Can't format HD

I

icem4n

New Member
Even though choosing the new installation option in my WinXP pro setup,i still

don't get a clean format of the HD.

I only hv 1 active c: partition,when i use the win98 startup disk to format in

dos,i get a "format not supported on drive C:format terminated" msg.


How do i get a clean format of the hard disk?
 
windown XP can give 3 diferent file systems, FAT(16), FAT32, NTFS. NTFS is used by defualt.
Windows 98, only has FAT16, FAT32.

So when you try to format the file system, it gives you an error.
 
TonyBAMF said:
windown XP can give 3 diferent file systems, FAT(16), FAT32, NTFS. NTFS is used by defualt.
Windows 98, only has FAT16, FAT32.

So when you try to format the file system, it gives you an error.
Click to expand...

The windows XP installation disk (booted) will let you format and give your HD a new partition (file system), and then proced to install the OS.
 
forget the XP disc, its a waste of time. Download the utility called active killdisk. Shove it on a floppy, boot from floppy, 1 hour later you have a clean HDD, simply reinstall windows from the disc
 
dragon2309 said:
forget the XP disc, its a waste of time. Download the utility called active killdisk. Shove it on a floppy, boot from floppy, 1 hour later you have a clean HDD, simply reinstall windows from the disc
Click to expand...


Tks,guess i'll try that
 
it should give you a list of partitions that you can use for installation. delete the partition and then create a new one.... you should now be able to format your drive
 
Hairy_Lee said:
it should give you a list of partitions that you can use for installation. delete the partition and then create a new one.... you should now be able to format your drive
Click to expand...


I wasn't able to del the partition,it says the part. contains files needed to run the setup.



Now i had formatted the hd with the killdisk prog.

I'm not able to install my winxp pro. as my cd rom isn't the 1st boot device

How can i get into bios?i had tried F8
 
f1 or delete should get you into the bios... it depends on your bios where you go for your boot priority... its usually self explanatory:)
 
Tks,i made the cd-rom drive boot priority,but the my bootable winxp cd

doesn't run,only get a "error loading operating system" msg.Could it be the

cd-rom drivers?I used the win 98 startup disk(should be the same?) as i don't

hv enough floppy d to create winxp startup d.




I also tried installing old win 98 os,same error.
 
the windows xp disk doesn't require any drivers to boot... its never needed it on any of the systems that i've installed it on, same goes for windows 2000.
i think the start up disks you're referring to are the recovery disks that let you start windows if anything goes seriously wrong with it
 
Yea,i did a clean format of the hd with the killdisk program,thus i guess i

needed the winxp startup d to gain access to the cd-r drive to setup.



Now when i tried to run the win xp startup disk d/l frm microsoft,i get another

error "the system file nt suitable for running ms-dos & microsoft win

application",i'm using the default xp file system ntfs
 
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