Reformatting my hard drive -- steps + ?

I have the emachines system recovery cd, but still not quite sure step by step how to reformat -- low level format, and don't know if the sys recovery cd will be the same as a bootable cd. Scared that if I do a total reformat don't know if I can get the system started again.

 

Before you get too freaked out about anything, throw the Emachine CD into the drive and boot to it. It will NOT format the drive without first asking for approval and confirmation from you, usually more than once. It should also explain to you what options you have (safe restore, destructive recovery, etc) and of those options, the details of each. That's what restore or recovery CD's are supposed to do. BUT- I've seen some Emachine restore CD's that launch straight into a destructive recovery (meaning that anything on the hard drive gets wiped out) without much warning. But it looks like that's what you want, so in this case it would be OK. Anyway, boot to the CD and see what happens. If you have any questions after that, feel free to ask.

 

Thanks I went for the destructive recovery, then reloaded some apps. Still one big problem appears to be that the Windows Installer function is corrupted.

 

Try running the MS Installer cleanup tool:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301/en-us
The link to download the actual program is just under half way down the page.
If that doesn't work, maybe re-install the Windows Installer: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en

 

Sorry, the 2nd link above isn't working right. Try this one:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...fc-5f56-4a38-b838-de776fd4138c&DisplayLang=en

 

Thanks very much.

Now my PDA hot sync is working again.

Also, after reinstalling OS, using the programs downloaded from this site, and cleaning/dusting inside the system, now my machine acts like it is ok again.
Now loud grinding, whirring, or jet airplane noises. Maybe too much to hope for, but maybe my computer is going to survive a while longer now.