How to reformat?

Exfoliate

Exfoliate

Geek Trainee
This may sound pretty noobish but I honestly don't know how to reformat my drive. Anyone want to give me the ins and outs? I don't care about recoverability just so long as all the viruses are purged. I'll just make a small partition for XP if a need it and install SUSE 10, which I'll naturally need your help on as well, (ordered it today):)
 
To reformat your drive for windows XP, put your XP cd in and boot from it. And then when the menu appears press R to go into the recovery console. You'll have to login as the admin to do this, so if you have set an admin password use it, if you get an error then try just leaving the password field blank and hit enter.

To format the drive with ntfs, use the "format c:" command, it'll ask you a question and then start formatting. Once its done you'll have a reformatted hard disk with NTFS on which you can install XP. After you install XP you can install Linux (always install linux after windows, not before because of its good boot loaders).
 
Thanks Addis. I'll be sure to do that when SUSE comes in about a week (just read 10.1 was out...can I just update 10?) Appreciate it man:)
 
Just so you know, you don't HAVE to go into the recovery console, you can skip that part, and when XP setup asks you what disk to install on, you can delete your previous partition and create another one right there. I find it easier anyways.
 
The weird thing is the last time I tried deleting a partition it wouldn't let me for some reason I unfortunately can't remember. What makes this worse is just a few minutes ago I did as you instructed Addis to no avail. I logged in as the admin, typed FORMAT C: then it lagged for awhile and asked me Y/N, I hit Y and then after a few seconds the <FORMAT C: command prompt came up again as if it didn't recongnize the Y or something? I tried it again with FORMAT C: /FS NTFS and the same thing happened. What is wrong here and why isn't the drive formating! Either I'm really missing something or my copy is all screwed up. Is there any other way to reformat? Thanks all.
 
Do as I instructed, ignore the repair screens, zoom right by that, and when it asks which disk/partition to install to, hit "D" to delete the partition, then enter to confirm, and L to delete/confirm it again. then when back at the main screen hit "C" to create another partition and select NTFS(quick). Voila.
 
Alright I'll try it but it wouldn't let me last time for some crazy reason. Hmmm, might just need to replace the harddrive:(
 
Trust me you don't need to replace the drive. If the above doesn't work, download Hiren's BootCD v7.8 (use torrents), boot from it and find partition magic. open that up and you can format your drives accordingly. Hope this helps.
 
Yep, either that or grab a copy of The Ultimate Boot CD and use the inbuilt Ranish partition manager to format your drive.
From memory (the ultimate boot cd) it's F3 and then F1 to get to it in the menus.
Let us know how it goes.
 
Thanks guys but this is a good excuse for me to pick up a brand new legit copy of XP w/ Service Pack 2 with my parents help. It's a very generous offer that I can't really let go as my copy is crippled as is (can't update the service packs for one). But if push comes to shove I'll definately take your advice:) Thanks.
 
Exfoliate, don't buy a new copy!

In my opinion, and I believe this would be within fair use you can get a copied (not corporate edtion) version of your XP e.g. Home or Pro upgrade/full install. Then use the copied version, but use your license (product code). You've paid for the product, the only thing not original is the actual copy, the license is totally legal.
 
Thanks dudes but my parents told me to just get the copy and be done with it. For $90 off ebay (full legit copy, from a powerseller) none of us were complaining. It would just be good to have an full fledged copy on hand without having to fiddle with anything to beat the system. And since my comp is currently stuck in it's reboot stage of it's XP instalation there's not much I'd really want to do just yet.
Just one mostly unrealated question. The seller gave this description: Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2 SEALED W/COA FREE SHIP, what's COA exactly? Seemed like some kind of bonus but I can't say I have a clue. Maybe it's just some authentication certificate type thing? Thanks all.
 
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