formatting XP

[moejoe125]

hey dudes, my laptop (Dell Inspiron 6000) has recently been actin up, restarting randomly, Firefox closing itself down for no apparent reason and all sorts of weird things, I blame malware and such, I used all the cleaning software i have adaware and the rest, no improvement.
Anyway, i basically wana format windows XP on my laptop.

I have Suse Linux (which i need to keep) on one partition and Win XP Pro on another partition.

If I insert the Win XP CD and reboot, it will ask me to which partition i wana install XP onto, so if I choose the same partition as the CURRENT XP will it completely overwrite it and give me a fresh new installation?
and also will it just create another instance of XP along with the current XP which I have? (as a result having 2 Win XP installations which I definetaly DO NOT want to happen!) and how do i stop that from happening?

[flanzig1]

Yes, it will ask which parition you want to work on. You could do a repair install which will keep your files and added programs. This basiclly puts a clean XP on the PC. You will need to reload the drivers for the laptop.

[moejoe125]

yes but will it have that squeeky clean feeling if I do a repair installation? as in will it load alot faster, with no problems etc.....

[flanzig1]

If you want that sqeaky clean, fresh install smell then a nuke and pave would be in order.
Before doing a repair install, would run antivirus and several different adware programs to clean any possible nasties. Would also run Trend Micro's online antivirus scan.
Will it run faster without problems after a repair or clean install? A definite maybe. That's assuming that the laptop hardware are all in good working condition and you find the correct drivers for the laptop.

[systempat]

The other thing you might try doing is a cleanup on what all is being loaded when you boot up. By this I mean inspect everything that's in your system tray and see if you really need it running, all day, every day. Some programs like Norton Utilities and some of the browser "toolbars" install some software that really drags things down. Then after that look at the running processes to see what is going on there (task manager in Windows then applications and processes tabs). If you see something running in the processes and don't recognize it, do a Google of the name and you can usually get what it is.
Bring anything that looks strange back here to PC Mech and somebody will give you an answer.
This can make a big difference sometimes.