Formating Drive C

[Marv Wade]

I have a HP system that will not load Windows XP anymore. HP sent a CD that
is suppose to restore the system back to it original factory status,
however, I get numerous file not found when trying to run it.

I have WinXP on floppies and can use them to get to the C: prompt. From
there I am trying to reformat Drive C but the command I have used in
previous version of windows does not work

I am using "Format C: /s" - says parameters incorrect.

If I use "Format C: /fs:Fat32" it says that it cannot find the format
program (can't remember the actual name.

Can anyone tell me the correct command line statement to reformat the hard
drive?

Marv Wade

 

[Edward]

I doubt that you can format from the c:\ prompt, Marv. XP will do a clean
Installation, which is pretty well the same thing. (It will completely wipe
your hard-drive)

As you are using floppies, you will have to boot to disc one and follow the
prompts. A good guide to this is here...
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

Good luck,

Ed

 

[neil]

If you recovery disk doesn't work I suggest you contact HP for a
replacement. You may have windows XP setup set of floppy disks (6 disks?)
but they will not carry out a full install of XP without the CD.


Neil

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

The others have you covered in that you should use the Recovery CDs from HP
as they have instructed and it will likely wipe the drive.

As to formatting, /s is not longer a supported in command in XP, in fact it
was eliminated in Windows ME.

You need to let the recovery disks handle this now.
Even if you had a retail version of XP, all installation functions, deleting
partitions, creating partitions and formatting are all handled within XP
setup.

 

[Malke]

The others have you covered in that you should use the Recovery CDs
from HP as they have instructed and it will likely wipe the drive.

As to formatting, /s is not longer a supported in command in XP, in
fact it was eliminated in Windows ME.

You need to let the recovery disks handle this now.
Even if you had a retail version of XP, all installation functions,
deleting partitions, creating partitions and formatting are all
handled within XP setup.

If you are following the HP Recovery Disk instructions exactly and the
installation still fails, then you probably have failing RAM and/or a
bad hard drive.

Malke