Member Avatar for Prince4U

hi, can someone tell me how to reformat my harddrive? i have windows xp professional. i know how to reformat but i need to know if i have to boot with a windows 98 bootdisk even if i have xp, or will xp professional bootdisks let me access my cd-rom? someone once told me i had to have windows 98 bootdisk with smartdrv on it or i couldn't access the cd-rom to reinstall windows. i no longer have a windows 98 bootdisk. i'm afraid to erase everything unless i know for sure that a xp pro bootdisk will work or not, which i've already downloaded from the internet. i plan on putting xp pro back on my computer. please help.

thanks

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Short answer for : on the vast majority of PCs a genuine Windows XP Professional CD will boot and perform the format/installation itself — you do not normally need a Windows 98 boot disk. The real gotchas are machines that either cannot boot from CD, or where the CD/drive controller (SATA/RAID) is not supported by the plain XP installer. The replies from and point in the right direction; the checklist below fills in missing, practical steps so the reinstall does not leave you stranded.

  • Back up everything first: user profiles, mail stores, browser bookmarks, license keys and any program settings. Copy drivers (network, chipset/video, mass-storage) to removable media so you can reinstall without internet.
  • Confirm you have the original XP product key and installation CD (or a clean, slipstreamed install CD if you already slipstreamed service packs).
  • Create at least one piece of recovery media (a driver floppy or rescue CD/USB) if your PC is old or lacks CD boot capability.

If the XP CD will not boot or Setup cannot see the drive: recheck BIOS boot order and any manufacturer “Boot Menu” key at POST. If there is no CD boot support, a small floppy with the drive maker’s CD-ROM driver or a boot manager can help (this is what and were hinting at). If the installer fails to detect a SATA/RAID controller you will need the vendor mass-storage driver during setup (commonly supplied on floppy) or build a custom XP CD with those drivers integrated (slipstream) so Setup can see the disk.

During Setup choose a custom install, remove and recreate the system partition if you want a clean layout, then let the XP installer format to NTFS. After installation install chipset and network drivers first, run Windows Update, then restore data and install security software. If boot problems occur, the Recovery Console (or manufacturer recovery tools) can repair boot records.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for Slade

you should be able to boot off the cd... but if you can't, there are plenty of boot disk files you can find on the net that allow you to access your cd drive, or you could go to the manufacturer of the drive and ask them for one.

Member Avatar for alc6379

Try doing a search for "reformat" in the forum here. I recall having posted instructions several times in the past couple of weeks on how to do this.

Additional suggestons for searching would be "erase" or "reinstall"

Member Avatar for Catweazle

The article linked in my sig is a comprehensive reinstallation guide. Windows XP installation will perform the format for you when it's performed in the described manner.

Member Avatar for Catweazle

Excuse me for saying so, please, but I reckon downloading Boot disk images to do something which is built into Windows XP and the Windows XP Install CD is just plain silly!

To format a non-system drive, simply right-click the drive in 'My Computer' and choose 'Format'.

To format the system drive, boot from the Windows CD, and in the appropriate section of the install routine, delete the system partition, create a new one in its place, and install. The format will be done automatically. If you simply wish to format and leave a clean drive, then you can exit the setup routine as soon as the format is performed.

Member Avatar for Puckdropper

boot from the Windows CD,

Not all systems can do that (easily). That's what the boot disk is for.

Member Avatar for Catweazle

On almost all systems, it's simply a matter of entering BIOS setup and making a small change to the settings. I'd strongly suspect that a system which doesn't have the appropriate setting available would be too old to run Windows XP anyway.

Member Avatar for redblanchard

Just get a DOS boot disk and run "format c:" from the A: drive...

Member Avatar for Catweazle

NO! Don't do it that way for Windows XP and NTFS partitions. You'd be best to head for the Windows 98 section with that advice ;)

Member Avatar for Gary King

I remember instructions along the lines of:

In order to reformat as NTFS, you have to make the drive you want to format, a primary drive, then stick the Windows XP CD in and then use that to begin the Windows installation process. It will have an option to reformat drive first as NTFS, once you complete formatting to NTFS - STOP the installation process, then it should be back to normal (don't forget to switch the drive to wherever it goes as usual!)

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