How do I format the hard disk 'COMPLETELY'?

  • Thread starter Thread starter g_man
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g_man

I am a newbie to doin' these stuffs?? can anybody tell me how to
format a hard drive... making as good a brand new?? Does the CD win
xp run automatically when inserted and then the computer is restarted
but doesn't happen... what is wrong?
 
I am a newbie to doin' these stuffs?? can anybody tell me how to
format a hard drive... making as good a brand new??
Click to expand...

Boot to an operating system that has a format utility.
If you gave us specifics of exactly what you have tried, or
could/would try (seems viable), it would help to find a
working solution.

In general, it would help to know where you are in (what?)
process and where you're trying to be. This is because
formatting a drive is such a common thing it is handled by
many different methods like when installing an OS, manually
booting to DOS, or with a hard drive manufacturer's utility
floppy or CD.

If you are only trying to install windows on a clean drive,
get the CD boot issue fixed before forcusing on formatting
issues, then use the Windows installation choices to prepare
the drive.

Does the CD win
xp run automatically when inserted and then the computer is restarted
but doesn't happen... what is wrong?
Click to expand...

If your system supports booting to CD (most anything in the
past few years does), check your bios for a setting to add
the CD to the boot items, and check for (same or another
setting) to change the order in which the boot devices are
tried.
 
I am a newbie to doin' these stuffs?? can anybody tell me how to
format a hard drive... making as good a brand new?? Does the CD win
xp run automatically when inserted and then the computer is restarted
but doesn't happen...
Click to expand...

You don't format a hard drive. You format a partition. And sometimes a
hard drive can only have one partition that takes up the whole hard
drive.

Formatting a partition, doesn't wipe the whole hard drive. e.g. it
doesn't write zeros over it. I think there's an app for that on
www.bootdisk.com called zero something. But I doubt you need it. I'm
not quite sure when it'd be needed.

what is wrong?
Click to expand...

You didn't say. Do you have any psychiatrists in your local area?

Windows xp will install windows 'fresh'. It'll remove any previous
windows installation. It won't install over itself. It's not like
Win98.

It could be that all Win NTs are like that.

Try asking your question in a windows newsgroup.
 
g_man said:
I am a newbie to doin' these stuffs?? can anybody tell me how to
format a hard drive... making as good a brand new?? Does the CD win
xp run automatically when inserted and then the computer is restarted
but doesn't happen... what is wrong?
Click to expand...

Go into your BIOS and change the 'boot order' so that CD appears at the top
of the list. This will let you boot from your Windows XP CD. One of the
first few pages of the XP setup is an option to format drives and change
partitions, so you can format it there.

To get into your BIOS, you have to press the key it says for setup during
the first black/white screen after you turn the PC on (probably F1, F2 or
Del key).
 
g_man said:
I am a newbie to doin' these stuffs?? can anybody tell me how to
format a hard drive... making as good a brand new?? Does the CD win
xp run automatically when inserted and then the computer is restarted
but doesn't happen... what is wrong?
Click to expand...

"Darik's Boot and Nuke"

http://dban.sourceforge.net/
http://dban.sourceforge.net/faq/index.html

When you boot the DBAN floppy, only the hard drive you want to
erase, should be connected to the motherboard. The other hard
drives you want to keep should be disconnected.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/download/readme.txt

"DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents
of *any* hard disk that it can detect"

(Emphasis mine.)

So be careful before you use it, and make sure the drives you
want to keep, have been disconnected from the computer.

Paul
 
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