how to format?

S

Steveb

New Member
I might need to format my harddrive and start from scratch. ive done this a fair few times in the past and know the commands to use....however, i cant workj out how to get into dos anymore, it used to be easy but things have clearly moved on....help anyone?
thanks
steve
 
just use a win98 boot floppy and "Format C"
or better just get an external casing and put your hard drive in it and Format it from "my computer"
since you say you will start from scratch , just pop in winXP and get on with the setup
 
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i dont have a floppy drive or boot floppy for that matter. if i just pop in xp that wont delete everything else during the installation? i have so much crap and as ive lost the stuff i actuyally want now would be an ideal time to get rid of the rest
 
Steveb said:
i dont have a floppy drive or boot floppy for that matter. if i just pop in xp that wont delete everything else during the installation? i have so much crap and as ive lost the stuff i actuyally want now would be an ideal time to get rid of the rest
Click to expand...

yes xp will erase everything unless you had a second partition with your data on it, so if you really want to get rid of those "crap"...just put the xp cd in already..lol
 
You have to boot to the XP cd, you dont put it in while windows is running. When you boot to it just delete the partiton and format then start the install. That way it willl be a clean install.
 
hammer.jpg
 
ok im starting to get a little peeved......thanks for all your help so far but i now have some new probs!!
i formatted and loaded xp with no probs, only i have somehow managed to delete one of my mass storage devices(memorystick card reader) i think i know at what point i did this, but cant work out how to put it back on. the other 4 readers work.
also my wireless internet apparently doesnt exist and im having to go through the ethernet to the router. i have no drivers, is there an easy fix?
thanks again
 
patrickv said:
yes xp will erase everything unless you had a second partition with your data on it, so if you really want to get rid of those "crap"...just put the xp cd in already..lol
Click to expand...

The XP installer won't wipe everything on a drive. It simply deletes the current Windows installation and installs to the existing partition whether Fat16, Fat32, or NTFS. Vista now rolls all folders found into a Windows.old folder when that replaces a previous installation of Windows regardless of version. The new version requires NTFS there.
 
Steveb said:
also my wireless internet apparently doesnt exist and im having to go through the ethernet to the router. i have no drivers, is there an easy fix?
thanks again
Click to expand...

You just need to know the brand of your wireless card and card reader and download there drivers. You really need to update all the drivers, chipset, video and so on.
 
For the board you can easily use those drivers to get memory controllers, onboard sound(if used), and other things running until you can download updates later. Once you have the drivers for all of your installed devices/hardwares look in the device manager for the yellow marked items to see if any are found later. Sometimes drivers won't install fully and be made active by Windows.
 
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