have been asked to repair a laptop for a friend however have one slight issue regarding the reformating of the lap top as it does not have a recovery cd to reformat it or a windows xp cd to reinstall windows now ts a second hand laptop and they dont want to splashout on a new xp cd isthere anyway of reformating but being able to keep windows

i have a external hard drive at my disposal to back up anything that needs backing upbut a bit of help would be great

ddwwf1

Hi ddwwf1, and welcome to PCHF!
When we say reformatting a hard drive, we mean to wipe the entire contents of the drive and installing a fresh copy of windows. So, there is no way to format a drive with keeping windows in it.
If you really want to reformat that laptop, a new copy of windows xp would be required.

yeah i did explain that in a bit of a rash fashion. is it posile to move windows to my external hard drive and then be able to wipe the laptops hard drive then move windows back again

It may sound easy but it's difficult. And I would not recommend it because it is risky.
Better refer to this site and see what i mean:
Can I move Windows from one hard drive to another? - Ask Leo!

thanks for that im gona try and track down a recovery cd for the laptop oif that doesnt work im gona tell myfriend toput his hand in his pocket and purchse either a new lap top or windows cd