how do i format my hardrive when i only got one? since windows is on this hardrive i cant have it opened up when i format the hardrive so i dont know how to do.....
Printable View
how do i format my hardrive when i only got one? since windows is on this hardrive i cant have it opened up when i format the hardrive so i dont know how to do.....
I'm assuming you understand how to reinstall Windows, or whatever operating system you intend on using. If not then ask before formatting, it would be bad to get stuck with a blank harddrive and no way to install Windows.
Anyway... there are many ways to go about doing this, the most simple is probably to reboot, press F8 on the second boot screen in DOS mode. Go to Command Prompt Only, and type "format c:". I have no clue if that will work on Windows NT based operating systems (2000/XP)..
More than likely if your using 2000 or XP, the Windows installation disk is bootable. Simply put the Windows disk in your primary cd-rom and reboot. When it asks you to press any key to boot from cd-rom, press something. The installation process should be pretty self explainitory from there, just make sure you tell it to format and not just reinstall.
If it doesn't happen to be a bootable cd-rom then try to start the installation from your current version of Windows, and then just have it reformat during installation. If it is a bootable cd, but it doesnt automatically start up, then your BIOS probably isn't configured correctly. You will have to go in to your BIOS and find the boot sequence, and make sure "CDROM" is the first boot device, after you install Windows make sure to change it back to HD.
I could probably explain it more in-depth but you didn't really give that much information, and i'm not going to write 10 pages just to cover every possible scenario.