formatting hd question

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its_hey_ma

New Member
I have a laptop with Windows XP. I want to format the harddrive as its become overrun with problems lately. When I use the 'format' option on the list of options when right clicking on the C drive, it tells me I can't because there are disk utilities or other programs running. What do I do to stop them, or is there another way to format the disk?
 
well I assume that windows is installed on the C drive so you can't really format it while windows is running. :D

So do you have a XP install disk?
 
You certainly can't format a drive or partition when you are running any OS installed on it. If you slave the drive in another case you could reformat it there or boot off of a recovery or full version Windows cd to see the current partition removed in favor of a new one for Window to go on.
 
You would receive this message only when the OS you are using is installed in the drive you are formatting, in this case C drive of your HDD. One way is to restart the PC and Boot it with the OS installation disc. The boot files from the CD will then be used to format the drive and install the windows as a fresh copy.
 
It has been like 10 years since i used dos, but is it still possible to reformat bu just typeing cd/ format c: or something like that in the dos mode?
 
You do realize that formating wipes every little bit of data off of your hard drive, right? And if you can't get your Windows CD to work, that means you'll have a nice new few hundred dollar paper weight.
 
jasonz said:
It has been like 10 years since i used dos, but is it still possible to reformat bu just typeing cd/ format c: or something like that in the dos mode?
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The fdisk utility is what you are referring to there removes or creates Fat not NTFS type partitions. The format.com tool found on dos boot floppies formats Fat type partitions. Even with the updated version of fdisk you are limited to the 55gb max. If it's a Western Digital model drive you can use DRFat32 one of WD's own drive tools to partition and format a 250gb drive. But you still end up with a Fat32 primary. With the drive slaved in another case that can be later converted to NTFS.

its_hey_ma said:
I can't get the computer to boot off the windows cd. Is there any way to start the computer in dos mode?
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If you installed an older version like 98 and got that running you could upgrade to XP while at the 98 desktop. A 98 startup floppy would be booted from with the cd rom support option selected for starting the installer on the 98 cd. But your problem booting off of the XP install disk could be one of two things there like a bad cd or bad drive.

Microsoft does provide instructions on creating a set of floppies for starting the XP installer by booting from them. But it's not the most reliable method. If the cd drive is toast you still are going to be stuck in a bind. It could also be the ide ribbon cable the drive is on that's gone south for the winter on you.
 
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