If I clean install Windows 10, will I have to reinstall my drivers? If so, how do I find the drivers I need?
From what I've read, the install is generally seamless and most drivers are there by default.However, to be on the safe side, go to all of your hardware manufacturer websites and download the latest drivers. I'd put them on a USB, a network drive, a data partition on your computer (if you have one), and/or a CD, just in case your computer's USB drivers don't load automatically. I can almost guarantee to you that your CD drive will work without drivers.The most important drivers that you'll need will be network card drivers (for wired and wireless). If you have your network card drivers you should be able to download anything else that you need after you get that working. If something else doesn't work, like a video card, it should default to a low resolution so that you can use it until you can get the drivers installed.
If I wipe my hard drive, will i lose my internet? & will i have to reinstall windows using a cd?
Here's the quick answer Wiping a hard drive will erase critical operating system files, applications, data, games, configurations settings, and will leave your computer useless until you re-install the operating system. Then, if you haven't backed up your data, you'll have no easy way to recover it afterwards. My advice if you are running low on drive space, start by uninstalling applications that you don't use, and delete large files that you are no longer using (duplicate photos, documents). Don't delete application folders directly, that's not the correct way of clearing up space.
Does reinstalling windows wipe your harddrive?
No. Reinstalling windows does not wipe your hard drive. Re-formatting does not wipe your hard drive either. The term wipe your hard drive means to securely erase the drive. Hard drive 101. Your hard drive contains what is called the file allocation table. When you format a drive, all you are really doing is clearing the file allocation table and marking the space as free. All of the data still remains as long as it is not overwritten by new data. There are several free disk editing programs on the Internet that can recover data from a re-formatted hard drive. So your data is not securely erased. To completely erase your hard drive you need a disk wipe utility. Darik's Boot And Nuke (DBAN) is the best and it is free. This utility will overwrite the entire hard drive with random data using multiple passes. I use the DoD wipe setting with 3 passes. This is secure enough for most purposes. It would take a real professional to recover data from a hard drive erased with this utility. Because this is a secure erase utility, make sure you have copied all of your data files to an external source like a CD-ROM or DVD. When you are finished, you will need to format the drive and install an operating system like Windows for the computer to be useful again. See the link below for more information about this utility.
How do i reinstall windows xp after using Darik's Boot And Nuke?
After a computer is wiped, open the CD drive and put in the Windows XP disc and close the drive, then hold down the power button until the computer turns off. Then power up the computer and look for text that says something like "Press F2 for boot options", do what it says, and set it to boot from the CD/DVD drive (if you're lucky, you may not need to do anything and the computer will *still* boot from the CD/DVD drive). That will eventually start the Windows installer; the first thing you'll want to do is delete all disc partitions and then create a new partition of the maximum size and install Windows onto that one.