I have a Dell inspiron 1405 notebook with Windows XP in it. It didn't come with any reinstall cd's. It ia all on the hard drive. I want to wipe it clean and start over fresh with it. I can't remember how to do this. Have any answers for me?

Follow the link below, & that will take you a m/s support site where you can download the boot-up & recovery discs for 'xp' that you require for free... :) OK? :)

How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994)

If you have an XP install disk to install windows after you wipe drive, you could use a program called DBAN, it will totally erase any hard drive it sees, then you would have to have your laptop's BIOS set to boot to the cd rom and then start PC with the XP install disk and install windows

Darik's Boot and Nuke (Hard Drive Disk Wipe) (http://dban.sourceforge.net/)

I personally have not tried this, but am aware of it

Be careful doing a system install with discs you got from Microsoft to use on a laptop. When the laptop was designed, a lot of thought went into the configuration and making sure the drivers that ran all the built-in components were correct.

Installing clean from external media will require you to have all those drivers ready, too.

If you are going to order installation media for this project, you should acquire the discs from DELL for your particular laptop.

They will send you two discs:
1 - Operating System
2 - Drivers and Utilities

This way you'll have everything you need.

Here's Dell's own support page for this unit where you could download all the drivers, utilities and add-on software. With this stuff and your own OS disk, you could do a clean install.

E1405 Drivers & Downloads (http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=&SystemID=INS_PNT_E1405)