PolskiSi

How do I do it?

My sister is getting my old computer, and theres a ton of worthless **** on it that I just want to clear out. Its barely working as it is since it it so clunked up with garbage.

The only way out as I see it is a reformat.
What is the easiest way to reformat the Hd on the computer. It is a 4 year old Celeron 400 with 64mb ram, 4gb and 2gb hard disks I think, and will be running Windows 98 I guess.

I have all the driver discs, so all I really need to know is how to clear out the hard disks, I think I should be OK from there on in.

Any suggestions?

Gallagher

I think you have to get into Dos mode and then type in format c: or something along those lines...

EKdude

How to Format a Hard Drive.

Restart your computer with the Startup disk in the floppy disk drive.
NOTE:
If you are using a Windows 95 Startup disk, a command prompt is displayed and you just type in
format c: /s
Note the space between the C: and the /s.
If you are using a Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, or Windows Me Startup disk, select the Start computer without CD-ROM support menu option when the Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed.

When a command prompt is displayed, type
format c: /s
Note the space between the C: and the /s.
Then press ENTER. This command transfers the system files and should only be used when you format drive C (or your "active" drive). For all other partitions, type format drive: (where drive is the letter of the partition that you want to format).

You MUST Format all the Partitions for them to work if you Partitioned your Hard Drive.
NOTE:
If you receive a "Bad command" or "Bad file name" error message, you may need to extract the Format.com tool to your boot disk. To do this, type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
extract ebd.cab format.com
After the Format.com tool is extracted to your boot disk, type format c: /s at the command prompt to format your active partition, or type format drive: if you want to format a partition that is not your active partition.

When you successfully run the Format.com tool, you receive the following message:


WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST!
Proceed with Format?
Press Y and then press ENTER to format drive C.

Go get a sandwich cause it's gonna take a while.
After the format procedure is finished, you receive the following message:

Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?
NOTE:
This is an optional feature that you can use to type a name for the drive. You can either type an 11-character name for the drive, or you can leave it blank by pressing ENTER.
Multiple Partitions.

If you made Multiple Partitions you can Format your other Drives you have created by typing this at the A Prompt:

A:\>FORMAT D:
Do not use the /S switch this time - a Logical DOS Drive cannot be booted from so you don't need it on the other Drives. Again, after formatting is complete, we’ll be asked if we wish to assign a volume label and again, we’ll leave it blank.
If you have Created any more Drives just use the same Procedure but just change the Drive letter each time you Format. C,,,D,,,E,,,ETC.

Now If you now take out the boot disk and restart the computer, it should boot up from the System Files on the hard drive and should go to the familiar C:> prompt.
Note that if you get an error such as "NO ROM BASIC, SYSTEM HALTED" or "No boot device found" at this stage, this means you forgot to set the primary DOS partition "active". Reboot from the floppy, run FDISK again and use option 2 to set the primary partition active Which would be Drive C. then reboot.
If you get an error like "No operating system", this means you probably forgot the "/s" parameter when formatting the C: drive.
Turn off the computer Put the floppy disk back in the drive start it back up, wait for the A Prompt and then type in

format c: /s
Note the space between the C: and the /s.

Now it should go to the familiar C:> prompt.
Delete a Partition.

Now this section is only if you made a mistake in making a Partition and want to make the partition larger or smaller.
If your happy with the size Please just skip this section.

Here is how to delete a partition:

Let’s look at FDISK’s Delete menu
From FDISK’s main menu, choose Option 3.
You should then see the menu below:


Delete DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive


Current fixed disk drive: 1

Choose one of the following:

1.Delete Primary DOS Partition
2.Delete Extended DOS Partition
3.Delete Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition
4.Delete Non-DOS Partition



Enter choice: [1]
The're are several options for deleting things.
The first one is used to delete Primary DOS Partitions.
The second is used to delete Extended DOS Partitions.
The third option is use to delete those Logical DOS Drives.

Note:
You Have to Delete the Logical DOS Drivers First.
Then you can Delete the Extended DOS Partitions. It will not let you do that. I know I've tried.

Does your screen look like the one above? GOOD.
Then choose option 3 to Delete a Logical DOS Drive.

It will give you the drive Letters in the Logical DOS Drives in the Extended DOS Partition.

And you will also get the Famous Warning like this:

WARNING: Data in a deleted Logical DOS Drive will be lost. What drive do you want to delete. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? [ ]

At the prompt, you enter the letter of the drive you wish to delete. Press ENTER.
If you put a Volume Label on the Partition you will have to put that is also. If not Just Press ENTER.
Then it will ask you Are you sure (Y/N).......................? [ ]. Press Y and then just Press ENTER.

Say BYE,,,BYE to that Drive!!!
If you have any more Drives you would like to delete it will just keep asking you the same ole questions as above until the're all gone.

After the're all gone you can go back to the Main Menu by pressing ESC and choosing Option 3 again to get rid of the Extended DOS Partition.
And then after that's gone you can get rid of the Primary DOS Partition and then you can start from scratch.

I like to write it down on a piece of paper first to see how big I want to make mine.
That way you only have to do it once.
Now off to Format the Drive!!!
Go
HERE

Now that you have the hard drive Formatted and Partitioned we can now Load the Operating System!!!

PolskiSi

holy crap

Thanks man

dm101081

can't you just go to c:\ and do "erase *.*"

Gallagher

Everyone wishes it was that easy !

EKdude

no problem... good luck

diesel

easiest way okay.. boot into dos mode

format c: /u

sugarcane

Format c: /s

To retain system files so you can still boot up to the prompt.

or you can do Format /?

and it'll list the options