Delete all data from Windows XP install without formatting drive?

[Ppump12valve]

Hello guys i’ve had an old dell Inspiron series tower running XP sitting in the corner for a while I finally fired it up today and everything seems to work but there’s one small issue… It is completely filled with old software junk and is very slow I am wondering if there’s a way to delete all of this but keep the original windows install or if there’s a way to make a .iso of the install without the user data. If you have any idea let me know! thanks!

[kirashi]

27 minutes ago, Ppump12valve said:

Hello guys i’ve had an old dell Inspiron series tower running XP sitting in the corner for a while I finally fired it up today and everything seems to work but there’s one small issue… It is completely filled with old software junk and is very slow I am wondering if there’s a way to delete all of this but keep the original windows install or if there’s a way to make a .iso of the install without the user data. If you have any idea let me know! thanks!

Windows XP doesn't really have a "Reset My PC" function like Windows 8/10 do, so your best option would be to use the recovery disks that came with the computer (Dell used to ALWAYS provide recovery disks back in the days of their XP based Dimension series) to perform a clean reinstall. If you don't have said recovery disks, you may be able to contact Dell to acquire a recovery disk as an ISO file, though they usually charge for this service. There are other places online one can acquire legitimate bit-for-bit copies of Windows XP installation media, however, we cannot provide details on this as it's not legal to redistribute said disk/ISO images online without authorization from Microsoft.

[manikyath]

most likely the reason why it's slow is not the software, but the old hard drive being on it's way out.

 

i'm pretty sure dell is decent with keeping old drivers on their website, so i'd suggest reinstalling on some cheap SSD or a compactflash card, depending on if it's a SATA or IDE drive orignially.

[da na]

3 minutes ago, manikyath said:

most likely the reason why it's slow is not the software, but the old hard drive being on it's way out.

 

i'm pretty sure dell is decent with keeping old drivers on their website, so i'd suggest reinstalling on some cheap SSD or a compactflash card, depending on if it's a SATA or IDE drive orignially.

Or invest a little more in an IDE SSD which are often faster than CF. 

[Ppump12valve]

6 minutes ago, kirashi said:

Windows XP doesn't really have a "Reset My PC" function like Windows 8/10 do, so your best option would be to use the recovery disks that came with the computer (Dell used to ALWAYS provide recovery disks back in the days of their XP based Dimension series) to perform a clean reinstall. If you don't have said recovery disks, you may be able to contact Dell to acquire a recovery disk as an ISO file, though they usually charge for this service. There are other places online one can acquire legitimate bit-for-bit copies of Windows XP installation media, however, we cannot provide details on this as it's not legal to redistribute said disk/ISO images online without authorization from Microsoft.

Ok thank you!

[Ppump12valve]

4 minutes ago, manikyath said:

most likely the reason why it's slow is not the software, but the old hard drive being on it's way out.

 

i'm pretty sure dell is decent with keeping old drivers on their website, so i'd suggest reinstalling on some cheap SSD or a compactflash card, depending on if it's a SATA or IDE drive orignially.

yes I was thinking about this too… It has an old Maxtor Drive in it I uninstall Norton antivirus and that helped a shit ton song I don’t plan on using this computer kind of just having it for fun so I don’t know if I’ll buy a SSD for it or not considering they’re cost  a little bit more because this machine is still IDE

[manikyath]

2 minutes ago, Ppump12valve said:

yes I was thinking about this too… It has an old Maxtor Drive in it I uninstall Norton antivirus and that helped a shit ton song I don’t plan on using this computer kind of just having it for fun so I don’t know if I’ll buy a SSD for it or not considering they’re cost  a little bit more because this machine is still IDE

get a 32 or 64GB compactflash card an a CF to IDE adapter, the pricing usually isnt too bad on those.

you may need some driver override to make winXP fully happy on a CF card, but i've got a retro machine that works just fine with that setup.

[manikyath]

13 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

Or invest a little more in an IDE SSD which are often faster than CF. 

you really dont see the difference with windows XP, i've got an XP machine booting in 5 seconds off a store brand CF card.

[Ppump12valve]

OK I found the original recovery CD I will see if this helps if not I will look for the solid state options you guys provided thanks for the help

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Windows