Formatting Troubles

[shupola]

i have a 10gig hdd in my new comp that i am gonna put windows on when it arrives. it has a few things already saved on it from the previous comp it was in, but no os. windows is in the mail and i want to format it before windows comes so it will be ready to install. is there a way to format it without an os on it? i know how to do it with windows, but since it doesnt have windows how could i do this? can i still boot in dos mode?

 

[p4h8ter]

You should be able to boot into dos and do a format on it before you install windows. Sometimes you need the windows cd to do this.

 

[shupola]

You should be able to boot into dos and do a format on it before you install windows. Sometimes you need the windows cd to do this.

can you tell me how to do that? i have never formatted that way

 

[ReturnToEmpire]

someone will clear it up for you but i know its something like /c:format

 

[shupola]

someone will clear it up for you but i know its something like /c:format

yeah, i know that part. it is actually format c:

what i need to know is how to boot in dos mode.

 

[shupola]

anyone?

 

[j4mes_bond25]

shupola !!!

yeah, i know that part. it is actually format c:

what i need to know is how to boot in dos mode.

I would've thought that depending on the Windows CD you are waiting to receive by post, get the "boot disk" with regards to that particular window straight from Microsoft's website.

I recently needed Windows XP Pro. boot disk, in order to boot my system & I simply typed in "Windows XP Professional boot disk" in Google & the first link took me to Microsoft's page. Here, you download the boot disk program, which is around 4.25 MB (for Windows XP Pro.) & then run it, which will take you to Command Prompt & will ask you to insert floppy disk one after the other, in order to make boot disk, needing around 6 formatted floppy disk.

Now, assuming that you can't use your window, you need to do the above process on someone else's computer & once you made the boot/startup floppy disk, you can use it on you PC, starting from restarting your PC, while leaving "Disk No. 1" in the floppy drive & then the message will ask you to insert the next floppy disk & so on.

Since I booted & formatted my hard-drive through bootable Windows XP Pro. CD, I can't be too sure, how far these floppy disks will take you, but I would've thought that, you should come across a "hard-drive formatting" option (along with any partition, if you fancy doing so), appearing right at the end of the boot process.

Just give it a go, since you've NO data to lose & if you make a mistake, then I suppose............... you'll for sure, LEARN from that mistake

 

[shupola]

I would've thought that depending on the Windows CD you are waiting to receive by post, get the "boot disk" with regards to that particular window straight from Microsoft's website.

I recently needed Windows XP Pro. boot disk, in order to boot my system & I simply typed in "Windows XP Professional boot disk" in Google & the first link took me to Microsoft's page. Here, you download the boot disk program, which is around 4.25 MB (for Windows XP Pro.) & then run it, which will take you to Command Prompt & will ask you to insert floppy disk one after the other, in order to make boot disk, needing around 6 formatted floppy disk.

Now, assuming that you can't use your window, you need to do the above process on someone else's computer & once you made the boot/startup floppy disk, you can use it on you PC, starting from restarting your PC, while leaving "Disk No. 1" in the floppy drive & then the message will ask you to insert the next floppy disk & so on.

Since I booted & formatted my hard-drive through bootable Windows XP Pro. CD, I can't be too sure, how far these floppy disks will take you, but I would've thought that, you should come across a "hard-drive formatting" option (along with any partition, if you fancy doing so), appearing right at the end of the boot process.

Just give it a go, since you've NO data to lose & if you make a mistake, then I suppose............... you'll for sure, LEARN from that mistake

wow........thank you very much for the long and descriptive post. while i was reading it, an idea came to me which is:

put my current hdd into another computer running windows and format it inside windows. DUH!! i must be stupid or something.i dont know why i havent thought of that before. i infact have an older computer with windows on it and i can just pop in the harddrive and format it there.

once again thank you for the informative post. i think i will take up your advice once i get my copy of xp(tomorrow), as it might be useful down the road. thanks again.

shupola

 

[j4mes_bond25]

shupola !!!

put my current hdd into another computer running windows and format it inside windows. DUH!!

Well, you may try passing this suggestion to Microsoft (however, that will for sure, fall into deaf ears since I don't think their technology (or indeed, any computer's technology, for that matter) is advanced enough to let you format the hard-drive from the Windows itself, since Windows itself is saved within the hard-drive

Their new Windows called Windows LongHorn is on its way by the 2nd half of this year & being able to something you mentioned would be be rather mould-breaking

Glad to be of help (75% of thanks goes to my fingers' 80wpm typing speed, while remaining 25% goes to my not-so fast brain cells

 

[shupola]

Well, you may try passing this suggestion to Microsoft (however, that will for sure, fall into deaf ears since I don't think their technology (or indeed, any computer's technology, for that matter) is advanced enough to let you format the hard-drive from the Windows itself, since Windows itself is saved within the hard-drive

Their new Windows called Windows LongHorn is on its way by the 2nd half of this year & being able to something you mentioned would be be rather mould-breaking

Glad to be of help (75% of thanks goes to my fingers' 80wpm typing speed, while remaining 25% goes to my not-so fast brain cells

i know you can format a hdd inside windows as long as it is not the one with windows on it. i was gonna put that one into another computer along with the hdd running windows and format it that way.

dont know about longhorn(vista) being able to format the windows hdd. seems like some people might screw up their computers. smart move on microsofts part i think

thanks again. btw, i got the problem all sorted out and i am now running my new comp. i havent got all the bugs worked out yet though, but all in due time