reformatting C:

[bwi]

Ok been a while since i've done a clean install on an existing drive. Whats the best way to clean the drive but keep the partitions i have

[Jamie]

What are you trying to install? Most OS install disks will let you format drives as part of the setup process.

[speedlolita]

Yeah, it's super simple in Windows 7/8 installation process. Delete the existing partition and then point the install at that.

[bwi]

I'll leave it a few days and keep backing stuff up and then try it all sunday day. Too many times i thought i'd backed up everything and missed something.

[bwi]

ok its not that simple and somehow i knew it wouldn't be.

Set bios so first boot device is cdrom. Disc is recognised but when it says press any key to run from cd-rom its like the keyboard isn't responding.

Keyboard works fine during bios but not when i need it to. It's a sidewinder X6 keyboard connected by USB (thought about climbing into the loft to see if there is a Ps2 keyboard.

any ideas?

[speedlolita]

Might need to do that then. A similar thing would happen with my Filco and my old H61 motherboard.

[Jamie]

Yeah, try another keyboard if you have one, your bios doesn't recognise that one.

[charlesr]

Try another USB slot?

[randombs]

That press any key thing is because the CD knows you can boot Windows from your hard drive. If the hard drive has no Windows/etc installations on it, the CD will just boot by itself. Once it's loaded, your USB keyboard will work.

Seeing as you can use it in the BIOS and in Windows, I think it's a BIOS setting you need to enable. It should be called USB legacy support or something mentioning USB keyboards. If you mention what make the PC is it'll be easier to find the option.

Basically, the BIOS has built-in support for USB keyboards and Windows/Linux/OSX/etc have built-in drivers. The bit you see in between the BIOS and OS(black screen/white text) is a sort of no-man's land that only works with PS/2 keyboards unless you can get a driver running. Your keyboard is fine and if you can move around in the BIOS it means the keyboard doesn't need special drivers.

I guess you've already formatted by now as there haven't been any posts since last week!

[bwi]

Nope haven't done it yet. I was going to put it as a slave in my other pc and format it from there.
Thanks for the tips about usb settings in the bios though and I will try that first and update the post

[randombs]

Oh, that's also a good idea. I can't remember, but I think you need to delete all the partitions to avoid the Press Any Key check. Simply formatting what's already there by right-clicking the drive in Windows might not help and you'll get this error: BOOTLDR Missing. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del.

This is because information on the hard drive about what partitions can be booted from is stored somewhere else(MBR). If you just format your Windows drive, the computer will assume Windows is still there and try to boot from it.

If you delete all the partitions on your hard drive, that MBR thingy gets updated and I think that's when your computer will give the message Operating System not found instead of the BOOTLDR one.

To delete all the partitions, you need to use Disk Management in Windows. Then, just right-click any partitions you see for the drive and choose Delete. Of course, make sure you select the right drive

As for USB, I'd be very surprised if your computer didn't have the legacy option so by all means check that first.

[bwi]

Your were spot on. In my bios i had keyboard and mouse on usb disabled for some reason. Must have been like that from default, anyway all done even though at one point i thought i'd wiped out my download drive. But for some reason the partition wasnt given a drive letter and i had to manually give it one.

Thanks for the help everyone

[randombs]

You're welcome. Glad you got it sorted!

Hard drives are scary. A long time ago I managed to delete all the partitions on my drive a few hours before we were going for a week's holiday in Scotland. Found a recovery tool, Activ@ Partition Recovery, which got everything back and you can bet I coughed up for the full version! Holiday would've been a bit miserable, otherwise!