Format Hard drive

[arj]

Doofness here again, how do i format a hard drive without installing any OS on it. I want to completely clear my hard drive and create a new partition. can this be done in DOS etc, i currently have windows xp

Thx

 

[CyberStorm]

If the drives shows up in My Computer simply right click it and click Format.

OR

Click Start -> Run
Type cmd and press Enter

Type format e: (or whatever drive letter is assigned to drive you want to format) and press Enter

 

[stoke]

EEEK

Right click on My Computer, choose Manage.
Click on Disk Management.
Use disk management to do everything you need to that drive.

 

[arj]

thanks

 

[eitai2001]

I don't think all the above methods would work ... because from what I understand, you want to format the drive with Windows on ... I don't think Windows lets you format itself

What you can do is put in the Windows CD, then you can delete the current partition which will automatically clear everything. Then I you can create more than 1 partition using the windows installer ... Then what you do is you tell windows to do a quick format of a partition ... if it only allows you to format and then install ... let it format ... and the second the screen comes up saying copying files, reset ... otherwise ... create the partitions without formatting and try get your hands on a Windows 98 CD or boot up disk, and you can then format the drives with this.

The easiest option is take your harddrive to a friend, plug it in, and use the Drive manager mentioned above to do what you need.

 

[dotVIBE]

Yeah, you can't format your C: drive unless you booted from somewhere else.

 

[undesign]

While you're at it, you can experiment with something like BartPE to clone your fresh install. Saves you a lot of hassles in the future.

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=82445

 

[arj]

thx guys for all the help, appreciate it