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It will be hard to explain just how to perform this and most likely you will not have the necessary software available to do the job easily either.

The simple answer is to backup all your data and then reformat the HDD using something like IBM's Wipe or Zap or the utility that is available from Maxtor which effectively does the same thing but takes a lot longer.

You can then do a clean install of XP and all your software without risking any of your precious data which is the only irreplaceable part of any computer and most often is not given the value it actually has by a lot of end users until it is no longer there. After the unit is reloaded you can then restore all of your data including any e-mail, address book and favorites list for your Web Browser.

There are faster ways to do this but they all involve using software that you are unlikely to have and you run the risk of losing all of your data as well.

Col