How do you completly erase everything from your computer and start over new?

My friend just gave me her computer, Windows XP Home Edition, and it has at least a million files on it. I would like to just start over completly new.


I have high speed DSL, but the computer still runs very slowly. Is there like a fast/safe way to just delete everything with out doing it one by one? Thank you!





*** But I don't have a diskette or anything... No CDS or anything came with it.

How do you completly erase everything from your computer and start over new?
Start over completely? Reboot the PC with a copy of your preferred OS in the CD drive.
Reply:If you dont have the original cd, then best you can do is go to control panel/add remove programs.


Uninstall what you don't want.


after that, look for a program called ccleaner and auslogic defrag.


Those will clear trash files off it and reorganize the hard disk.


Also consider the fact there may be spware and viruses on it that cause the slowness.


I use avgfree to kill viruses and Spybot search and destroy to kill spyware.
Reply:If the computer has no backup image on it you can't do anything without the CD's.Look on boot for a short message on the screen like"hit F11 for recovery"


You can also borrow a CD from someone and use the serial from the sticker on your computer.
Reply:First you need the original os of the pc. Since you dont have the os for that computer you may need to get one.. Is the os for that computer is genuine?
Reply:You can return your computor to factory settings and that will remove everything from your computor...


Go to pc tools and then System restore ...
Reply:well you have two options.





1) buy a install CD





2) simply delete the files manualy