Daff
February 26th, 2007, 09:07 PM
One of my co-workers had a message on his computer that Windows 2000 needed to be reinstalled. I put the disc in and did the install. Afterward I was getting messages that his newest free AVG 7.5 version needed a certificate number. I never had one in the first place since it was free. I ended up just installing a newer version Windows XP Professional and installing McAfee antivirus. The question I have is, is it necessary to format from the start up screen? And if it is what does this do? I thought you could go to Control Panel and remove old hardware this way but someone told me next time to format it. What is the purpose in this?
Spider
March 1st, 2007, 09:59 PM
is it necessary to format from the start up screen? And if it is what does this do?
There are two options pre install of Windows, Partitioning and format.
Partitioning is the basic sizing of the space on the drive, formatting sets up
the basic file system structure (NTFS or FAT).
If your ever installing Windows you want to do both partition and format. Why
assume the partition and file system is pure and uncorrupted.
The only reason *not* to format is there are files on the drive you need.
Even in that scenario this would be a system that is not ready for a reinstall of Windows
because there are still files on the drive that are needed.
For a stand alone system you do it right (matter of opinion here) by...
1 - delete partition(s)
2 - create partition(s)
3 - format NTFS
4 - install Windows
5 - update Windows
6 - install programs
...this is all assuming your motherboard has been checked for updates and they are installed.
RRBKTechMan
March 4th, 2007, 04:05 PM
i would agree alwayse format. Back up your files then format.