What is a Windows XP Clean Install?

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Windows XP Tips: How to Perform a Clean Install

Many Windows XP users perform a clean install once a year or so. This is a good idea for several reasons. You get a fresh copy of the OS – all of your changes, good or bad, are gone. All of the extra junk that you don’t need or want on your hard drive – old registry changes, for example, or spyware and adware – disappear. And you don’t have to worry about sluggish performance after a reinstallation, either.

And if you’re having major PC issues, the clean install is a somewhat-fast and fairly-easy way to fix things. This is often the last resort, but it’s sometimes the only thing that will save the PC.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to performing a clean install. This process will take some time – more than an hour in most cases – so plan ahead before you start this task. You’ll need the ability to work without interruptions or distractions, so try to plan for a time when you can be left alone to work.

Before You Start the Install:

Back up all of your important files. When you format the hard drive, you will lose everything. You should test your backups after you make them. Few things are worse than taking the time to save data, only to learn after the fact that the disc was corrupted, or that the data did not properly record.

Now, collect all the necessary discs. You will need your Windows XP installation disc and the product key. If you do not have the product key, then you cannot activate Windows.

You will also need the CD-ROMs that came with your hardware. This is particularly important for modems, monitors and other necessary devices.

Finally, make sure that you have the installation files or discs and registration codes for any software that you have on your system. You will have to reinstall and re-activate all of these programs, so make sure that you can do this before you eradicate everything on your hard drive.

Before you do anything else, double-check your work so far. Make sure that you’ve really backed up everything that you can’t afford to lose and that you have all the software and product keys that you’ll need to reinstall your favorite programs and hardware.

How to Perform a Clean Install of Windows XP

Put the WinXP installation disc in your CD drive and restart your computer. You will soon see a message stating that you should press any key to boot from CD. Press any key that comes to mind so that Windows will boot from the disc.

The Windows installation screen will come up soon. Press Enter to install Windows.

Press F8 to accept the Windows licensing agreement. (You might want to read first if you never have before. This agreement contains some interesting and very important information about what you can and cannot do with your copy of WinXP.)

Now Windows gives you a list of your current WinXP installations. You probably have just one. If not, use the arrow keys to select the XP installation that you want to wipe out and hit the Esc key to perform a clean install.

Part of installing a fresh copy of XP is deleting the old partition: the one on which XP currently resides. Now that you’re at this screen, use the arrow keys to highlight the partition that you want to erase (it’s usually the one that’s already highlighted, in fact) and press D to delete.

Hit Enter to confirm that you really want to delete the partition. Remember: you’re deleting everything, so you won’t be able to access the files and other data once they’re gone.

Now Windows will ask for another confirmation. Hit L this time.

Windows will delete the system partition. If you did not create any other partitions when you last installed WinXP, you should see only one entry: unpartitioned space. Make sure that this line is highlighted and then hit C to create the new partition.

In many cases, you’re best off using the default partition settings. This is not necessarily the case if you create other partitions on the hard drive, but most users will do just fine by hitting Enter to accept and use the defaults.

Now that the new partition is installed, you will see two entries: the new partition and unpartitioned space. Ignore the second one: highlight the first line (the new partition) and hit Enter to begin Windows XP installation.

Here is where the options become a little more complicated. You should see four options. The first two are for different types of quick installation. Ignore those: you want the standard installation.

You’ll see two different file system types: FAT and NTFS. The latter is usually best for WinXP: highlight that entry and hit Enter to move on.

You can hang out for a while now. Windows is copying and loading setup files. Then it will start the actual installation, which can take a while. Stay fairly close to the PC to make sure that everything goes as it should, but you don’t have to interact with the system for a while.

When WinXP requires your input, you can come back and select the options that you need. You will do things like set your time zone, tell WinXP what type of network connection you use, et cetera.

Eventually, you’ll reach the registration screen. This is optional. At some point, however, you will have to activate your copy of WinXP. You can do this via telephone or Internet, depending on your preferences.

Once you’re finished with all the setup tasks that you need to complete before WinXP is ready to run, the operating system will start. You should have a clean install that’s easy to use and ready to be changed according to your needs.

Now you can reload your saved files, install your hardware drivers and favorite programs and otherwise enjoy your newly-installed operating system.