- Joined
- Jun 19, 2002
Well I was infected by the Nimda worm during the 30 minutes I had my router disconnected from my cable modem, and also my system is getting kinda cluttered up so I want to clean it all up.
I've already put everything I still want (music, application installers, etc.) on my CDRW, so I'm all set in that department.
What I'm wondering is if I reformat the computer by actually whiping the entire thing out (I believe I do this by right clicking on the C:\ and going to format?), is will I be able to register my Windows XP Pro again? I know that when I first installed it I had to register it or else it would stop working in 30 days or something (not sure if it's a real threat or if it's empty). So I want to be sure before I do it. I haven't found any options on the XP Pro CD to reformat it. It will let you reinstall windows but that doesn't clean out the HD or anything.
I've always just had a system restore disc provided by the system manufacturer but since I built this one and I've never reformatted on XP, I want to be careful.
I've already put everything I still want (music, application installers, etc.) on my CDRW, so I'm all set in that department.
What I'm wondering is if I reformat the computer by actually whiping the entire thing out (I believe I do this by right clicking on the C:\ and going to format?), is will I be able to register my Windows XP Pro again? I know that when I first installed it I had to register it or else it would stop working in 30 days or something (not sure if it's a real threat or if it's empty). So I want to be sure before I do it. I haven't found any options on the XP Pro CD to reformat it. It will let you reinstall windows but that doesn't clean out the HD or anything.
I've always just had a system restore disc provided by the system manufacturer but since I built this one and I've never reformatted on XP, I want to be careful.