When doing a clean install......

On my gateway I have a partition on my hard drive that has my recovery files on it I think. When I do a clean Install of xp do I just reinstall the C: partition or do I reformat the entire thing removing the D: partition?

I havent done anything yet.

I have the Windows XP home CD

I have my recovery CD's that I created when I first got the computer.

I downloaded what I think are my drivers and burned them onto a CD also.

I noticed that I don't have a xp product key with my Gateway xp disc. I don't know if I need it or not.

whats the best way to proceed

 

The product key is porbably on a sticker underneath the computer. I would make sure that I had a copy of the drivers before I deleted the "d" partition, because you will get no help from Gateway. Try the Gateway site first, then read about how to obtain them from the "d" partion and lastly see if they are on this board. What is the model number of yout computer?

 

Does Gateway give you a recovery CD or an OEM Windwos disc? If it is revovery CD, it may put it back the way it was. Download all the drivers as noted, but the most important one is the network card drivers.

 

Ok, thats impressive. yes the key is on a sticker on the bottom of my computer.

its a gateway mx6025.

I made recovery CD's. is that the info on the D: partition. the recovery cd's have some drivers and then the programs that came on the computer in the beginningand the computer

IT ALSO CAME WITH A GATEWAY OPERATING SYSTEM DISK WITH XP ON IT.

I also saved and burned the drives for the 6000 series laptops from teh gateway website. I've read to make sure I at least have the network card driver so i could go online and download what i need if I had to.

 

but should I reformat keeping the D: partition intact?
should I reformat keeping the D: partition in tact but having a totally clean C: partition?

or should I reformat the entire hard drive leaving me with just a clean C: partition?

or should I reformat leaving me with a clean C: partition and make a new D: partition that is totally clean? If I should make a new D: partition how big should it be? Its a 40 gig HD

 

Beav,

I have Gateway 8510GZ & have used the System Recovery that came with it (which is stored in the D: drive). It took about an hour to restore the system back to the same configuration as when I first received the notebook. Overall, it was a relatively smooth process without my input. Unless you're seriously bent on "clean" installing your hard drive, which will take a lot longer than an hour (not to mention installing additional proggies), this should work out quite nicely. Of course, the best method of action is to restore the box using a imaging prog like Norton Ghost, since it takes only approximately 15- to 30 minutes.