I have a compaq presario laptop with XP Pro and I cannot wipe it clean. The XP disc I am using is OLDER than the system on the laptop. Any help to format the drive?

Hi Junkdrive,
I assume you'd have to do it from DOS (command line). This should help:

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2005/harddrive_format.asp

Good luck. Take care.

Howdy and welcome to AMHD!

Is the cd you are trying to use the XP cd that came with the system?

It would appear your original install was plain old XP and you updated to SP1 or SP2 later on.. If that is the case, then you should be able to go into Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs and un-install the SP update..

Once you have done that, reboot using your XP cd and you should be good to go!

Murray

What do you mean by "cannot wipe it clean?" Are you trying to format the disk and install a fresh copy of XP? (Make sure you have already downloaded and saved-to-disk any drivers you are going to need to complete the install.) What error messages are you getting?

I have a compaq presario laptop with XP Pro and i cannot wipe it clean. The XP disc i am using is OLDER than the system on the laptop. Any help to format the drive?
You should be able to boot from your XP disk. I'm guessing that you want to install from the older disk? If so, you'll have an opportunity to format the drive.