want to dump hard drive

backed up all i want to keep, how do i dump everything i will be installing xp again new.

i bought this computer with no op and installed xp about 1 year ago.
something has gotten me and bogged my whole system
so i want to start fresh and apply all i have learned this year.
can anyone help.?

 

thank you. I found my way but :
C: Partition 1 ms-dod_6 (fat) 2047mb (1097 free)

E: 4095 4094 (free) / 8mb unpartitioned

i am hoping i can clear more space from C: to install xp there and keep E: clean to install other programs later

 

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but you're probably gonna find that XP (even Home, with everything trimmed out that you possibly can) will still use up a major chunk of that 2 gigs.

 

thanks mike , like to clarify i have done all i can.
E: is good (as you stated i will most likely have to put xp there.)
but C: out of 2047 has only 1099 left (is this from temp. files trying to install xp, or is it possible to to dump what is using the 1948 of used space on C; right now.
P.S. I am learning as i go please bear with me , i thank you and everyone for all the help i recieve from this site, it out of sight.
stephanie

 

One other thing to keep in mind (and this ties into your question about temp files): One heckuva lot of apps typically need quite a bit more disk space during installation, mostly for temp files, than they take up once the "dust has settled" and they're fully installed. And there's quite a difference among apps as to how well they clean up after themselves.

My rock-bottom XP-Home takes up about 1.6 gigs in Windows and its sub-folders, plus no doubt quite a bit elsewhere. It was installed by my OEM-dealer, so I wasn't around to see how much extra space it needed during installation.

 

Sound like you already own some type of partitioning software, correct? The C partition does not have sufficient space for WXP. Per the previous post, you will need 2GB of free space to install WXP. Where did you put WXP the first time you purchased the PC? It can't be the C partition. WXP will only support FAT32 and NTFS.

You cannot have a 2GB C partition with 1.9 used and 1.1 free. Furthermore, if you cannot remove the bug in your PC, then it's best to wipe the ENTIRE hard drive (low level format) including the master boot record.

 

oh yeah, thats what i had in mind from the start, yet no clue how to do it.

when purchased computer had no op , i figured out how to go to bios, had to change boot order and a few other things.
first install did not go well (got scared) so there are 2 (now 3) xp's that come up when starting.

would you be able to give me an idea of how to dump hard drive .
thank you so much

 

looked into low,mid & high-level formatting. 5 hours have passed and nothing has been accomplished , my A drive was working before i inserted a "killdisk" program, now it is NOT. Then tried CD format, "no disk found, please insert CD, tried random other disks all were read.!!!!!!!!!!but not the killdisk (i was offline).. P.S. also tried to format diskette to ms dos and I/O error came up. am i haunted or what.. Like rats they get everywhere. This problem with security is out of hand, who will have to spend the zillions US RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

went to another ERASER PROGRAM similar problems. Next step re-configure wireless router and boot from hard drive to kill them. God and everyone else know I have been rid of Trojans, Highjackers, stupid stuff , and I will kill now if thats what it takes.
I AM PEEVED. (is that how you spell it)

 

What is the model number and size of your hard drive? You can visit the hard drive vendor website for a utility to wipe the hard drive.

http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/low-level-format.html

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/faq/ata_llfmt_what.html

Be patient and ask questions before you jump in to fix the issue.