wipe hard drive

[yamar1]

how do i totally wipe it before i put my restore disks in as when im trying to restore it, it keeps coming up with error messages, computer wont boot at all and gets stuck half way through the restore proccess and has to be switched off at the mains.

[cunny]

You need to boot into recovery console and run chkdsk /r to check the hdd for errors

[chroma]

slap in a dos boot disk and type
format c:
y


or use a linux boot cd and in the console type rm -f o the root of your hard drive (generaly hda)

[yamar1]

Thanks all done now, working a treat. only thing is i have a microsoft popup saying my windows will expire in 30 days, tried the product key, not working??, tried ringing no joy. the computer was repaired under warranty 12 months ago,the engineer put a new motherboard in it, gave me a new copy of the boot recovery disks and no product code. iv downloaded a program to find the key but the key its showing isnt working?? strange.

[spondulick]

try finding one on torrent sites , read feedback see if working ok, ive been using a version xp pro passes all windows security checks. for last two years still working.