Should I replace my hard drive?

[bubbaloo]

Hi everyone
I have a 5 year old pc, which is driving me mad. It wouldnt boot the other week ( a problem thats happened 3 times before ) , so instead of restoring it to factory condtion ( which was a pain, but it solved the probleem) I tried the different option of booting from cd rom - which has basically ruined everything - bearing in mind i have limited computer knowledge.

I reinstalled windows xp, and had to reinstall all the drivers ( that took me a week to find out how to do it) but now find I have two local drives, one much bigger than the other. I can make a connection to the internet on the smaller drive, but because its so small, i cant download the service pack 2, and updates to make the computer perfom as it used to. i have enough room to do this on the bigger drive, but when i access that, it wont let me make an internet connection.

please help, am at the end of my tether.

should i replace the hard drive, or can i merge the two drives, or should i just give up and buy a new computer?
Many, many thanks - would greatly appreciate it if someone can email me or give me some hope!

[glc]

1. Save any data files you need to removable media.
2. Boot with the XP CD.
3. Go into Setup.
4. When it finds the existing install or installs, tell it to install a new copy.
5. DELETE ALL PARTITIONS.
6. Then install XP on the unpartitioned space, using 100% of the available drive. Format it using NTFS.

[bubbaloo]

Many thanks, I'm going to try that straight away - watch this space....!

[bubbaloo]

Hi GLC
Just to let you know your instructions worked like a charm, computer is in full working order, and my stress levels have dropped considerably!
Many thanks
J (Bubbaloo)