reformat hard drive

[Cloggs]

How can I reformat my Hard drive, I am using Win XP and
have a partitioned hard drive. I even tried to delete the
partitions but when I get into manager the Delete
partition bar does not lightup hence I can not click on
it. Tried using boot disk and holding down various keys
all to no avail.

 

[Edward]

You need to set BIOS to boot from the CD then....

With courtesy to Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User who I think has given the best instructions yet.


"The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

1. Open your BIOS and set your CD Drive as the first bootable device.

---> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
---> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the
primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. After installing Windows XP, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

7. It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except for you mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.
After XP is installed, visit the support website of the manufacturer
of each hardware device to obtain the latest drivers or software
designed to work with Windows XP".


Good luck,

Ed

 

[S.Sengupta]

Hi!cloggs!
Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
regards,
ssg MS-MVP
pronetworks.org

 

[Alex Nichol]

How can I reformat my Hard drive, I am using Win XP and
have a partitioned hard drive. I even tried to delete the
partitions but when I get into manager the Delete
partition bar does not lightup hence I can not click on
it.

You do it as part of a reinstall of the system after booting the XP CD
direct. Enter Setup, and after the license agreement take New Install.
When it asks you to confirm where, hit ESC; select and delete the
current partition and make a new RAW one to be formatted at the next
stage. If you want to delete and remake all partitions, then delete
them at this point and just make one of appropriate size for the C:;
then make the others later in Disk Management - r-click in 'Unallocated
space' and Create partition