New hard drive

Hi.
Please bear with me as I am not very 'pooter literate!
I think my PC is corrupted & 'jiggered'. It takes an eternity to fire up, the screen-saver options no longer exist in 'Control Panel-display', System Restore doesn't function, etc. Can I unplug & remove the existing hard-drive unit & replace it with a brand new one? If I then put the XP installation disc in, will it load by itself, or am I being too optimistic?

 

As Steve has said in theory that's all there is to it but...

Perhaps you should consider how your PC got "corrupted & 'jiggered' "? If it's a case of the hard drive failing then fair enough a new drive is the solution but if it's a case of bad housekeeping/malware etc what's to say you won't be in a similar position again?

Perhaps if you could give some information regarding the faults we could get the current setup performing better without resorting to a reinstall and you may also pick up a few pointers on the way.

 

Is it Friday 13th?!
I'll have to open it up now anyway as I had a cd break up in the drive & that's stopped working so that'll need replacing, plus the start button has come unclipped & is inset in the case. If left alone for a few minutes when booted up it switches itself off then restarts. When runing Webroot Spy/Antivirus, PC will freeze any time from 3 mins 20 mins. & have to press restart button.
All in all I would rather start afresh with it.
As I'm not very computer literate even Steve's 'BIOS' & 'Boot Sequence' is strange to me.
I was hoping (naively) I could just plug a new hard-drive in, stick the XP disc in, (after replacing the bust cd drive) & 'Bob's your uncle', it'll do it all for me. Paying someone to do it, or getting another PC is out of the question.

 

Unfortunately there is a little more to the process. Just a couple linkys to add on to Steve's & wildfires info...
- http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/
- http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/setup.html
- http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp