Heres a great format guide that I just got from a tech rep. Thought this might help some of you.

2. Restart the computer and start tapping the F12 key at the Dell logo on the first screen.
3. You will see one time boot menu listing a couple of options to boot the computer from.

Note : You may or may not see the one time boot menu depending on the Hard Drive content. If you don't see it the first time, please repeat the steps above. If you still don't see it, you probably need to change the boot sequence in the BIOS and boot off the XP cd.

4. Insert the Windows XP CD in the drive now.
5. Select "CD/DVD" option from this screen and press "Enter" key.
6. The computer will display a message asking to "Press any key to boot from the CD".
7. Press any key on the keyboard immediately as you will have only 3 seconds to press a key.
8. Now you should see a blue screen with "Windows Setup" written on top.
9. At the end of this screen, you will have options either to get into "Recovery Console" by pressing "R" or to setup Windows XP by pressing "Enter" key. Please press the "Enter" key.
10. The next screen should be to accept the agreement. Please read the agreement and press "F8" to accept it.
11. The next screen would have an option to press "Esc" key to setup a fresh copy of windows XP.

Note : A few of the options may change depending on the hard drive content. Please take your decision to select the appropriate option that would lead to a format of the hard drive.

12. The next screen would list the partitions available to setup windows XP on. Please select the partition that is largest in size and press "Enter" key.
13. Press "C" to continue using the same partition on the next screen.
14. The next screen would list a few different options to format the partition. Please select "NTFS(Quick)".
15. Press "F" to format the drive now.
16. The computer will format the hard drive and will copy certain files off the CD on to the computer and will restart.
17. Let the computer boot off the hard drive this time and it will start the windows XP installation phase which will take about 39 minutes.
18. Please answer all the questions that will be asked during setup. The computer will restart once this phase is complete.
19. Computer will ask you for a few basic settings and creation of user accounts.
20. After this the computer will be back up and running to the normal mode. You are requested to install the Drivers off the "Drivers and Utilities" cd. You need to install all the ones which are checked by clicking on them. The first one that needs to be installed is "Chipset". If Chipset is not available, you can pickup any in any sequence. Please click the respective driver and follow the onscreen instructions to complete the installation.
21. After installation of the drivers, you can use any cd in any sequence to install the softwares that came preloaded on the laptop

I usually do the not quick format. Donno why but I think it's prob more thourough. can't spell..heh

whats the difference?

Truthfully no idea.. Google here I come!

Okay it seems as though the quick format only rewrites the allocation tables to make it seem like the harddrive was formated, but its not, in fact, since only the allocation tables have been overwriten, its possible to undo the quickformat and get all the files back, because quick format does NOT overwrite all sectors. Full format blanks everything and scanns to see if all the sectors are clear of information.

That was from some forum. And MS has this to say http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp

Good to know, I was wondering that myself a few days ago when I was reformatting. Sounds like quick format is kind of a waste of time :-/

are the instructions i got for the quick format? how do i do a full just delete partitions

Actually, the long format is a waste of time. I always do quick unless I feel there might be a problem with the hard dirve, then full is better because it will hit all the sectors. If you are doing a full format.

At step 12, you can delete a partition if you want instead of just reformatting. When you go to install, you still get the option to do a quick or full.

Once you have reformatted the HDD and installed all the apps you plan on using, I would recommend using the simplified step by step procedure linked in my sig below for creating a bootable automatic backup DVD image of your notebook...

the pdf in ur sig is broken.

the dvd one? I just checked and it is there for me. Maybe you should update Adobe Acrobat or something? It is a 1.3mb file.

Tellerve

i want to do these steps, the only thing holding me back is that i do not really want to lose my cd and dvd burning software...

i want to do this, however i do not really want to lose my cd and dvd burning programs...what can i do?

it says "file is damaged and could not be repaired" and my acrobat is updated fully. idk whats going on.

pdf works fine