Need Help Fast!!!
Monday, February 10, 2003 by BabyPooh | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
I finally got my XP Pro and I want to do a clean install. But, I can't remember how to reformat my hard drive! It's been about 2 years since the last time I reformatted. I have Windows 2000 with NTFS. Please help! 
Thanks in advance!
BabyPooh
Thanks in advance!
BabyPooh
 |
|
Page 1 of 2 | |
|
|---|
mrtee
Reply #2 Monday, February 10, 2003 7:30 PM
Reply #2 Monday, February 10, 2003 7:30 PM
Boot from the CD and follow the prompts to format the disk.
Elfkura
Reply #3 Monday, February 10, 2003 7:35 PM
Reply #3 Monday, February 10, 2003 7:35 PM
Yeah, mrtee said it. XP comes with a really easy format for you to format and do a clean install on your harddrive 
WOM
Reply #4 Monday, February 10, 2003 7:50 PM
Reply #4 Monday, February 10, 2003 7:50 PM
XP wouldn't format my HD. Had to do it before I loaded XP on. Please don't ask me why, don't know.
da_zman20
Reply #5 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 1:17 AM
Reply #5 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 1:17 AM
go to bootbisk.com i hope that's right... and download an xp boot disk image... put it onto a floppy and boot from that... from windows before you reboot check to make sure the file Format.com is on the disk... if not find it on your Hard Drive and put it on there... then reboot... type format/s ... hmmm... after that you want to reboot from the XP CD and all should go fine... my friend just had the same problem last week... this worked for him
IPlural
Reply #6 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 2:48 AM
Reply #6 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 2:48 AM
WOM, probably because your drive at one time had the ontrack format on it with the drivers in the mbr for the large disk support and ATA100. I've run into that a couple of time and really burns you because it is so far apart when it happens, you don't seem to remember the second time around until half way through a fit and you pull a Homer and slap your forhead and say DuOH
So drives were coming preinstalled for a bit, before XP came about and when you formated, there was a second hidden copy in a protect area on the disk that you could only blow aywa with a lower level debug routine.
So drives were coming preinstalled for a bit, before XP came about and when you formated, there was a second hidden copy in a protect area on the disk that you could only blow aywa with a lower level debug routine.
chad martin
Reply #7 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:27 AM
Reply #7 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:27 AM
wow here this is a really easy way of doing this I dont know were all these other people learned puters but you could always go to command prompt and type "format c:"
were c is the letter of your hard drive
were c is the letter of your hard drive
IPlural
Reply #8 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:38 AM
Reply #8 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:38 AM
no
not in NT you can't
you can go to the prompt and type format c and it will prompt you that the drive is in use and lock and would you like to unlock it and when you say yes it will tell you if couldn't
But you could also boot from a floopy and do it before hitting window nt, then again it wouldn't read the ntfs format unless you had something like Winternatanls NTFSDOS boot disk...
so it is either a low level, NTFSboot disk, or inside the install
which is not hard, it is actually one of the first real options you are offered.
By the way, I learned computers starting in 1986 on one of the first ibm pc's, you know, no hard drive two 360k floppys and it was a monster...
Of course you could always run at the command line
debug: c800 ( or what ever rombios area your drives IDEchipset registers to, so you can enter the onboard(on the hard drives motherboard) cmos, and use brute force to kick it into a factor format, though it would blow your mapped bad sectors which are stored on the drive in a hidden area and in the on chip cache which would no longer match up so you would find bad sectors later on at the most un oppertune time.
why, were did you learn computers?
not in NT you can't
you can go to the prompt and type format c and it will prompt you that the drive is in use and lock and would you like to unlock it and when you say yes it will tell you if couldn't
But you could also boot from a floopy and do it before hitting window nt, then again it wouldn't read the ntfs format unless you had something like Winternatanls NTFSDOS boot disk...
so it is either a low level, NTFSboot disk, or inside the install
which is not hard, it is actually one of the first real options you are offered.
By the way, I learned computers starting in 1986 on one of the first ibm pc's, you know, no hard drive two 360k floppys and it was a monster...
Of course you could always run at the command line
debug: c800 ( or what ever rombios area your drives IDEchipset registers to, so you can enter the onboard(on the hard drives motherboard) cmos, and use brute force to kick it into a factor format, though it would blow your mapped bad sectors which are stored on the drive in a hidden area and in the on chip cache which would no longer match up so you would find bad sectors later on at the most un oppertune time.
why, were did you learn computers?
chad martin
Reply #9 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:41 AM
Reply #9 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:41 AM
I started my computer experience on a machine called a rgb 16 it hooked up to you tv it had a cassete tape player for programs and a cassete system and it is label both ibm and apple and was sold by radio shack
chad martin
Reply #10 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:42 AM
Reply #10 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:42 AM
and by the way the last time I formated I did exactly what I said to do and had no problems i am running xp
IPlural
Reply #11 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:46 AM just kidding...
formatting NTFS / NT drives when doing a clean install is always best done when you are actually running the install...
Why?
Because the new OS is going to keep track of all bad sectors and start its own records of your hardware and drive statistics. So there is no question of anything messing with it. If upgrading you leave it be, do the upgrade and the convert to NTFS after the install is finished...
DO not run Norton DiskDoctor on an XP NTFS formatted hard drive, XP writes sercurity information in a different location and Norton see's it as being incorrect, and if you happen to say yes fix it, when you reboot you are going to learn how to recover your drive without loosing data, or end up redoing your drive from scratch Depends on what you feel your up to I guess, me I've spent more than a few days and nights recovering customers drives. Though Norton might have fixed this issue with 2003 System Works, I for one would not trust it...
Reply #11 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:46 AM
just kidding...formatting NTFS / NT drives when doing a clean install is always best done when you are actually running the install...
Why?
Because the new OS is going to keep track of all bad sectors and start its own records of your hardware and drive statistics. So there is no question of anything messing with it. If upgrading you leave it be, do the upgrade and the convert to NTFS after the install is finished...
DO not run Norton DiskDoctor on an XP NTFS formatted hard drive, XP writes sercurity information in a different location and Norton see's it as being incorrect, and if you happen to say yes fix it, when you reboot you are going to learn how to recover your drive without loosing data, or end up redoing your drive from scratch Depends on what you feel your up to I guess, me I've spent more than a few days and nights recovering customers drives. Though Norton might have fixed this issue with 2003 System Works, I for one would not trust it...
IPlural
Reply #12 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:47 AM
Reply #12 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:47 AM
you did, from inside windows SXP at a dos promot, it just took off anf formatted the dirve?
chad martin
Reply #16 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:51 AM
Reply #16 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:51 AM
well it wasent much of a computer but it was my first it was latter upgraded to a tandy which I still dont consider to much of a computer
IPlural
Reply #17 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:53 AM
Reply #17 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:53 AM
btw, why in the world would you format a drive NTFS if you are going to do a clean install when it is one of the main options when you pick the partition to install to, if you want to keep the dos or win32 format or reformat NTFS leading up to the actual install of the OS?
IPlural
Reply #18 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:54 AM
Reply #18 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:54 AM
no they were not much, but the only thing going and a blast to sit in front of for hours on end
remember when arcades came out with Space Invaders?
Could you see kids today getting into like when we were their age?
remember when arcades came out with Space Invaders?
Could you see kids today getting into like when we were their age?
chad martin
Reply #20 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:59 AM
Reply #20 Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:59 AM
yeah I was real young when i got that rgb 16 I was about 4 and computers today just amaze me every day, have you seen anything about the guy that is makein a quantum mechanics computer, when the idea was first introduced the NSA took the idea and might have built one of these babies for code breaking they wont say weather they have or not but the speed of these things is millions times faster than anything thats around now, they can take a problem that would have taken I think it was a million year in three months
Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.
Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
- Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
- Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
- Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
- It's simple, and FREE!
|
|
Page 1 of 2 | |
|
|---|
Reply #1 Monday, February 10, 2003 6:53 PM