Mark G. wrote:
> If I have a hard drive that is purely for data and no registry or
> applications exist on it but yet I am reinstalling my OS (Win XP
> Pro), would you think it is wise to completely wipe this drive
> provided I have backups of the data on it. By wiping and formatting
> it again in Win XP, doesn't that start it again back at square one
> with no fragmentation or can I just simple not wipe it and run a deep
> defrag program on it? Suggestions here please? Plan on starting my
> upgrade/reinstall tomorrow.

Reformatting the drive will wipe out any data you have on that drive.
Obviously with no data you will have zero fragmentation (nothing there to
fragment).