Formatting my hard drive

[WYDD]

ok, so my computer is a big biotch and i wanna start over. Well, i've tried to format it and it keeps telling me that in essence my c drive is using something. I closed every damn program, so somebody help a brutha out. Thanks.

 

[BearBryant]

are you just right clicking on c: and trying to format through windows? if so, it wont work..

 

[cltbuilder]

Yeah...you're gonna have to do a WHOLE lot more than that. I hope you have a windows disk, a floppy disk, and several hours along with all your program disks, driver disks, and a lot of patience.

Good luck.


Make a startup disk. If you don't know how to do this, follow these steps:

Turn off the machine, unplug the box from all the things that are attached, take it to your nearest computer store, and tell them what you want to do. Charge it to your favorite credit card or pay cash.

 

[WYDD]

no, i've done this before. I think them damn aljahera hackers might fucked with my shit or something. I mean, damn, how can you NOT format your c drive? God damn gateway. Oh well, maybe one day i can afford to buy a new computadora.

 

[cltbuilder]

Because if windows is installed on that drive OR dos is installed on that drive, it is in use while you're trying to format it. That's what the startup disk will do for you. It boots from THAT floppy instead of the C: drive and lets you type 'Format C:' Of course, when you turn your computer back on, you get a cool little

>C:\

and that's it.

 

[WYDD]

i've been using a restoration disk to get to dos. And i have the nice little c:\ and when i type format or format c: i get "bad command or file name." I think that maybe if i take a dump in the cd burner then maybe it'll work right. You guys think that's a good idea?

 

[cltbuilder]

Are you booting from the startup disk? Or the c: drive?

 

[WYDD]

start up disk. I'm doing nothing different than i did before. The only problem i had last time was gateway goback was getting in the way. But we fixed that real quick.

 

[cltbuilder]

hmmm...try this

type

A:

then try format c:\

If the format.exe command is on the A: drive (with the A: drive = the floppy) it should work.

 

[Savio]

uhhh....

what OS are you running now?


you can if you are installing win 98 use the BOOT disk and format that way or if you are trying to install windows 2000, go to the bios and set it to boot from your CD ROM first....that should take care of it...