need help wiping a computer clean and starting over

[Kabuchan]

change boot order in the BIOS, move your optical drive to the top of the list

Where's BIOS?

[anonymez]

when you swtich on/reboot your pc, there'll be a message, something like 'press del to enter the bios'. hit delete when you see it

[ed klein]

In the boot sequence what is a LS120, is that some type of special hard drive?

Boot sequence:

floppy
hdd
cd rom
boot other device (enabled)

It has been my understanding, that the computer will go with the sequence you set. Why is this important if you have boot other device (enabled) What is the importance of having a boot sequence?

[Chewy]

ls120 was a drive used long ago and far away

boot other device is for raid cards(controller) that fit in a pci slot,

scuzzi was used for onboard raid for a while

serial controllers are usually specified now

everybody did it a little different, YMMV

[ed klein]

Thank you Chewy

[Kabuchan]

Another quick question,

When I tried to reinstall Windows XP, it said there was a disk error and it could not proceede. Is it because I've used the disk before?

Also, this is my Gateway PC, can I use my Dell windows XP disk on the Gateway if there is something wrong with the disk that goes to my Gateway?

[Kabuchan]

Also, it asked if I wanted to partition it, do I?

And when it asks about NTFS, do I do it regular or quick?

[Chewy]

I use slow for system partitions, quick for data partitions

slow for anything that's acted funky before

[phishman1]

disk error when trying to reinstall Windows XP

Either your copy of Windows XP is scratched up, or the CD (or DVD drive) is going bad.

Another quick question,

When I tried to reinstall Windows XP, it said there was a disk error and it could not proceede. Is it because I've used the disk before?

[Kabuchan]

Luckily, when I tried it for the 3rd time it worked. Shame about the burner, I just installed it 4 or 5 months ago. I know its the burner because I'm having a hard time installing Norton and its not reading the music CDs it created.

Thanks everyone for all the help! The PC is up and running and I'm thrilled to death!!