Remove everything on hard drive

[Magicboi8]

How do I remove everything on my hard drive without windows washer because I can't afford It now I went to my computer and right clicked on drive c and clicked format but It said that I have utilites open In that drive so how do I cancel them even though I dont think I have any running......lol. So the bottom line is that i need to know how to get everything off my hard drive within tonite please and thanks in advance!

[DavidRyan]

Format a blank floppy as a MS-DOS boot disk (it is an option in the format dialog). Reboot your PC with that disk in the drive. If you still go into Windows, you need to enter the BIOS (usually by pressing delete or F2 while the PC boots) and check that your Floppy Drive is higher up the boot sequence than the hard drive.
Once in DOS, at the A:> prompt. Enter "Format c:" and follow the prompts.

[caperjack]

Format a blank floppy as a MS-DOS boot disk (it is an option in the format dialog). A:> prompt. Enter "Format c:" and follow the prompts.

yes this will make a msdos boot disk but it will not have the format command on it unless you put it there .
Better to go to www.bootdisk.com ,get a win98 boot sisk image and open it and it will auto go to the blank floppy in you drive .

[caperjack]

How do I remove everything on my hard drive without windows washer because I can't afford It now I went to my computer and right clicked on drive c and clicked format but It said that I have utilites open In that drive so how do I cancel them even though I dont think I have any running......lol. So the bottom line is that i need to know how to get everything off my hard drive within tonite please and thanks in advance!

Hi ,i think you are confusd as to the use of window washer ,it is for to the best of my knowlage a tool to remove unwanted item from you harddrive, not format it .and you say you have nothing running to stop the format ,when you right clicked on C:\ ,you do have windows running don't you .!!
You can't format windows in this manner as windows is running ,this format features only workes on slave drives in the computer .floppy disk or usb thumb drives.also formating a harddrive will remove everything and you will need to reinstall windows .

[Magicboi8]

Hi ,i think you are confusd as to the use of window washer ,it is for to the best of my knowlage a tool to remove unwanted item from you harddrive, not format it .and you say you have nothing running to stop the format ,when you right clicked on C:\ ,you do have windows running don't you .!! You can't format windows in this manner as windows is running ,this format features only workes on slave drives in the computer .floppy disk or usb thumb drives.also formating a harddrive will remove everything and you will need to reinstall windows .

Well ya thats what I need to do IS format the drive and reinstall windows so how do I do that. And the floppy disk thing is really confusing no offense ;)

[Magicboi8]

Allright I just realized I don't have to dump everything I just need to reinstall windows because all the things going weird are with windows so just tell me how to reinstall windows and I think everything will be fine :)

[gerbil]

please, just google "XP install". There are any number of walkthrus posted. And as you do the clean installation you will be given the option to format partitions [your drive] as you go.

[caperjack]

Well ya thats what I need to do IS format the drive and reinstall windows so how do I do that. And the floppy disk thing is really confusing no offense ;)

If you are confused about the floppy ,then maybe it time to take you computer in for repair ,no ofence.

[Magicboi8]

Will someone of the 115 thousand people on this forum how to uninstall windows XP and reinstall It without wiping my hard drive.

[caperjack]

Will someone of the 115 thousand people on this forum how to uninstall windows XP and reinstall It without wiping my hard drive.

Can't be done ,you can reinstall windows over itself ,
check this tutoral from another help site ,i use it a lot . i do believe this only workes with orignal copy of winxp ,not a winxp recovery cd. http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Repair-Windows-XP-t138.html

[Magicboi8]

Hey all I reinstalled windows without loosing any data and everything works thanks for all you help and next time I'll have more patience next time but I'm sure you can relate to having your computer broken and being really really mad so thanks again never could have done It without you :)

[caperjack]

Hey all I reinstalled windows without loosing any data and everything works thanks for all you help and next time I'll have more patience next time but I'm sure you can relate to having your computer broken and being really really mad so thanks again never could have done It without you :)

Thats GREEEEAAAT,good luck