Reformatting hard drive help

[KidRock]

Hey everyone I want to reformat my entire harddrive but I dont have my windows XP disk. What should I do?



Also this is my first time reformatting. anyone have any advice/tips?

 

[Ruuustar]

I think u need the disc. Otherwise you won't have an OS after the format.

 

[KidRock]

what about www.bootdisk.com ?

Also when I do reformat I heard I have to get my network drivers back? where would I get these?

 

[Ruuustar]

drivers on a cd?

 

[blahblahblah]

Hey everyone I want to reformat my entire harddrive but I dont have my windows XP disk. What should I do?



Also this is my first time reformatting. anyone have any advice/tips?

How are you going to reinstall your operating system (Win XP)?

 

[KidRock]

I found my windows XP disk and I am going to try what grimfox said. thanks a lot everyone

 

[snak3y3z1001]

why not create two partations. one for windows and the other for storage *music,pic,doc etc* that way you wont lose anything if u want to install yur os again. just reformat the the partation windows on.

 

[barnacle]

how do you make partations, can you choose which ones are where on the disk?
is it true that the outside of the disk will be faster because the outside spins faster than the inside of the disk?

 

[iamaelephant]

I hate partitions with a passion, but I spose they are handy if you really don't want to lose anything on your computer.

 

[Dead-Inside]

Wohoa.. You guys sure you want to be handling your own PCs?

Anyway, partioning is (usually) done with F-disk, which is a Microsoft product. I'm not sure if it comes with Win XP or not, but it's avavible on the net.

You need to format all/any drives that you have before changing it. (If you don't have several REAL HD's in your machine, then you can go with one but you can only work on that one aswell so keep that in mind).

Then you can devide, using a floppy with f-disk on, to either spaces or %.

Hope that helps,
Regards
Dead-Inside

 

[blackeye]

I hate partitions with a passion, but I spose they are handy if you really don't want to lose anything on your computer.

Yep I never liked partitions either.

 

[iamaelephant]

Dead-Inside stop being so arrogant all the time.

And for your information, you can partition using Partition Magic without losing any data at all, beats the hell out of F-Disk.

 

[jabberwock95]

Why do you want to format your HDD anyway?

If it's to recover from a system failure, I usually:

1. Use a boot disk to get into DOS
2. Get to the C:
3. Use Format C:
4. Make a logical DOS partition with FDisk
5. Install Windows from the CD.

What you do really depends on why you want to format the drive.

 

[Link]

^Agreed, although PM isn't free. Still if you can get a copy, it utterly kicks fdisk around the park...

 

[Dead-Inside]

Dead-Inside stop being so arrogant all the time.

And for your information, you can partition using Partition Magic without losing any data at all, beats the hell out of F-Disk.

Yes, but F-disk I know works, and it's recommended. You can also redo the disk from FAT 32 to anything else.

Btw, the first line was more sarcasm then honesty.

You (all) should also take advantage of the Windows System Restore, usually patches things up that are messed. It just takes an earlier system configuration and uses that instead.

Regards
Dead-Inside

 

[Link]

Yes, but F-disk I know works, and it's recommended. You can also redo the disk from FAT 32 to anything else.

I know that video works, but I still bought a DVD player

Yes, fdisk does the job, but its fiddley and less intuitive imo. BTW PartM will change the FAT from anything to anything also

As to windows system restore, thats personal preference, but personally, I don't trust it (Don't ask why)

 

[Dead-Inside]

I know that video works, but I still bought a DVD player

Yes, fdisk does the job, but its fiddley and less intuitive imo. BTW PartM will change the FAT from anything to anything also

As to windows system restore, thats personal preference, but personally, I don't trust it (Don't ask why)

Why?

And... Hardware and software are two *very* different things. Don't compare them like that.

 

[Link]

Why?

Git

And... Hardware and software are two *very* different things. Don't compare them like that.

I am assuming you were being sarcastic again, but in case you wern't, a video player is not part of a computer, and although you can get DVD drives, nor is a DVD player.

My point was, yes fdisk, like a video player, works, but Partition magic, like a DVD player, works better and is easier to use.

Oh, and as a point of interest, if you want me to do something, instruct me not to, so... fdisk to PartM is like PCI to PCI-E

 

[Dead-Inside]

Right