Format HDD with floppy

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Kn1ghT

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How can I format a hard drive by only using a floppy disc?
 
yes. but why would you have to?

Use a boot disk. Be it a floppy or a cd. as long as its bootable.
 
Ja, just use the Windows install disk... .but if it is something you really need to do on boot up then use Hiren's Boot CD or Emergency Boot CD.
 
It is a laptop and I can't put the HDD into another cause it doesn't fit. I tried using a bootfloppy and running windows cd from USB (image), but it gives me a harddrive error when I enter windows setup.
I think my HDD partitions are a little mixed up and that is why I just need to format, without using a windows disc. I wonder if I can create a windows 2000 image on the USB drive....
Sorry if I am not talking straight. Btw I'm pretty sure the HDD is working, just think I mixed the partitions.
 
Kn1ghT said:
It is a laptop and I can't put the HDD into another cause it doesn't fit. I tried using a bootfloppy and running windows cd from USB (image), but it gives me a harddrive error when I enter windows setup.
I think my HDD partitions are a little mixed up and that is why I just need to format, without using a windows disc. I wonder if I can create a windows 2000 image on the USB drive....
Sorry if I am not talking straight. Btw I'm pretty sure the HDD is working, just think I mixed the partitions.
Click to expand...

No cd reader on laptop?

Yes you can set up via USB stick or CDrom. Make sure the Laptop can be selected to boot from USB in bios.

Just google for Bart PE on usb

http://www.bing.com/search?FORM=IEFM1&q=bart+PE+usb&src=IE-SearchBox

http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=20&t=11213

http://www.davinciplanet.com/bartpe-as-a-bootable-usb-app/

http://www.msfn.org/board/bartpe-and-usb-no-ramdisk-t102988.html

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=7632&st=120&p=72342&#entry72342
 
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There are a number of options for you:

1) There are adapters that will let you access a 2.5" drive from a IDE ribbon cable.
2) There are 2.5" hard drive housings with USB cables
3) FreeDOS
4) Ultimate Boot CD
5) Bart PE
 
You can download win98 boot iso from net or if you have access to desktop with 98 you can create it there. Boot then with floppy, type fdisk, choose option to delete partitions reboot and from there you can either use windows cd or boot with floppy and create new partition. Use then the format c: command. You will then have a fat32 file system.

Should you boot with a cd, just follow normal installation. You will get options to create partitions, as well to use NTFS and format, etc
 
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Kn1ghT said:
It is a laptop and I can't put the HDD into another cause it doesn't fit.
Click to expand...
If the hdd is an ide drive and the other hdd is SATA, then it won't fit. If it is the same type like 2 ide drives, it should work. There are normally adapters on the ide pins and they differ when it comes to different brands of laptop. Remove your original adapter from your hdd and replace it with the 2nd laptop's adapter and then plug your hdd in the 2nd laptop, It should then work.
 
I am Penguin said:
Try this one first

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd-on-usb-disk

Here is the Hiren boot CD V10 iso download. There are many utils on this CD to fix a HD. Do the stick formating and copy files as in above link then Copy all files from this .iso to stick.

http://rapidshare.com/files/273938731/hirens10.rar
Click to expand...

I have done it. Works a charm. I press F8 on startup and select the USB as starting disk. I fixed a oldish 80G that was inaccessable by reformatting by checking first if the data is worth recovery.

Great! But I actually prefers miniPE²-XT v2k5.09.03 where you actually boot into an XP environment.
 
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