How to format your hard drive
 

For Windows 95/98

First of all you will need the following

• Your Microsoft Windows 95/98 CD
• All discs for hardware
• All discs for your software

First of all you will need to boot your PC into Windows. Once you have done this, you need to go Start then shut down and select from the drop down menu "Restart in MS-DOS Mode."

once you have done this, type cd\ and press enter. Then type format c: with a space in between the format and c. It will then ask you if you want to continue, just type y and then press enter.

Once this is done i always type c:\dir this is to make sure there is nothing on the drive.

For the next stage you MUST HAVE MS-DOS on floppy disks.

staying in MS-DOS place in your floppy drive your MS-DOS disks to reinstall DOS on your system. Once the disk is in the drive press ctrl alt and del all at the same time. Once your computer restarts it should read the disk that is in the floppy drive and start to install MS-DOS. You will get a few prompts and then just let it install. After installation of DOS take the disk out the floppy drive and open your CD Rom drive and place your Windows CD in. then i usually type D:\ and then return but obiously substitute the letter for your drive. You will then get D:\ .

After this you will type setup. So you will have something that looks like this.

D:\setup

press enter

D:\SETUP

enter

Setup for Windows 95/98 will then start and then just follow the on screen prompts.

For Windows ME

Just do the above again but with in Windows 95/98 open your CD-Rom drive and place the Windows ME disk in. You will then get and auto run box appear. Choose "install Windows ME."

Follow on screen prompts to set it up. Once installation is complete you WILL need to install all your applications and software for your hardware.

For Windows 2000

Within Windows 95/98/ME place your Windows 2000 in your CD Rom drive and follow on screen prompts to install Windows 2000.

For Windows XP Home/Professional

If you have the upgrade version just do the same when within Windows 95/98/ME/2000.

If you have the full version you will need to reformat your hard drive (Follow the part labelled Windows 95/98). After you have done this place your Windows XP CD in your CD Rom drive and press ctrl alt and del all at the same time and your cd rom drive should read the XP CD and start to install. Just follow the on screen prompts to install. For Windows XP you may find it best if your hard drives file system is NTFS. But dont worry if it is not.

EDIT: For Windows 95/98 before installing you MAY need to install your cd rom drivers.

Hope this guide is useful

WNA

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Thats not how I did it on 98

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

How did you do it? Enlighten me. :D

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Oh it is the way i did it, i didnt see the format c: section. I looked like you where simply re-installing windows.

Note be careful with this, back up your work. Also if you are doing it with windows 98 there is the possiblity going wrong. I deleted all the root paths and everything. Bloody difficult to repair

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Especially if you have no experience.

Mods is it possible to make this a sticky?

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

you don't HAVE to have MS DOS on floppy disks at all.

To format a hard disk for any Windows based operating system, download ultimate boot disk, burn the ISO to a CD, reboot with CD in drive, follow on screen menu.

http://www.startdisk.com/Web1/ubd/ubd.htm

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Well no but it is useful. :)

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

EDIT: <Comment removed>

Maybe "...as a chocolate teacup" would've been better Bif :D

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

I would recommend that people research the process more fully, WNA had produced a good overview here but if anyone without the experience may find difficulties and there can be other ways to do this and other problems that can occur. My advice is that this is a simple process in windows xp so upgrade to that if you have 98, where formatting is a real pain in the arse

(although judging by the average audience of this forum I think most people have done this at least once)

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

mmmmmmmmm...tea and chocolate..........yum yum

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

On the basis that you have an older machine, whose BIOS does not allow booting from CD-ROM, the guide above is fine :)

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Good advice (if you have a cd burner, a lot of system with 98 wouldn't have a burner)

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

http://www.bootdisk.com

MS DOS floppies .. pfft

(and besides, I'd always use format c: /s if it's going to be a system drive, and if it's a seperate drive/partition then there's no reason not to format the thing actually in windows)

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

:D, Yeah ok ok .... :D

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Must be a real old computer, my one downstairs (i use a powerbook now) is easy to change the bio to booting of cds.

Again I recommend using windows XP for formatting it is a much better OS and easier to format

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

It is easier when using win95 or 98 to copy the win95 or win98 directory onto your C drive after formatting it then run setup from there. Makes it a lot quicker to setup and you don't have to go searching for the CD in future when you need it.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Yeah, but a real DOS user would want to use DOS to format the hard drive, not the setup program. :D :D

I never do it that way, I always use "fdisk" & "format" alone instead & I do not have to install anything then.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Someone correct me if Im wrong but isnt the highest capacity MSDOS supports 2.03GB? Last time I used My MSDOS 6 floppies to install my windows settup it reduced my 8GB to a 2.03, and before that it reduced my 3.02 to a 2.03. wich would make formatting really unwise on most hard disks (Unless offcourse im wrong :) )

Best way I can think of is to make a system floppy in windows before you start, reboot with it, install some CD-ROM drivers to it, and bingo, a bootable floppy with CDROM support.
Though obviously you only need to do that if your computer doesnt support booting from CD-ROM.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Rather than using a standard msdos floppy, it would be better to use a w98 startup disk. I have to use this with my w98 pc as it would not recognise the d: drive otherwise. A w98 startup disk contains generic drivers for CDROM drives. It also has FDISK & FORMAT commands, so you can do it all with the floppy.

Not sure if you can create a startup disk in safe mode though.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Is it possible to delete windows 98SE and then re-install windows 98SE without deleting all your programs ?

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

No once you do that you have to reinstall all your programs and apps :)

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

You'll need to be able access a CD from DOS. This is tricky. A generic CD driver loaded in config.sys and mscdex loaded in autoexec.bat are needed. Copy the driver and program to c drive after doing the fdisk. Both are available on the Net or lift them from someone. I have them :) If the system already has 98SE installed, mscdex will be in windows/command and oakcdrom.sys in windows/command/ebd. They might even be on the 98SE CD - never checked. If you've no idea what I mean when I say "loaded" then don't attempt an install - talk to someone who does :)

[assuming a dirty drive]
* format drive using the /s switch
* use fdisk to create three partitions c, d and e. Make c the largest and bootable
* reformat
* reboot

* insert the windows 98SE CD and copy the the win98 directory to e drive - rename it if you wish
* change to e drive and cd to the win98 directory. Run setup and away you go

* put all essential drivers and programs on e drive - e.g. NIC drivers (stuffed without them) and your firewall setup program
* put all your personal files on d drive - it's possible to make d the default. There are options in Office, for example.
* you'll never need the Windows 98SE CD again - all the cabs are on e drive. No desperate hunting in drawers :D

You can delete just the windows directory and do a reinstall of the OS. Most programs you reinstall will pick up your existing settings and files as you left them in program files, but obviously any configuration settings in the registry will have been lost. I don't recommend this method of reinstallation. Best to do a backup of anything important and then do a clean install.

Have I missed something? Been years since I did any of this.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

I used to do the same, except I had 3 hard drives so I just used one of the ones I wasnt booting off instead of partitions :)

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Even better :)

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

For XP i booted from the XP install CD. Then when presented with the list of partitions i dropped the partitions and then recreated them and thus formated them that way.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Yeah - I was reading about that the other day. I'm busy wading through "XP in a Nutshell" :) XP's install replaces many of the old tools needed to do an install.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

You might be able to keep some of them if you export your registry, but chances are a majority of them will install their own files, dll's, vxd's etc in your windows/system/system32 (wherever) folders.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

No one appears to have mentioned the Emergency Boot Disk - it's very useful! ;)

Control Panel / Add~Remove Programs / Startup Disk / Create Disk

It's probably worth mentioning again how useful it is to have several partitions on your hard drive (or several disks!). Keep all your documents including favourites and address book (requires registry tweek) on a separate partition, well away from windows. Also, keep a copy of the windows CD (and any other common ones) on another partition. Then, when it comes to reformatting your windows drive, you don't lose all your work and you don't need to worry about CD drivers - it's already there.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

right click the drive select format job done :)

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Opps i fogot to mention the startup disk. Also can it be done in XP?

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Only in Windows 98SE - earlier versions of Windows didn't put the CD driver on the disk :dunce: So you rebooted with the disk and found that you were stuffed. The 98SE boot disk creates a RAM drive so be mindful of that when it comes to drive lettering.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Ahem...http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...9&postcount=19
:)

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Can this be made a sticky in the Sub forum of Computers and IT?

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Not yet, there are a few errors in the first post such as the XP procedure.
Why would you press "CTRL+ATL+DEL" to boot the XP CD?
All it does in XP is bring up the task manager.

The best way to format a disk is by using the Disk Manager or by using the XP CD as you briefly mentioned if you want to format the system disk.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

has anyone mentioned a 14lb hammer yet , just wondering :erm: :D :D

i am gonna die for that aint i :disturbd:

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Incogs eyes have glazed over but she's pretty sure this is a useful thread. :)

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

No no no, when you format the drive with Windows 95/98 on it after the format is complete through DOS you press ctrl alt del to restart with your XP cd in the cd rom drive and it will automatically read it. :)

When you make this a sticky could you delete all the irrelvant posts!

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Err yeah you are :D

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

I'd be very interested to know how to do it using the xp disc. a step by step guide would be handy??

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Id be glad to do it for you as an addition to this thread.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Well go for it then. Off to bed just now, will check it tomorrow.. pm if necessary.

Hoggy.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

I think you mean if .... :)

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Waiting?????? :(

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

im waiting too - hoping to blow this xp away tomorrow but i want to know what im doing first :dunce:


p.s could we have it in simpleton language please :confused:

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

simpleton.....yes. for me too! :dunce:

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Personaly for a setup of 98 I would do the following using a 98 cd or floppy to boot.

1. fdisk the drive and reboot
2. format the drive " format c: /s "
3. create a folder on the c drive and call it win98
4. copy the windows setup directory to the win98 folder.
5. Reboot with no disks or cd's inserted and you will be given a dos prompt.
6. chnage to the win98 folder
7. Run setup.

The above has two advantages.

1. Windows installs faster as it does not have to read if the cd.
2. All the cab files are available so windows will never ask for the cd when installing drivers ect.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

xp though? :dunce:

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

If its a new drive then all you need to do is boot from the xp cd and xp will partition and format the drives for you.

If the drive is not clean then you can remove the partitions during xp setup or use something like disk killer to clear the drive.

If you need step by step instructions let me know and I will sort some out for you.

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

Not to but in Stuartb but as I was facing this same situation recently maybe this thread may help and hopefully give courage in the meantime until you can help out.

In particular THIS would have been helpful at the start.


There is sanity after an XP install too.Apart from old games not wanting to play. :(

Re: How to format your hard drive
 

For those wishing to install windows XP here is a fairly good link

and here for all other OS