Well, I finally figured out how to format a Hard Drive using Windows XP. First step is you don't use Windows XP as it has no function whatsoever (or at least none I know of) to format your hard disk drive.... (I don't know why, and yes that is retarded).
You can try re-installing the O/S again to format your disk, but I would recommend that you dont try this.
When I attempted to do so Windows XP just loaded itself on again so that when my system booted (ASUS A7N8X Deluxe, AthlonXP 2100, 512 DDR (3200), Ge4Ti4600) I had to select between O/S's (Both the same, one with my drivers and one without) Also I was unable to activate the 2nd O/S running off the HD as it would not give me an Activation ID.
So, here was dilmena.. How do I format this thing??
I decided that simplest way to do was the OLD SCHOOL way.
I went to my parents house and made a WinME(Win98 would work also) boot disk. I then added format.com and fdisk to the floppy bootdisk. **NOTE** If you have an old CD-ROM drive you may require the drivers, but I didn't. **END**
I had been using NTFS which is why I required Fdisk, but if your gonna format it's nice to fdisk the drive anyway.
So I used fdisk, removed the partition, rebooted, then added the partition back in.
then from there just format c: and your set.
The format will bring you to FAT32 Filesystem, when you through your WinXP(I used my gateway back up copy) cd into the drive it will ask you if want NTFS.
NTFS is more secure but I kept the FAT32 in case I needed to format again. And thats it!! I finally got this thing up and running, and it was alot simpler the Microsoft 6 floppy disk thing.
My system is running like new now, and from my experience if your gonna format your Hard Disk, thats the best way.
- Enjoy!! And remember if you can't fix it! FORMAT IT!
You can try re-installing the O/S again to format your disk, but I would recommend that you dont try this.
When I attempted to do so Windows XP just loaded itself on again so that when my system booted (ASUS A7N8X Deluxe, AthlonXP 2100, 512 DDR (3200), Ge4Ti4600) I had to select between O/S's (Both the same, one with my drivers and one without) Also I was unable to activate the 2nd O/S running off the HD as it would not give me an Activation ID.
So, here was dilmena.. How do I format this thing??
I decided that simplest way to do was the OLD SCHOOL way.
I went to my parents house and made a WinME(Win98 would work also) boot disk. I then added format.com and fdisk to the floppy bootdisk. **NOTE** If you have an old CD-ROM drive you may require the drivers, but I didn't. **END**
I had been using NTFS which is why I required Fdisk, but if your gonna format it's nice to fdisk the drive anyway.
So I used fdisk, removed the partition, rebooted, then added the partition back in.
then from there just format c: and your set.
The format will bring you to FAT32 Filesystem, when you through your WinXP(I used my gateway back up copy) cd into the drive it will ask you if want NTFS.
NTFS is more secure but I kept the FAT32 in case I needed to format again. And thats it!! I finally got this thing up and running, and it was alot simpler the Microsoft 6 floppy disk thing.
My system is running like new now, and from my experience if your gonna format your Hard Disk, thats the best way.
- Enjoy!! And remember if you can't fix it! FORMAT IT!
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