it again - windows all gone and the xp setup will ask you to format the newly created partition.

All this is done in a couple of key strokes.