How do I format a laptop that doesnt have a cd-drive???

[Brian.net802]

Hi..I have an old laptop that I want to format. The problem is that it doesnt have a built in CD-Drive so I'm using an external CD-Drive. When I tried to format my laptop it'll get to the part that asks " if you want to install a new windows hit ENTER or repair hit R" then it will say cannot detect a CD-Drive..Does anyone know what I can do to format it ? Is there anyway around this????

 

[computerhakk]

without a cd drive?

does it have a floppy then?
if yes, you can use old windows os startup disks like 95, 98, 98SE..
(of course this knowledge is from a home desktop pc, im not sure if laptops differ in formatting for i have never formatted a laptop)

 

[Geoff]

We use floppies to format the hard drives in school, im not sure on the name of the file. And your cd-drive probably doesnt work because windows only loads the necessary drivers, and the usb for an external cd drive must not be one.

 

[kof2000]

maybe you need to enable usb support in DOS.