A few questions on formatting

[markflame]

My pc lately has been having many random freezing occurences so i want to format it. I heard one of the steps for formatting is partitioning the C drive or something. the problem is my pc has multiple hard drives for some reason. i have C:\,D:\,E:\ and F:\ and D says ghost drive. so if i wish to reinstall windows xp, will it format all drives or just C and if it does format just C will it fix the freezing problem and delete viruses or will i have to partition all the drives or something like that.

thanks in advance

 

[pokernod]

your already partitioned. Go back and tell us what all the drives say.....You obviously already have a Recovery Partition setup....the question is which.

and do you have an extra PC on the internet incase something goes wrong?

Also, are you sure you want to format, because a good cleaning is probably all you need.

 

[markflame]

how do i tell what all the drives say?
i have an extra pc with internet
ive tried some cleaning but i really just restart everything

 

[brinks]

Unless you have multiple hard drives in your computer, the hard drive that you have now is already partitioned.

Most likely if you just want to reinstall windows you can just leave the other partitioned drives alone and just reinstall windows over the c: drive.

The good thing about having a partitioned drive is that if windows ever mess up you don't have to format the whole hard drive and loss everything. You only need to format the c: drive.

 

[pokernod]

Give me your computer specs so I know what you have or atleast the make and model of the computer.

you asked:
"how do i tell what all the drives say?
i have an extra pc with internet
ive tried some cleaning but i really just restart everything"


go to "My Computer"
Most Likely next to C: it will have the name of your computer
and then another, as you said, will say "Ghost Drive"
tell me what each letter says next to them so I can determin what goes where
for all I know you may have virtual drives
But also right click on that drive that says "Ghost Drive" and tell me how big it is. probably like 6-10GB thats probably going to be your recovery drive. Ghost is a Cloning Program that clones your main hard drive, though Im not happy about using recovery. but I'll explain whats going to happen when you come back.
I can take you through a thourough clean, if youd rather try that first.
What makes you think you have viruses?

The problem with Windows Recovery:

Its called recovery for a reason. If it were just used to get rid of viruses, theyd call it a virus program. Recovery is really for those times when you cant get to anything to back it up. you would do a recovery so you can get back in and get what you need off of the computer and then you would reformat and reload windows. Since your saying you can see your files and stuff Im assuming you can get to everything and I would suggest backing everything you want to keep to discs and (If you really want to format) do a destructive recovery which will reset everything back to day one like new. Like the first time you turned it on. you will lose everything doing this. EVERYTHING. But, with a non-destructive recovery confusion will soon follow as first off, when you first get back into your computer nothing is going to look the same, your shortcuts, your programs, everything, nothing will be where it was. Alot of stuff wont work because files have been backed up and moved all to one file on your system. This is meant so that you can now get in there and "RECOVER" your important data. with a "Destructive Recovery" you will be at square one.
but either way you will have to reinstall all of your software, drivers, etc.