Formatting Hard Drive - Help!

[Twopack]

I've recently acquired a friends laptop and want to format the hard drive, but can't!! It is running XP, FAT 32.

Having created a boot floppy, when I start with the floppy in, it comes up with a ''disk I/O error''

When I try to get the C: prompt both in normal and safe mode, I get
''C\Documents and Settings\owners name> This makes commands such as 'fdisk' unusable and after 'format' is says that the volume is used by another process.

My question is, how can I get the C: prompt to format the drive?? Am I doing something wrong??

Thanks, I'm not great with PCs but can follow simple commands!

[747-436]

I don;t think that you can format it while the operating system is running as it needs the C: drive to run.

Can you find out the manufacturer of the hard drive? If you can then I would go to their website and download a small file that can be used to create a boot disc from which you can format the drive. The boot disc can usually be a floppy or a CD but if it is a CD you would need to go into the BIOS setup to make the CD boot before the hard drive.

Seagate hardrives for instance have a section on their website where you can create an installation disc where you can then do such things as format a hard drive without going into the operating system

[Wing Commander Fowler]

Normal and safe mode? You shouldn't be getting these options if it's correctly starting from your boot diskette. Check that the bios is set to boot from the a drive first and if you have a valid boot disc inserted it should load all of the apropriate drivers from there to begin the process.

[vapilot2004]

Get your hands on the XP disk or manufacturers OS disk and pop it in the drive. Reboot.

If the computer doesn't ask "Boot from CDROM?" or auto boot the XP install disk - goto the manufacturers website to see how to change the settings (BIOS) to boot from CDROM.

Your choices including formatting and installing a fresh copy of the OS will be obvious when the CD runs.

[ormus55]

do a search on google for the ultimate boot disk. they do a floppy and a cd version. (its freeware).
download that, make a disc and follow the instructions.

as others have stated, make sure your lappy is booting from the floppy drive or cdrom first. check the bios, and change if required.

[P.Pilcher]

I suppose it might be appropriate to ask why you need to format a hard drive on which XP is working? I only ask this because of a post here by Maxell a little while ago about repairing XP using some poorly documented utilities on the XP install/repair disc. The reference is http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897&pgno=1&queryText=

I only suggest this because when I read Maxell's post and followed the link I put it in my own favourites and then informed a private pilot friend of mine who has made a living out of supplying and installing computers for many years. He was unaware of the information and immediately came back with "Oh if only I had known about that last week! e.t.c."

P.P.

[Twopack]

Many thanks for the replies, I'll give them a go.

PP - It does seem strange but the laptop is really slow, I don't know exactly what's buried in the hard drive so I thought I'd set myself a little project as I've not built one up from scratch before - it's proving trickier than I thought!

[ormus55]

all puters get slow after some use. you will be amazed at how quick a clean install is. ive just done a 200gb hdd with a clean install, it really flys!

[chandlers dad]

Most computers will come up at the boot time with something like "hit F2" to enter the setup.

You then hit the F2 key and go into the setup. Tell it to seek the floppy first, CD second then the hard drive. This way when you stick a formatted floppy in the drive that has been loaded with the system files, it will boot off of the floppy. As well you need the format and fdisk files.

Then if there is no floppy, it looks for a CD in the drive. If you have a "restore" disk from the maker, it will boot off of the CD and format then restore the system back to what it was new.

This is not black magic but not for the basic computer person either. Personally if you are not fairly experienced I would go with the factory restore CD and let it do everything. It also loads drivers and such which can take someone not experienced forever.

[ormus55]

my puter is always setup to read the floppy first then the cdrom, and finally the hdd.

i just make sure that there is no disk in the floppy/cd before i start up.
(well usually anyways!)

[chandlers dad]

my puter is always setup to read the floppy first then the cdrom, and finally the hdd.

i just make sure that there is no disk in the floppy/cd before i start up.
(well usually anyways!)

The computer will start up faster if you configure it to look for the hard drive first, but if you are trying to do a rescue on it then having it look at the floppy, then CD then hard drive is the best way. Just depends on what you are wanting to do.

If you often boot from the floppy, then keep yours the way it is, otherwise by changing it to look for the hard drive first will get your computer up and running a bit faster.

[jayteeto]

I have just had the same problem. Once you get it to look at the a: drive first, then use the boot floppy. If you still can't use format command then type fdisk and enter. Delete all of the partitions then reboot the computer with the boot floppy. Then using fdisk again, create one dos partition to maximum size and reboot again with boot floppy. You can then carry out a full format c:
This might not be the fastest way, but it worked for me this week!!!

[maxell]

To format an XP system try THIS (http://www.cyberwalker.net/faqs/reinstall-reformat-winxp/reformat-FAT32-XP.html) only catch is to make sure you either know the admin password or turn it off before you start. It tells you how to turn it off part way down
Max

[Conan the Librarian]

Last week, I had a few difficulties with defragging, (see my thread) and used a combination of CrapCleaner (Free) and Diskeeper (trialware, but I will now be buying it) which has perked things up no end. It has given me a much more responsive machine.

Conan

PS Did the same for a friend's daughter last night on her laptop. Fullly expect happy faces when I see her later on.

[Twopack]

Some excellent tips here, thanks to all.

I can now enter the BIOS to change the boot order and thanks to ormus55 - 'ultimate boot disk' and 'clean install' are useful tools.

I now have a formatted hard drive, just need to get a new XP disk now, as mine doesn't seem to want to load!

[chandlers dad]

Some excellent tips here, thanks to all.

I can now enter the BIOS to change the boot order and thanks to ormus55 - 'ultimate boot disk' and 'clean install' are useful tools.

I now have a formatted hard drive, just need to get a new XP disk now, as mine doesn't seem to want to load!

If you are using a xp restore disk, make sure that you simply put it in the CD drive, then reboot, telling the bios to boot from the CD first. If you allow the computer to start then try to run the xp setup program many times it will not work. It wants to boot then run its series.