XP Prof Install and Format Question

[yiannid]

Hi!

Forgive my ignorance. I have had a Medion PC w/ XP Home for over a year and have had to reinstall everything twice back to factory specs due to slow downs, junk, etc. I just bought XP Professional and need to know two things:

1. Is it imperative to first format my HDD or simply install XP?

2. If I need to format HDD first, can anyone give me some guidance on creating a boot disck from where I can format?

Thx

[Miz]

If you've used the CD that came with the computer and it took everything back to the state it was in when you got the computer (including deleting all your data...email, address book, favorites, documents, pictures, music, etc), then it is reformatting the disk.

It may be re-imaging rather than reformatting but the end result is the same....everything is wiped off the drive before reinstalling everything that was on the drive when it left the factory.

[yiannid]

If I install XP Professional (full version), how will that affect my DVD, digital cards, etc?

*Thinks he shoulda gotten the upgrade instead of full version *

[Miz]

Sorry, I misread your first post.

The same drivers that work with XP Home will work with XP Pro.

If you got the full version, you probably will have to format the harddrive.

It's easy enough to find out. Boot to the XP CD and tell it to install. If it tells you that you already have an operating system then, yes, you'll have to reformat before you install Pro.

When you boot to the XP CD, it has all the utilities you need to repartition and format the drive so you don't really need to make boot disks.

For plenty of resources on how to do a clean install (format/install) of XP, start on this page.