Need help formatting laptop harddrive

S

scarlet

New Member
Hi,

I have a dell laptop. I am trying to format the harddrive for the first time and am very new to all this!

I have right clicked on c drive in my computer, pressed format, and get the message 'windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk utilities or other programmes that are using this drive, and make sure that no window is displaying the content of the drive. Then try formatting again.'

I have quit all programmes, but I still get the message. Any idea what I need to do?

Also, I have a Dell Product Recovery CD, which will, I think (hope!) re-install windows. Am I right in thinking if/when I can format the HD, I restart laptop, I'm hopefully able to run the CD and windows will install and all will be fine???

I really dont want to go ahead with this until I know its going to work as I cant be without my laptop.

Any help much appreciated.

Thanks
 
well if you have the re-install CD...u can put it in and in the setup u can format the HD and do a fresh install of windows
 
if you have the system recovery disks then use them just as your laptops starts up, press mayb ESC or DEL then enter boot up, change it to your CD drive and then save the changes, let it start up again then it will guide you from there and you can then format your hard drive and start fresh
 
Ok what i am going to tell you is a format and debug sequence, which means that it will remove EVERYTHING from your computer, but will also make sure no spyware or viruses will be on it when you reinstall. Make sure you have the Dell resource cd, your windows XP disk with the product ID code, and if you run wireless make sure you have the cd that has your wireless card driver on it, you can log into dell.com to get the rest of the updated drivers(i recommend this they change drivers every now and again). Firstly, turn your computer on and make sure that your CD drive is first to boot(whatever key you use to get into the setup to change the boot order). Before saving pop in the resource cd. save the changes and exit. Your cd should boot up, select the second option i believe which is run from CD. When that comes up and it comes to the D: prompt type this in. Enter what is in bold.

D:\>debug <enter>
-F 200 L1000 0 <enter>
-A CS:100 <enter>
xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301 <enter>
xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200 <enter>
xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1 <enter>
xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80 <enter>

(80 for hd 0 or 81 for hd 1 )

xxxx:010C INT 13 <enter>
xxxx:010E INT 20 <enter>
xxxx:0110 <enter>
-g <enter>
Program terminated normally
-q<enter>

Shut your computer off, when it comes back on insert the XP cd, let it boot up, hit f8 and all that stuff and then when it says you need to format format a new partition, if there is an old partition up there, delete it and make a new one. The rest is simple, XP will tell you what to do. Make sure that you go to dell and get all the drivers for you computer though, you need them!

It may not be a D prompt you get, ive gotten different prompts in different computers. But the main thing is that you type in all the information the same. Good luck!
 
SuzukiGSX1300R08 said:
Ok what i am going to tell you is a format and debug sequence, which means that it will remove EVERYTHING from your computer, but will also make sure no spyware or viruses will be on it when you reinstall. Make sure you have the Dell resource cd, your windows XP disk with the product ID code, and if you run wireless make sure you have the cd that has your wireless card driver on it, you can log into dell.com to get the rest of the updated drivers(i recommend this they change drivers every now and again). Firstly, turn your computer on and make sure that your CD drive is first to boot(whatever key you use to get into the setup to change the boot order). Before saving pop in the resource cd. save the changes and exit. Your cd should boot up, select the second option i believe which is run from CD. When that comes up and it comes to the D: prompt type this in. Enter what is in bold.

D:\>debug <enter>
-F 200 L1000 0 <enter>
-A CS:100 <enter>
xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301 <enter>
xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200 <enter>
xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1 <enter>
xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80 <enter>

(80 for hd 0 or 81 for hd 1 )

xxxx:010C INT 13 <enter>
xxxx:010E INT 20 <enter>
xxxx:0110 <enter>
-g <enter>
Program terminated normally
-q<enter>

Shut your computer off, when it comes back on insert the XP cd, let it boot up, hit f8 and all that stuff and then when it says you need to format format a new partition, if there is an old partition up there, delete it and make a new one. The rest is simple, XP will tell you what to do. Make sure that you go to dell and get all the drivers for you computer though, you need them!

It may not be a D prompt you get, ive gotten different prompts in different computers. But the main thing is that you type in all the information the same. Good luck!
Click to expand...

im not sure all that is necessary. you should just put the dell recovery CD (Windows CD) into the drive, when the computer is booting hit F12 or whatever, boot from CD and do it that way by deleting the windows partition and installing a new one...
 
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