Space on Hardrive

Hi all,
Recently reinstalled windows xp to proffessional. Ass soon as i went back on it after new reistall old files and documents were still there as the old users were still present. Was this because i didn't wipe the hardrive first? Also the setup didn't ask me to format the hardrve?
Now looking on the hardrive ther eis only 15GB out of 37GB and this isn't alot as i havn't installed alot of software yet. Also i have deleted all old user and kept new ones and reinstalled backup files onto them.
Is this normal to have such little hadrive space after reinstall of windows and for old documents to still be present and need unistalling manually?
Thanks
Gower

 

Did you just upgrade home to professional or did you do an entire fresh install? If you did the install from inside windows then all you did was update the system files to professional. To do a completely clean install you must first own a full copy of xp pro and not an upgrade cd. To install pro only you must boot from your cd and follow the instructions on the screen and that will completely wipe everything clean.

 

Hi,
Yes i did have a copy of windows xp but i did a clean install by inserting the disk and installing while the computer was running through my user. Everything is working fine now, do you recommend i reinstall it again over proffessional or is 17GB enough out of 37GB?
Thanks
Luke

 

A clean install is always your best bet. You have a known good copy of the software that way, whereas installing over an existing OS may leave files behind that could potentially cause a mess.

To do a clean install, you have to configure your BIOS to boot from CD, insert the CD, and restart your machine, and follow the prompts.

If you need any further help, just post back!

 

Is there any way of wiping un wanted folders and program files without having to reinstall windows again as it will completely muck up norton again!
Cheers
Gower

 

Normal folders can be deleted without much worry. Program file folders are a bit of a concern. If you were to delete program folders, that would leave behind all the programs temp files, and registry keys. Using the programs uninstaller is a better method, but even then can produce these things.