How to erase my hard drive and start over

[novicepcgeek]

I have a Gateway N214 with windows xp home edition installed. I need someone who will be there with me for free every step of the way for help and support, and to answer questions or give advice to me as i go through Computer Hope's checklist for doing this. The checklist is at http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000186.htm Now this may take a week or two to complete so i will need you every day until I am completely confident my laptop is up and running good.

[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin]

[Geek-9pm]

Wait! Don not erase the drive yet!
You will find many here who want to help for no charge.
Now thee will be some questions.
Did something happen to this laptop? Was is dropped?
Do you have another computer that can write a CD for testing?

IMO you should first test the laptop with a 'live' CD that will prove the laptop is OK. The 'Live CD' does not need hard drive space to run. So nit is a site way to confirm that the problem is with the hard drive and not other parts of the Laptop.

Also, a bookable USB flash drive can run some diagnostics.
http://www.easis.com/easis-drive-check.html
Does  that help?

[Allan]

Here is a complete guide: http://lifehacker.com/157578/geek-to-live--how-to-format-your-hard-drive-and-install-windows-xp-from-scratch