Need help reformatting hard drive

S

schn7827

New Member
I just got a computer from my friend that is about 4 years old. After clicking on one of the names to open windows, the computer says it is loading profile settings, but never gets past that stage because it is so bogged down. I want to reformat the hard drive so I can use the computer as a word processor. The problem is that my other dell computer came preloaded with Windows XP and did not come with the disc. I do not know how I will be able to reformat the hard drive without the disc, and without being able to actually start windows. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ben
 
well you could download Gparted and burn it to disk and reformat with that... but then you wont have an operating system as you dont have the install disk,
as a temporary measure while you get a new OS you could download a linux distro.
 
Do a linux OS it's free and will run an older computer much better as you can also download openoffice for free (word processor)
 
The problem is my working computer does not have a floppy drive, and the cd/dvd burner is broken. When I called the dell service line, they told me that on the second dell boot up screen, i could hit ctrl+F11 and it would take me into a menu that would let me reformat from there. The computer my friend gave me does not have a brand name and does not have that boot up screen. Is there any shortcut or way to reboot a computer from the screen that comes up when you hit delete on the start up screen?

By the way, the computer opened XP so I can navigate the start bar and the functions, just very slowly.

Thanks for your help so far
Ben
 
I am not at all a computer wiz, so I might have trouble running this gparted program. Is there any easy way to reformat the hard drive??
 
well its not hard... but if you have an OS cd such as xp then it will reformat for you.

what do you reckon you want to do?

get xp and install that?

or get linux?

either way your computer will get reformatted.

but with linux you can just download it for free.

if you want to get linux then add my on msn or aim (addresses are in my signature) and ill talk you through it :)
 
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