Formatting HD

[Scott]

I asked this question yesterday and it appears i need to
be more clear....

I want to format my hard drive but i dont have a floppy
to boot to the command prompt.

I dont have my own XP cd that is bootable

I have 2 recover disks that will restore my computer to
factory settings and bundle software

I have tried using my friends XP cd to boot but my bois
wont boot to it. I have set it to boot cd first. (this
IS legal because i have my OWN key; all you buy is a
license not the disk)

I dont want to buy a piece of software.

I was told by a tech that i need to format my hard drive
even though i use the Recover cds.

You might say why dont you just take it to get fixed....i
want to do it myself, for the experience.

I am only 15.

 

[Guest]

so what happens if you try reboot with the recover CD's in? I'm pretty sure they are supposed to beable to reformat your harddrive..otherwise they woud not really be restoring them to the out of box condition

 

[JR]

The recovery CDs should have the operating system on them (I am guessing it is WinXP?)
If they don't, then you will need a CD with WinXP.

You can make a bootable XP CD if you have a CD burner:
http://www.svrops.com/svrops/documents/winbootcd.htm

Are you sure your friend's XP CD is bootable? If your BIOS supports booting from
a CD, then it should boot off the CD.

 

[Scott]

Thats because its not supposed to....just facotory
settings.....and besides im going with what the tech said
about formatting even though you use the recover cds

-----Original Message-----
so what happens if you try reboot with the recover CD's

in? I'm pretty sure they are supposed to beable to
reformat your harddrive..otherwise they woud not really
be restoring them to the out of box condition

 

[Martik]

I want to format my hard drive but i dont have a floppy
to boot to the command prompt.

Why? What problem are you trying to solve?

I dont have my own XP cd that is bootable

I have 2 recover disks that will restore my computer to
factory settings and bundle software

So this includes Windows?

I have tried using my friends XP cd to boot but my bois
wont boot to it. I have set it to boot cd first. (this
IS legal because i have my OWN key; all you buy is a
license not the disk)

I dont want to buy a piece of software.

I was told by a tech that i need to format my hard drive
even though i use the Recover cds.

Create a startup floppy, instrucions in 'Help'
Backup any data you need.
Boot from the floppy and enter format c:

You might say why dont you just take it to get fixed....i
want to do it myself, for the experience.

I am only 15.

Good for you!

 

[anonymous]

Go to www.bootdisk.com and download a Win 98 bootdisk and
then download slate it is faster than formatting the drive
and it works better although it does remove the
partitions. Most CD's that come from major computer
companies do format the HDD. I know I work at one.

 

[Guest]

You can use the floppy boot disk from any version of windows including DOS
Someone you know must have a boot disk from some version of Windows or DOS the emergency boot disk is what you want
I am assuming of course you do have a floppy disk drive. You must enter the BIOS to make sure the computer will boot from the floppy and then from HD

Then when the computer boots and you see A> then type Dir and a list of files on the disk will appear. If they scroll off the screen type DIR\W

If you see a file named FDISK type FDISK and follow the directions to clean only the C:.this is usually appears as remove partiton Ya da ya da
This utility "COMPLETELY" ERASES EVERYTHING.
Then you need to shut down and reboot from the floppy
at the A> prompt type Format C:\S this copies the system files to C: and then the computer can boot from the C:

If you need further help feel free to E-Mail