i cannot format.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Hello everyone, I'm new to this group. I have a strange problem. I can't
seem to format my computer usining my windows xp cd and it is the original
that came with the system. I formatted many times before. Is there a way I
can do it manually or some otherway. It keep saying windows 98 can't read
the drive but I have always had windows xp on my system. thanks
 
Try deleting all partitions, that will give you a clean disk to start with.
Then create a new one or more to install XP on.
 
Which drive are you trying to format? If you are formatting the C: drive
then, i assume, you are planning on re-installing XP. If this is the case
you can reformat while re-installing XP (assuming you have a retail copy, of
course). If your PC came with recovery disks then installing XP will simple
over write what is already there.

You mention Windows 98 not being able to read the drive. Are you using a
windows 98 startup disk to attempt a reformat? If so it maybe that your file
system is NTFS. To use a windows 98 startup disk for formatting your file
system needs to be FAT32. On an NTFS file system an error message will tell
you that windows 98 can't read the disk. A solution, in this case is to use
FDISK from the windows 98 startup disk, remove the partition and then create
a new partition. Fdisk can be confusing, though if you haven't used it
before.


--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org

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I can't add much to what John said except if you have access to a computer
with internet and you do not have already go to this link and make setfor
which version you need http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm. Another
remedy is if you can get to bios and have cd rom as first boot when press any
key to boot from cd appears XP will guide you on reinstallation
 
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