Restarting in MS-DOS

[Eptiger]

Hi I come from Win98SE and am not used to Windows XP. How
Do I restart in just MS-DOS mode? I'm using windows XP
professional and when i go to shutdown the only options
are to log off, shut down, or restart (but rebooting to
windows). When I hold ctrl at startup the only command
line prompt option is safe mode + command line prompt,
which is no good because I want to format and XP's
formatter isn't doing a good job.

Thanks!

Eptiger

 

[Ken Blake]

Hi I come from Win98SE and am not used to Windows XP. How
Do I restart in just MS-DOS mode? I'm using windows XP
professional and when i go to shutdown the only options
are to log off, shut down, or restart (but rebooting to
windows). When I hold ctrl at startup the only command
line prompt option is safe mode + command line prompt,
which is no good because I want to format and XP's
formatter isn't doing a good job.

Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if
necessary to accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean
installation. It will do the reformat for you.

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

However why do you want to do this? In my view, it's almost
always a mistake. With a modicum of care, it should never be
necessary to reinstall Windows (XP or any other version). I've
run Windows 3.0, 3.1, WFWG 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows
2000, and Windows XP, each for the period of time before the next
version came out, and each on two machines here. I never
reinstalled any of them, and I have never had anything more than
an occasional minor problem.

It's my belief that this mistaken notion stems from the technical
support people at many of the larger OEMs. Their solution to
almost any problem they don't quickly know the answer to is
"reformat and reinstall." That's the perfect solution for them.
It gets you off the phone quickly, it almost always works, and it
doesn't require them to do any real troubleshooting (a skill that
most of them obviously don't possess in any great degree).

But it leaves you with all the work and all the problems. You
have to restore all your data backups, you have to reinstall all
your programs, you have to reinstall all the Windows and
application updates,you have to locate and install all the needed
drivers for your system, you have to recustomize Windows and all
your apps to work the way you're comfortable with.

Besides all those things being time-consuming and troublesome,
you may have trouble with some of them: can you find all your
application CDs? Can you find all the needed installation codes?
Do you have data backups to restore? Do you even remember all the
customizations and tweaks you may have installed to make
everything work the way you like?

Occasionally there are problems that are so difficult to solve
that Windows should be reinstalled cleanly. But they are few and
far between; reinstallation should not be a substitute for
troubleshooting; it should be a last resort, to be done only
after all other attempts at troubleshooting by a qualified person
have failed.

If you have problems, post them here, it's likely that someone
can help you and a reinstallation won't be required.

 

[S.Heenan]

Hi I come from Win98SE and am not used to Windows XP. How
Do I restart in just MS-DOS mode? I'm using windows XP
professional and when i go to shutdown the only options
are to log off, shut down, or restart (but rebooting to
windows). When I hold ctrl at startup the only command
line prompt option is safe mode + command line prompt,
which is no good because I want to format and XP's
formatter isn't doing a good job.

You can emulate DOS by typing "command" in the Run box. Otherwise, you will
need to boot from a boot disk or refer to the following article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q217210

 

[Eptiger]

Well I'm doing this for a friend of mine. I actually just
left his place so we'll be following your advice tomorrow.
The thing is he basically wants a clean slate for his hard
drive, and it's been reccomended to me by many people that
it's good to format your hard drive every 6 months. I don't
think he had so much stuff that it'll really be a hassle to
reinstall everything. He just had too much crap on the
computer though and he wants it totally clean.

Thanks for the help!

Eptiger

 

[Ron Martell]

Well I'm doing this for a friend of mine. I actually just
left his place so we'll be following your advice tomorrow.
The thing is he basically wants a clean slate for his hard
drive, and it's been reccomended to me by many people that
it's good to format your hard drive every 6 months. I don't
think he had so much stuff that it'll really be a hassle to
reinstall everything. He just had too much crap on the
computer though and he wants it totally clean.

Reformat every 6 months? What on earth for?

I last reformatted my C: drive something like 10 years ago - back in
the Windows 3.1 days. A bit of periodic housekeeping is all that is
needed to maintain a healthy system. I use Ghost or other disk
cloning utilities to move my installed operating system to a larger
hard drive every year or two, but I never format and do a clean
install. egad it would take me 3 months to get everything
reinstalled, most of which would be spent searching for the long-lost
original CDs for


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Not to put too fine a point on it, you can't.

There is no way to reboot a WinXP PC into Real Mode DOS unless
you've set up a dual-boot system. The WinNT family of 32-bit
graphical operating systems, of which WinXP is the latest generation,
has never used, included, or "ridden upon" MS-DOS. The closest they
have is the Command Prompt window.

WinXP, like its predecessors WinNT & Win2K, is a pure 32-bit GUI
OS, and does not include or "ride upon" any version of DOS, as did
Win3.x & Win9x/Me. WinXP does include a command-line emulator for
those times when GUI applets are unnecessary/redundant, but it cannot
be started in "DOS mode."

What, precisely, are you trying to accomplish? For firmware
loads, BIOS updates, etc., use a DOS boot diskette.


Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH

 

[Alex Nichol]

Hi I come from Win98SE and am not used to Windows XP. How
Do I restart in just MS-DOS mode? I'm using windows XP
professional and when i go to shutdown the only options
are to log off, shut down, or restart (but rebooting to
windows). When I hold ctrl at startup the only command
line prompt option is safe mode + command line prompt,
which is no good because I want to format and XP's
formatter isn't doing a good job.

There is no true DOS in XP. Only an emulated Command environment in
which many DOS programs run. For any purpose that actually needs true
DOS you boot separately - I suggest a Win98 startup floppy. Those of
course cannot handle an NTFS partition (other than to use FDISK to
delete it). The formatting in XP is done either in Admin Tools -
Computer Management - Disk Management (in the graphic of a drive,
r-click a partition), or in the case of the system's partition as part
of a reinstall of the system after booting the XP CD directly.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Well I'm doing this for a friend of mine. I actually just
left his place so we'll be following your advice tomorrow.
The thing is he basically wants a clean slate for his hard
drive, and it's been reccomended to me by many people that
it's good to format your hard drive every 6 months.

In my view, that's an absolutely *terrible* recommendation. I
couldn't disagree more. You're relying on advice from people who
know very little about what they are doing. You should never need
to reformat.

But as always, it's your choice (and in this case, his).

I don't
think he had so much stuff that it'll really be a hassle to
reinstall everything. He just had too much crap on the
computer though and he wants it totally clean.

Thanks for the help!

You're welcome.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
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