Formatting HD

[Scott]

How do i go about formatting my hard drive. I have
windows xp but i dont have a bootable cd just 2 (image)
recover disks. I dont have access to my floppy drive as
i need to get a new one installed. I have tried
borrowing a friends xp cd but it didnt boot. I have set
my bios to cd boot first and still no luck. What can i
do to format my hard drive

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Scott,

What are your system manufacturer's instructions for loading the recovery
disks? Most have you simply insert the CD and restart the system. The system
drive can be reformatted as part of setup.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Joe H]

Or, use PartitionMagic from Powerquest

 

[Scott]

There are none. the only options it gives me are if i
want to restore to factory settings or to cancel.
It doesnt have any options to reformat. I dont know if
when its clearing the HD of current contents to take it
back to factory settings constitutes as formatting, but i
still want a separate operation to format my hard drive

 

[Scott]

I dont really want to buy a piece of software that i wont
use that often....Is there any other alternative thats
free or no?

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Scott,

"Restore to the original factory settings"

This will wipe the drive and reinstall the operating system (and any bundled
software). This operation returns the machine to an "out of the box" state.
All existing data, programs, etc. will be gone.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[CriticalMass]

i dont have a bootable cd ................. I have set
my bios to cd boot first and still no luck.

With no bootable CD, what is your logic that leads to telling the bios
to "cd boot first"?

 

[Ron Sommer]

You left out the " I borrowed a neighbor's XP CD."

 

[Alex Nichol]

How do i go about formatting my hard drive. I have
windows xp but i dont have a bootable cd just 2 (image)
recover disks. I dont have access to my floppy drive as
i need to get a new one installed.

Those image recover disks ought to be bootable - and will restore things
to ex-factory state, removing all programs you have installed and all
your data files

 

[Alex Nichol]

There are none. the only options it gives me are if i
want to restore to factory settings or to cancel.
It doesnt have any options to reformat.

Restore to factory settings implies a reformat: the machine will be
exactly in ex-factory state after