Big problem... with HD reformat.

krieggottkrieggott
edited August 2004 in Hardware
Alright so my HD is completly messed up, i need to reformat i have been trying to search for a way to do it. Well i figured the only way to do it if you only have one drive is to do it in the Recovery Console.

So here's my problem when i get into the dos prompt recovery console...

After i type format c: /fs:ntfs
and press y to accept, it does something for like 3 seconds then it just jumps back to the C:/windows line...

After when i type dir all my files are still there...how do i parition my harddrive?? I have Western Digital HD 160 gig. I am pretty sure it takes longer than 2 seconds to format a 160 gig hd.

Btw, this is relating to my last problem except it's a compleltly different problem...

Comments

  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited August 2004
    I need more info. Is the hdd/partition you plan on formating, have the OS on it? If not, format from My Computer. If it does, then just install the OS like you would always do. At one point after you select what partition you want to install to, it asks if you want to format. Select the NTFS quick format.
  • krieggottkrieggott
    edited August 2004
    Black Hawk wrote:
    I need more info. Is the hdd/partition you plan on formating, have the OS on it? If not, format from My Computer. If it does, then just install the OS like you would always do. At one point after you select what partition you want to install to, it asks if you want to format. Select the NTFS quick format.


    The HardDrive is not paritionned only one partion on it. I am planning on just doing a clean sweep. Reformat completly and reinstall windows XP on it. Yes there is WinXP sp2 installed on the machine. I can't format from my computer only have one drive....you can't format a drive while being on windows. That's the problem when i try to install it all it does it ask if i wanna delelte the previous OS...by pressing L but it never asks if anything about formating.. that's why i am in recovery console in the first place coz i couldn't find an option.. to format.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited August 2004
    During the setup, it searches if there's another OS installed. When it finds it, it asks if you want to repair it. I think you hit escape and then you select the partition you want to install on. Since I don't really remember what key you press afterwards to ignore the warning, you could just delete the partition and recreate it. If you want an alternative, you could format with a win98 bootdisk and the format again to ntfs in the xp installation.
  • DOSMANDOSMAN Grand Rapids, MI
    edited August 2004
    get a dos boot disk

    fdisk

    and delete all partitions, they you can install in peace
    http://bootdisk.com/
  • pawprintpawprint
    edited August 2004
    krieggott,
    you need to press L at that point to delete the C drive partition. The next screen will be to install XP onto C drive by creating a new partition. You will have option of which file system to use. I use ntfs file system, and normal format. system files are copied immediately after the format completes, then the install will begin.
    When it reboots, don't press option to press any key to boot from cd, just let it restart on it's own. At that point you enter your 25/number/letter product key, and the installation then finishes.
    Check out this excellent Win XP reference site for a ton of install info here
    cheers, ~pawprint~ :cool:
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