Question about Formatting

rvballplayarvballplaya
edited March 2005 in Science & Tech
I am wanting to reformat my computer but the problem is my internal CD-Drive is busted and won't work and I can't figure out how to boot from the external CD-Drive. Does anyone have any other way to go about a formatting a computer. My OS is XP. I have my drive partitioned and I am wanting to erase everything and make a new partition and I can't figure out how to do that in XP. If I put my XP CD in and try and reinstall from windows i get the option of formatting either partition but never the whole hard drive. Anyone give any help please??

Comments

  • floppybootstompfloppybootstomp Greenwich New
    edited March 2005
    What are the boot options in the Bios and how is your external CD drive connected to your machine?
  • rvballplayarvballplaya
    edited March 2005
    Boot options are Network Boot, Floppy Drive Boot, Atapi CD-Rom Drive Boot, and Hard Drive Boot. External is connecyed via USB 2.0

    I wanna add that his computer is a laptop with no internal floppy drive. Or external floppy drive for that matter
  • Ghaleon4Ghaleon4 South Oklahoma
    edited March 2005
    Oh boy...
    If you can't replace the CD-ROM drive (I'll bet u can't unless you shipped it in, and that may not be an option) it looks like you'll have to boot off the network. I'm just speculating though unless someone knows of a trick I don't. Also, I'm unfortunately useless beyond this advice, because I've never tried to boot anything off the network before, and wouldn't know how to set it up. Anyone else?
  • floppybootstompfloppybootstomp Greenwich New
    edited March 2005
    Ah. A laptop. Fraid I know nowt of them.

    From what I can see, as Ghaleon4 said, the only option that may work is network boot, but I really don't know. Sorry :(
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited March 2005
    rvballplaya wrote:
    I am wanting to reformat my computer but the problem is my internal CD-Drive is busted and won't work and I can't figure out how to boot from the external CD-Drive. Does anyone have any other way to go about a formatting a computer. My OS is XP. I have my drive partitioned and I am wanting to erase everything and make a new partition and I can't figure out how to do that in XP. If I put my XP CD in and try and reinstall from windows i get the option of formatting either partition but never the whole hard drive. Anyone give any help please??

    Another option would be to copy the xp cd to a small partiton at the end of the drive. Start the install from the copy of the cd on the hard disk and then format the remainder of the hard disk durring the XP install.
    You gotta get creative in your situation.

    Tex
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