How to format the C drive of windows XP

Discussion in 'Software' started by Madhurima, Jul 7, 2009.

  1. Madhurima

    Madhurima Private E-2

    Hello All,

    I have lots of issues on my old laptop with windows xp. I would like to wipe clean the hard disk ( As it has no important data) and load Windows Xp fresh. I tried doing this through the XP CD, but there are errors that come in and the installation aborts ( ERROR - strangely, my keyboard does not function while booting and I am not able to "Press any key to boot from CD".)

    The only alternative I see is to boot through DOS and format the C drive and then load windows xp. But I am no major literate in DOS and hence I need your help in doing this! I read that I can get into DOS using Windows 98 Boot Disk and then format the C drive... How can I do this?

    Can somebody help me with this problem?????...rolleyesrolleyesrolleyes
     
    Madhurima, Jul 7, 2009
    #1
  2. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Hi

    Yes you can grab a Win98 or WinME bootdisk floppy and boot to it and run Fdisk command and what would be best it to delete and recreate the main C partition and then format.


    WinME bootdisk here (grab the top Automatic Bootsdisk)


    then the instructions for Fdisk and partition and format are here (would have chosen a MSKB one but reading it if your not used to DOS and Fdisk is not straighforward so this one is more clear I feel)
     
    DavidGP, Jul 7, 2009
    #2
  3. Madhurima

    Madhurima Private E-2

    But, My Laptop does not have a floppy drive... Hope that aint a problem!!!
     
    Madhurima, Jul 7, 2009
    #3
  4. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Hi

    Yes could be a problem, but try this http://majorgeeks.com/Super_Fdisk_d4985.html sadly not used this route, but reading on it, it will like Fdisk only format to FAT32 so if you want NTFS file system you will have to use the convert command once Windows is installed.

    *or if that one above doesnt work try this and then burn the ISO to disk using ImgBurn (same application just different ways of creating a bootable CD)


    Convert Fat32 to NTFS
     
    DavidGP, Jul 8, 2009
    #4

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