JediMasterEd Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 I have a lot of stuff on my hard drive and I want it off. There are a lot of things that I have lost on my hard drive and are eating away at my space. I am curious if any of you know how to re-format a hard drive ( I have tried system restore, and re-installing Windows XP but I still see my old files). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boba Rhett Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 Well in bare bones instructions, 1. Restart your computer with a startup disk to get into dos. You should be brought to an a:\> prompt. 2. Type in c: then hit enter. This will change a:\> to C:\> 3. Now type C:\>format c: /s and hit enter. The "/s" is used because you are formatting your active drive. "C". 4. That will bring up a big bold letter warning and will give you a Y/N choice. Press Y then hit enter. This will reformat your hard drive. 5. After that's all done it will ask you to give a name to your drive. It says something like Volume Label blah blah blah . You can either give it a name or just press Enter to leave it blank. 6. After that all you have to do is install your operating system from the prompt. I'm not sure if this is all the same on all operating systems though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JediMasterEd Posted January 1, 2003 Author Share Posted January 1, 2003 Thank you for the info. XP is not a DOS based system, but you could do it in the command prompt. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Homer Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 I still find it interesting that on MS's CD-keys it has the statement "Keep this number, you will need it each time you install this program." All I can think is, "How often will you have to reinstall it?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Snow Posted January 2, 2003 Share Posted January 2, 2003 Originally posted by Darth Homer I still find it interesting that on MS's CD-keys it has the statement "Keep this number, you will need it each time you install this program." All I can think is, "How often will you have to reinstall it?" You'd be surprised!! I had to format my HD b/c of a virus I got off kazaa, and checked for all my drivers and decided to format. I go to reinstall Windows 98 SE, and it asked me for my CD key. Except that I had just moved in with my dad from my mom's and lost it over the transition. I called my mom to ask her if she had it and she told me that she didn't think she had it as she would've given it to me. I ended up calling someone to get it for me off kazaa and give it over the phone. Ironically it worked and I kept it and have used it again. I personally suggest keeping a box with all the annoying things you need in case of an emergency (drivers, sytem disks, cd-keys) and storing it somewhere you sorta know where it is but won't bother with it day to day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JEDI_MASTA Posted January 2, 2003 Share Posted January 2, 2003 Yeah thats usually the best, and before you reformat make sure that you have everything you want off the computer or have it on disk to install, I learned all to well the price of losing the word disk and key :'( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCanr2d2 Posted January 8, 2003 Share Posted January 8, 2003 Originally posted by JediMasterEd Thank you for the info. XP is not a DOS based system, but you could do it in the command prompt. Thanks. You can not format an active drive whilst the operating system is running, so you have to get it out of the OS, and do it somewhere else.. There is the DOS boot disk - ie Win9598 start up disk will do, and you can FDISK and delete the partition, and then create a new one.... Or Format, and leave the partition the size it is... OR with XP setup, running from the CD at bootup, you can chose to reformat, or delete the partition that exists.... BTW Wolfman, he is using XP - whilst the F8 Option is still there, there is no "command prompt" to load to. A DOS based boot disk, or using the partition deletion/creation in the XP setup run from the CD are the options he has... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WolfmanNCSU Posted January 8, 2003 Share Posted January 8, 2003 If you are using windows, after your PC loads its drives, bios, and does the RAM check; start tapping F8. You will then be given choices on how you want to start your windows OS (ie Safe Mode, Command Prompt). Choose the Command Prompt option and press enter. It will then take you to your c:\> prompt. Then just type format c: and you will begin formating your drive. You can add the /s parameter if you want. It stands for "system" which means you are formating this drive as a system drive, so it will be bootable when you restart your PC. In other words, it makes a autoexec.bat, config.sys, and command.com on the drive. If you are not formating your C:\ drive and your just formating any old drive on your PC, then you can just boot up normal and format the drive (assuming you already have your partitions and file system the way you like it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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