Reformatting a drive

[Websta]

Can you give me the Dummies version of how to reformat my hard drive on my Windows XP laptop.
No big fancy words or concepts please. I am too tired.

[StuartR]

Are you intending to install a completely new version of Windows XP when you finish, or to do something different?

You cannot format the hard drive that you booted windows from when Windows XP is running, so we need to understand what you are trying to achieve to give you the best advice.

[Websta]

Are you intending to install a completely new version of Windows XP when you finish, or to do something different?

You cannot format the hard drive that you booted windows from when Windows XP is running, so we need to understand what you are trying to achieve to give you the best advice.

What I want to do is back up my current system to an external drive, reformat the hard drive and put things back the way they were. Same Windows XP.

[StuartR]

It is likely that the disk won't need to be formatted as the backup software will take care of this for you.
What backup software are you planning to use?

[Websta]

It is likely that the disk won't need to be formatted as the backup software will take care of this for you.
What backup software are you planning to use?

I am open to your professional suggestion. Please suggest away.

[StuartR]

...I am open to your professional suggestion. Please suggest away.

I am sorry to keep asking more questions, rather than just telling you what to do, but this is not quite as simple as it sounds.

What is the reason for doing this? If you just do a backup and restore it to the same disk drive then everything should be exactly as you started. What outcome are you trying to achieve?

Most people here will recommend that you buy third party backup software, such as Acronis True Image or Storagecraft Shadow Protect because the built in backup software in Windows XP has many limitations. These products have many features including the ability to restore the entire backup image to a blank disk drive.

[Websta]

...I am open to your professional suggestion. Please suggest away.

I am sorry to keep asking more questions, rather than just telling you what to do, but this is not quite as simple as it sounds.

What is the reason for doing this? If you just do a backup and restore it to the same disk drive then everything should be exactly as you started. What outcome are you trying to achieve?

Most people here will recommend that you buy third party backup software, such as Acronis True Image or Storagecraft Shadow Protect because the built in backup software in Windows XP has many limitations. These products have many features including the ability to restore the entire backup image to a blank disk drive.

The reason is I think that it's a good idea to reformat your hard drive at least once a year just for optimum performance of the drive itself. I defrag it when the system suggests it but do you think that this is enough?

[StuartR]

...I defrag it when the system suggests it but do you think that this is enough?

Yes. This should be sufficient, unless the disk has less than about 10% free space in which case a backup and restore might help consolidate the free space.

There will be no benefit to doing a backup and restore, except to verify that you have a good backup in case of disaster.

[Bigaldoc]

And this is on a somewhat different note than what you and Stuart have been discussing. There has, for a long time, been a feeling among many computer users that one should reformat and reinstall everything once a year or so. I'll be honest and tell you that I used to do that very thing but haven't done so ever since the release of Windows XP several years ago.

Having a good backup, as suggested in the two products Stuart mentioned, keeping one's drive "clean" with AV and malware scans, diskchecks, occasional defrags, etc. seems to yield more than satisfactory performance and storage results. Formatting for the sake of formatting should not be necessary.

[IMNetUser]

I agree with Big Al and Sturart - I used to periodically reformat the hard drive and re-install. Creating a backup image allows you to re-create the hard drive to last known backup configuration.

For What it Is worth - I would suggest one alternative allowing a backup using software solution with an external hard drive but a little homework.

Create an Ultimate Boot CD For Windows - UBCD4WIN (LINK HERE) with Free Download software (LINK HERE). Instructions are available (LINK HERE). You have to have a copy of your Windows Installation Disk.

Using UBCD4WIN you boot up the computer WITHOUT using hard drive - you don't have to worry about permission of files in use by Windows before they can be backed up.

Disk has utilities to format boot drive if desired - but not required. Use the XML Drive image software with disk to disk backup to backup entire Windows drive to external hard drive, DVD, CD, etc.

To restore, use the UBCD4WIN to boot up computer and XML Drive Image software to restore disk to disk from external hard drive to Windows boot drive.

Before you backup the Windows hard drive - you should always clean the drive of miscellaneous files, temp files, defrag, clean registry etc using tools you are familiar and comfortable with.

Side Note: On ANY of my computer I put data on a a second hard drive or Flash Drive. I make additional Data backups fairly often to avoid losing any data I really need.

[ChrisGreaves]

... I think that it's a good idea to reformat your hard drive at least once a year just for optimum performance ...

Not excepting the comments below this post of yours, and my reply, "different strokes for different folks".
Defrag: I really do think that this is a waste of time when done any more frequently than once a month, maybe once a year. Exceptions arise. Consider a machine, install Win, install MS Office. Those program Files are written contiguously and aren't going to budge, so they ought never become defragmented. Obviously updates (to DLLs etc) can be fragmented, so periodic defrag has merits. A system with heavy use of volatile data files likewise, merits. But with today's large RAM (disk cache) and high-speed disks, I suspect the benefits of defrag are not what they were 20 years ago.
Backup: I use RoboCopy, nightly, to backup as much as possible from all 3 networked computers to twin external drives. Not just my data, but as much as possible, including settings in "Documents and Settings" and "Program Files"
Format: About 4 years ago I partitioned my 100GB laptop hard drive into a 15GB C and an 85GB D drive, and it works well for me. Sometime within the next two weeks, I'll run my nightly back up, go to bed, and first thing next morning, format the 15GB C: and reinstall Win XP and the software currently in use. The format is fast, and my data drive/partition is not disturbed; nor am I.
Re-install: Is nowadays fairly fast. I install much test-software over a year, and I feel (but have never measured) that there is a lot of deadwood lying around, RevoUninstaller notwithstanding. About 8 years ago I started building and maintaining a checklist of the steps to take, including screenshots of email client settings etc, to speed up the process and make sure things got done Just Right. Today it would be a 4 hour job, max, to reinstall WinXP and current software.

I'm hoping when I re-install, that the recent anomaly in my KVM switch, and other irritants, will be resolved.

I hope this helps.