How do i format my HD?

[Ginza]

Im having a spot of trouble yet again with my computer. Its been ok for about a month since i took it in to be repaired but now i cant be arsed to fork out again for it so im just going to be done with it all and format it.

Could any of you tell me how i go about formatting my hard drive as i want to do it myself this time? Im running XP and am backing up all the stuff i need on to CD-Rs.

Cheers.

[nips]

If you've got 2 HDDs, which I do, I just stick the one I'm formatting in as slave and go to 'My Computer', Right click on the drive and click 'Format'!

[Fragmaster]

Erm, no you don't lol. That is a stupid comment (sorry but its true). If you want to format, ignore what he says. It depends what you want to do.

Windows XP & 2000 & NET & Longhorn

1. Go into your BIOS, either F1 or DEL (likely DEL)
2. Go to the Booting tab at the top.
3. If the CD-Rom is (1) then restart your PC, if not change it for (1)
4. Insert XP, 2000, NET or Longhorn CD into your MAIN CD-ROM drive.
5. Follow instructions,

Windows 3.1 & Windows 95 & Windows 98 & Windows ME

1. Create a boot floppy, by going into Control Panel, Add Remove Apps, and Startup disk,
2. Boot with the startup disk,
3. If the HDD is new run FDisk and create a Primary DOS Partition.
4. Type format c:
5. Once done, reboot
6. Boot the disk with CD-Rom support,
7. Type E: then setup, (if that doesnt work try F:, G: or H
8. Follow on-screen instructions.

Good luck mate.

Nips now I will tell you why your way wouldn't work. If he wants to format his Windows partition then he isn't going to be able to change that to slave and boot properly, due to the startup setup the way it most likely is. Also even if he did manage to format, he is going to be up **** creek, I recommend the way I said.

Thanks!

[choddo]

Or you could just boot from the Windows CD and install Windows into a new folder to start again from scratch, no real need to format the whole drive.

And I think nips must have Windows installed on both his hard drives. Strange setup but each to his own

C

[Ginza]

My xp cd wont load. I think its majorly scratched.

[Vaipon]

Just out of interest, what is broken on your PC? You mentioned in your initial post that you are going to back a load of stuff up to CDR before you format. That to me says that the machine is still in some kind of working order as you can get to the Windows desktop and use your CDR software ok. If you are posting to this message board from said PC, that too says that the machine is still functional at least. Are you sure another complete re-format is really necessary? It might be a better idea to find out what is wrong and fix it.

If you absolutely do need to re-format, then you'll need a working Windows CD for sure. Even if you format it, you'll still need to load the OS back on afterwards.

[choddo]

Indeed, no Windows CD would kind of imply a re-format may not be a terribly sensible option at this point.

[nips]

Nips now I will tell you why your way wouldn't work. If he wants to format his Windows partition then he isn't going to be able to change that to slave and boot properly, due to the startup setup the way it most likely is. Also even if he did manage to format, he is going to be up **** creek, I recommend the way I said.

Thanks!

I've just used to to delete the music files which are on my second HDD. I've never had a windows partition on it, only data... So by extension I've never had to switch between master and slave, or boot from that HDD.

Would you not reccmmend I do that any more then...

[Ginger Tosser]

My xp cd wont load. I think its majorly scratched.

Strange mine stopped working in one pc but would boot in another so i copied it and the copy booted fine.

[Fragmaster]

I've just used to to delete the music files which are on my second HDD. I've never had a windows partition on it, only data... So by extension I've never had to switch between master and slave, or boot from that HDD.

Would you not reccmmend I do that any more then... [/quote]

Oh well, no that wouldn't work

[choddo]

Nips now I will tell you why your way wouldn't work. If he wants to format his Windows partition then he isn't going to be able to change that to slave and boot properly, due to the startup setup the way it most likely is. Also even if he did manage to format, he is going to be up **** creek, I recommend the way I said.

Thanks!

I've just used to to delete the music files which are on my second HDD. I've never had a windows partition on it, only data... So by extension I've never had to switch between master and slave, or boot from that HDD.

Would you not reccmmend I do that any more then...

I wish I could understand a word of that... are you saying you've never done what you said he should do? And then are you asking if you should stop doing that thing that you've never done?

[nips]

I've got my Windows HDD with everything on, and my second HDD in slave with nothing on but music and downloads and other things.

I've never had to switch the second one to master and install Windows and boot from that to format my HDD with windows on it usually.

But, when I re-recorded all my music again at a higher bit rate I just right-clicked on my second, music drive, clicked format and re-recorded from there...

So, like I said, I had the one I was formatting as slave, and right-clicked and formatted.

[Super Stu]

What nips quite clearly pointed out was that data drives can be safely formatted by Windows via the right click method. Obviously this isn't going to work for the boot drive unless you do it in a different PC.

Nips' method works fine if all you're doing is adding data storage (once a partition has been added, clearly).

People here would be as well to not get so pissy, you do nothing for the image of the PC whore.

[Ginza]

Thanks everyone for all your input my computer is now back up and running again. I deleted the partitions and made a new one and its all good.

Its like having a nice new computer.

Fantastic.

[choddo]

I've got my Windows HDD with everything on, and my second HDD in slave with nothing on but music and downloads and other things.

I've never had to switch the second one to master and install Windows and boot from that to format my HDD with windows on it usually.

But, when I re-recorded all my music again at a higher bit rate I just right-clicked on my second, music drive, clicked format and re-recorded from there...

So, like I said, I had the one I was formatting as slave, and right-clicked and formatted.

Aha yes. Now I understand. Don't worry, that is fine, you can happily do that. What yer man was saying you can't do is to just swap drives & do the same trick, because the (in your case) drive with all the MP3s currently on it won't boot as there's no OS installed on it...

The Windows CD is definitely the tool to use for this.