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My computer has been having some issues lately. I don't really want to get into them because there are alot and I don't really have time to troubleshoot them. So i basically have two questions:

1) I was just wondering if I could reformat my hard drive and reinstall windows? I mean totally delete everything thats on my hard drive now, including the partioned recovery part that came with my pc(which by the way is locked and won't let me touch it. Thank you Compaq) and...

2) What would be the best way to go about backing up some of the stuff that's on my hard drive now so I can put it back on after I try re-installing Windows(from a Windows XP Pro installation disc that I bought) and what are my options?

My hard drive is a 200 gb(4 of which is free right now, about 85 of it is what I want to back up somehow) one that came with my computer(which by the way is a Compaq Presario Media Center Desktop PC(SR1830NX)) and comes from the factory with Windows Media Center Edition already installed.

P.S. This is my first post so I'm sorry if I left out any critical information or if this is just a stupid question in general. And thank you in advance for any help I'm really glad to have found this site. From what I've seen everybody here is so helpful.

Hello and Welcome to PCHF.

Yes it is possible to format your hard drive and reinstall windows. The best way to do this would be to use the recovery partition (that's what it's there for). Or you can just use a standard windows XP disk.

See if this info helps: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...45#bph07145_xp

Alright thanks for the quick replies but I still have a few questions. Let's say I buy a backup hard drive(internal or external) to store all of the stuff I don't want to lose and then take the backup hard drive out of my computer and install Windows XP Pro onto my original hard drive. When I go to put in my backup hard drive back into my computer will Windows XP Pro be able to read all of the stuff off of it? Because I used Windows XP Media Edition to put it on, will it require that I format this new hard drive with Windows XP Pro, erasing the stuff I'm trying not to lose? And also, if I install Windows XP Pro from a disc, will it delete my recovery partition that came with my PC?

Yup , windows will still be able to read the HD.

And deleting the recovery partition shouldn't be a problem for either of these apps:

http://www.killdisk.com/

http://dban.sourceforge.net/


And incase needed , have a look here for instructions on installing XP:

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/