How to format a laptop with a busted screen?

[zivlaks]

Hello everyone, my sister's laptop (dell vostro a860) is designed so I need to take the whole thing apart to get the HDD out. I can do this, but it's really time consuming and tedious, so it's a last option solution. EDIT: Also, this laptop is built so I have to take the whole thing apart( motherboard ) to remove the HDD.

This laptop's screen isn't working, everything else is functional. How can I format the HDD without taking it out of the laptop? I tried hooking the laptop up to a different monitor, but then it doesn't show picture until I'm already in windows, and you can't format a windows partition from windows.



p.s. I need to do this because she's selling the laptop.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

In this case you have no choice but to remove the drive from the laptop.

 

[zivlaks]

Are you sure? Because this laptop's hard drive can't really be removed easily, it's built so I have to take the whole thing apart :/

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi

on most laptops you can send screen output via VGA (15pin connecter) to internal screen / external screen or both by pressing
Fn + one of function keys often F5 ( no need to wait for Windows to start)

Windows will not let you format C: (boot drive) anyway
( you would need full/long format not quick format on external usb drive or second partition D

You need to boot from a live Linux CD or Windows disk or Windows Preinstalled Environment to format or erase the hard disk

DBAN will usually do the job (10 meg)
or Parted Magic ISO as it has many useful tools including dban (320Meg)



regards
Mike Barnes

 

[casper1973]

Provided your optical drive is above the HDD in boot order this shouldn't be too difficult. As advised above, burn a Parted Magic CD and format from there.

You could also precisely swing a sledgehammer at the area of the hard drive.

 

[zivlaks]

I DID IT!
I couldn't get it working with Fn+F8 method before windows loaded for some reason. So I just booted up linux live disk that doesn't require doing anything to boot up, and then I spammed Fn+F8 and I got the picture.

Thx for help everyone!