Formatting my XP laptop with no XP CD

Joined
Aug 15, 2006
Messages
483
Reaction score
13
Points
18
Location
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
I've done a format millions of times, but the laptop I got came pre-installed with XP, so how do I format it?

Basically I want rid of everything - a complete fresh install as I'm selling the laptop.

Any help appreciated.

Liam
 
Joined
Oct 27, 2005
Messages
4,702
Reaction score
404
Points
83
Liam said:
I've done a format millions of times, but the laptop I got came pre-installed with XP, so how do I format it?

Basically I want rid of everything - a complete fresh install as I'm selling the laptop.

Any help appreciated.

Liam

If you go to My Computer and right-click on any drive there, wouldn't you just click the Format option?

I just checked this on my PC and as I haven't ever done this myself I don't really know it's just an educated guess....
 
Joined
Feb 16, 2006
Messages
360
Reaction score
11
Points
18
Location
Arkansas
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Air, 20" iMac 2.17 Ghz 1GB
You laptop should have come with a restore CD that will return it to factory state, or else it has a hidden partition that will do the same. Some HP's you press the F12 key down during bootup and it lauches the restore function to wipe and restore it to factory. What brand laptop?
 
Joined
May 27, 2006
Messages
445
Reaction score
16
Points
18
Location
Concord, NC
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Pro 17" 2.6GHz 4GB RAM
Boot up with a live Linux CD, such as Knoppix and then format it via that. Of course, be sure to choose the appropriate file system that you want on it, likely NTFS for Windows, XFS is the best in my opinion for Linux.
 
OP
L
Joined
Aug 15, 2006
Messages
483
Reaction score
13
Points
18
Location
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
It's an LG Laptop. I don't think there is any recovery discs? Unfortunately I can't go banging around trying to find a recovery disc as it's late! but the XP install must definetly be on a seperate partition I think as it only shows my C:\ on the laptop...
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Do you have a Windows XP CD? If so, put it in the drive and boot. When you get to the install part there will be a option to format the drive or leave it alone. Choose Format NTFS.
 
Joined
Oct 27, 2005
Messages
4,702
Reaction score
404
Points
83
dtravis7 said:
Do you have a Windows XP CD? If so, put it in the drive and boot. When you get to the install part there will be a option to format the drive or leave it alone. Choose Format NTFS.

The OP doesn't have the CD....
 
Joined
Feb 16, 2006
Messages
360
Reaction score
11
Points
18
Location
Arkansas
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Air, 20" iMac 2.17 Ghz 1GB
I browsed around on the net and it seems that LG laptops all had a restore CD with them when new that must be used to return to factory condition. Bummer you don't have it. About the only thing to do is either fdisk/format it using an XP cd (or other Windows OS such as 2K, ME, 98, etc) or else just clean it up by removing all user accounts except the Owner account, trashing all My documents files, cleaning out the history, cookies, temp folders (hidden in the Documents and Settings folder in the Local files folder), remove Outlook email accounts, uninstall software you don't want to send with the computer. etc. You can download free cleanout programs from Tucows.com or similar that will do all this and zap your passwords and sensitive info.
 
Joined
Jul 23, 2004
Messages
3,169
Reaction score
164
Points
63
Location
North NJ
Your Mac's Specs
i dont have no mac's
companies have began to install your recovery disk as a partition on your HD and you must restore from there. check your users manual or your manufactureres website
-chris
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2005
Messages
670
Reaction score
23
Points
18
Location
Ceres, Ca
Your Mac's Specs
iPad 32 GB 3G

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top