hard drive format problem?

Question

i'm trying to format hard drive and reinstall windows xp using the xp cd..i try boot the pc using the windows xp cd and click on install windows and select new instalation...but the setup does not offer the option to format...?? why? anyone can help??

Answer 1

I would suggest downloading a copy of Powermax 4.09 from maxtor hard drive company or majorgeeks. http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads8.html Do a full low level format. This rewrites the drive with zero's! Obtain the six disket set of windows xp (whatever version) ie. Home, Pro etc. Boot disk from http://www.bootdisk.com/ or microsoft. After doing the 6 disk boot instalation insert your copy of XP. Do the advanced instalation. It's self explanitory! Or one could use the 98se boot disk and run the fdisk tool, reinstal 98se and then instal xp ontop of that. If you choose too install 98 first here are the steps to creating a partition and formating. 1. Place the boot disk in the floppy drive and boot the computer. 2. Start without cdrom support and press enter. After you press ENTER, the Fdisk Options menu is displayed. Press 1 to select the Create DOS partition and then press ENTER.

Press 1 to select the Create Primary DOS Partition option, and then press ENTER.

After you press ENTER, you receive the following prompt: Do you wish to use the maximum available size for primary DOS partition? You want all of the space on the hard disk to be assigned to drive C (and I recommend this option), press Y, and then press ENTER. Press ESC, and then press ESC to quit the Fdisk tool and return to a command prompt.After you create the partition, restart you computer with the Windows 98 Startup disk in the floppy disk drive. When the Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed, choose the Start computer

without CD-ROM support option, and then press ENTER. When a command prompt is displayed, type format c: /s/u/v and press enter. It should look like this, comand promptand all: A:\format C: /s/u/v When you successfully run the Format.com utility, you receive the following prompt:

WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST! Proceed with Format (Y/N)? Press Y, and then press ENTER to format drive C and install the system files at the same time. After the format procedure is finished, you receive the following prompt:

Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)? Leave it blank, and then press ENTER. Now, restart your computer with the floppy

startup disk still in and start "with cdrom support" When you get to a dos prompt A:, type in the drive letter of your cdrom drive, example D:, and click enter. Insert the Windows 98 CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive, type the following command

at a command prompt, and then press ENTER

X:\setup (where X is the drive letter that is assigned to your CD-ROM drive) Again in most cases the the drive letter will be D:\ Don't put an X there. lol. When you receive the following message, press ENTER, and then follow the instructions on the screen to complete the Setup procedure:

Please wait while the Setup initializes. Setup is now going to perform a routine check on your system. To continue press Enter. Then go through the windows 98 or ME installation. That's it! Here's some good reference: http://www.internetguideandmore.com/fdiskformat.htm Make sure you have all the tools I have fore mentioned before takeing on this task. Good Luck! The reason I recomend the low level format is because it wipes your drive and give you the cleanest install possible given the circumstances!

Answer 2

Select the boot device in your bios setup boot sequence. (Boot from CD first - although you don't have this problem...).



Select new installation and don't worry about the formatting... otherwise you have to press F8 while booting and select the Command Window option where you should be able to format your drive using the DOS format command. If you can't do this then you have to use the FDISK program to repartition your drive and do a "low-level" format. Here yo can resize your hard drive partitions (many people just have 1, C:) and format using FAT32 (the older file system) or NTFS (the newer file system allowing advanced file security options).



I wouldn't worry about the formatting part. After installation you can run the chkdsk program to check for bad sectors and then defragment your drive using the native file defragmentation utility available through the 'manage' option under the My Computer icon.



Good luck.

Answer 3

First, you cannot format the drive which has Windows on it. You must do that from your installation CD. As for the drive you cannot find Does it show in the BIOS? Did you delete the partition from it? Windows won't show a HD until it has a primary partition. You also need to create a partition (if it does not have one) before formatting it.

Answer 4

If there is an existing partition, type "D" to delete the partition. Then I think you do L to confirm. Go back and choose the unpartitioned space for installation. It should then give you the option to format.

Answer 5

It will give you the option to format.



Its when it asks you to partition the drives. It will erase all memory.

Answer 6

Ur cd damaged try with other one

Answer 7

What options does it give you?