Reformat hard drive under XP? - Comments Page 4

Hi, I successfully formatted my desktop following the steps provided. However, when I reinstall all the drivers from the CD that came with the computer, I couldn't install the ethernet LAN driver. When I search the hardware, it says that there's no ethernet Lan hardware. Do you know what went wrong?

my computer is an AMD Athlon 64 pro. K8T800 Neo

Ethernet hardware: Realtek 10/100/1000 mbps ethernet lan.

thanks.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'd look at the Realtek website for new driver software.

Hi Bob, My computer crashed - that wonderful blue screen - and I haven't been able to get back in. I am able to see the contents on my hard drive using a Linux CD and have saved (hopefully) everything I need to. When I boot from the installation CD, it only starts loading files, then goes back to the BSOD. No format, nothing else. Is it me or the CD?

Thanks!!

EDITOR'S NOTE: My guess is a problem on the hard drive. You'll probably need to replace it.

Hi Bob. My computer runs very slow at times. However, when I do a reboot it seems to work very well for a little while. Then it slows again. I have a DSL connnection and I usually don't turn off the modem when I do a reboot. Is my hard drive about to fail? My modem? Should I do a reformat? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

EDITOR'S NOTE: You can try rebooting your DSL modem once in a while. But this may help more: http://askbobrankin.com/make_windows_xp_run_faster.html

Hi Bob,

I have a C: and a D: drive that each had Windows XP on. The C: drive was somewhat corrupt so I tried to Reformat it which did seem to work but now I can not reboot the computer unless I want to re-install XP. What should I do????

EDITOR'S NOTE: It *seemed* to work, but you can't boot up normally? Sounds like the install process may not have completed. I suggest you wipe the disk with a reformat and then install XP.

Thank you. I was having some problems w/ reformatting, multiple partitions and multiple xp os's. Read numerous help pages but they were all wordy, techy, incomplete etc... You laid it out so that I could follow, understand and succeed. Many Thanks

Bob, I have taken an external HDD and placed it in my computer. I then formatted it and realised that only 31.49Gb are available out of the 300 that it stores...this is about the amount of free space I had on the HDD before I put it in my computer. I've tried putting the HDD back in the external case and it didn't work...now what?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sounds like maybe the format didn't really happen. Does Explorer still show files on the drive? Oh, and maybe there are multiple partitions. Some vendors put a 32GB system partition on the drive and leave the rest for the user.

The format definitely happened, I did both a quick format and a full format through computer management. Explorer wouldnt show the files when I originally put it in, explorer told me to format, which I did. The original partitioning I did myself and it only had one NTFS partition that filled the whole drive. I'm going to try and format it using the XP boot disc with my other drives not plugged in. Also, do you think maybe making it Master (it is an IDE in slave mode, I have 2 other SATA drives, one being my XP drive) instead of slave will help and tell the BIOS to boot the SATA first (which I think it does automatically?)? Thanks for the quick reply, hope to hear back soon.

EDITOR'S NOTE: SATA does not have a Master/Slave model, so the IDE won't be seen as a Slave of any SATA drive. I would set it as a Master, so it will be seen by BIOS as the first in the IDE chain.

Awesome! thnx for the data, this has been the best and most accurate info I found, believe me, I searched in many other sites! THANX!!

I want to format my hard drive and reinstall XP. I boot up from Windows Xp CD and when I go to the format screen, it tells me to select the partition where Windows is installed. To format a new partition, I need to select the unpartitioned space and then press C to create a new partition. I want to allot the maximum amount of space available before formatting, can you tell me how to do that please?

EDITOR'S NOTE: You don't want another partition... you want to format the one you already have.

I had a previous friend work on my computer. He was to reformat hard drive and reinstall Windows XP from my original CD that came with computer. Untill recently I found out he installed a newer bootleg version of XP. Needless to say I can not access any Windows updates. Can I fix this with my original CD or do I have to reformat and reinstall XP?

EDITOR'S NOTE: You don't need to reformat again. Check this page for details on how to validate your bootleg copy of XP: http://radified.com/blog/archives/000306.html

Hey Bob, I wanna ask, If I clean install my Windows XP, I choose the main drive, C: . Do other drive, D:, will be cleaned out? This question makes me frustrated the most coz hard to find such question.

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you choose C: as the install target for Windows, it will NOT affect your D: drive. Likewise, if you reformat your C: drive, it will not affect your D: drive, even if it's a partition on the same physical drive.

Bob, I am fixing my little newphews computer. It's a pentium 2 with about 400mhz (give or take a few). For some reason someone had Windows XP on that poor computer. Anywho, I want to load Win 98SE on it. I was finally able to format the HD but now all I get is an error. Something about.."insert system boot disk"??? I'm going to try and load up the Win 98 boot disk and see if this takes care of it. Any tips?

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you format a disk, there's NOTHING on it. So booting up an empty hard disk you should expect that error. You need to load an operating system on the disk. I wonder why you removed XP... I would strongly recommend that you DO NOT go online with a Win98 computer. The OS is old, unsupported and vulnerable.

Thank you so much for such an easy-to-read and informative page! I am getting ready for ye olde maintenance format and reinstalling . . . it has been a while and my computer is crying out in agony. I want to avoid having to reinstall all those programs and product keys, etc every time I clean my system, so the last time I did the old ritual I vowed that I would create my own custom bootable dvd by making an ISO of my fresh install once I got it reconfigured with my needed software and so forth. What is a good program to do this?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Win XP by itself cannot burn a bootable ISO disk. But there's a little addon that makes it possible. See http://askbobrankin.com/burn_iso_image.html

I have reformatted my hd many times with other PCs in the past without a hitch, but recently I went to reformat with XP on a custom built PC, with an ABIT IL-8 MoBo, and the HD i am using is a Maxtor 6L200PO, 200gb. Prior to the reformat I had 2 partitions on the HD, C and D. I ran Windows On C Drive and All My Gaming and Publishing ware on the D drive. So when I did the Usual, Win Setup, ENTER, F8, MS Validation, Then instead of showing the partitioned data that I WAS going to reformat, I see 194.5 gb (out of 200gb) of unallocated space ?? I have previously had to Del, (then L confirm), but this time it was as if it was already formatted, plus I was missing 5.5gb of space, I continued to do the 2 partition but this time it showed only C then F I am puzzled.

EDITOR'S NOTE: So you reformatted, and now your hard drives are C: and F:? Do you have two physical drives (not partitions) or just one?

Bob, I am trying to reformate my daughters computer. Way to many viruses and junk on it taking up space. She needs a clean slate. Anyhow, I rebooted from CD (xp hoem edition) and when I got to the part to delete the partition it told me it could not be deleted, files needed to install xp. So when I finished installing the new installation, Windows was clean but the c-drive is a mess. Have multiple document folders and start up folder and all the other crap she had on it doubled.

I called Dell and they want to charge me 50.00 to tell me how to reformat the c - drive. I told them to get real. Any suggestions.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Liz, it sounds like you didn't boot from the CDROM. You need to shut down and power off the computer, then boot up with the XP Setup CD in the CDROM drive. If you insert and run the CD while Windows is running, you'll get the error you described.

Bob, I can not get the computer to boot from the xp cd. I have an old windows 98 cd and a restoration cd for my old gateway it boots from them but will not boot from my XP cd. Any suggestions. Note: I tried booting from the window 98 cd and then inserting the xp cd didnt work (didn't think it would but had to try) I don't even get the option to boot from cd or hard drive. It is making me crazy.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Your CD must be damaged. Can you borrow one from a friend?

Bob that is a brand new cd mine was destroyed and dell just sent me a new one. I asked for another one and they said there was nothing wrong with the one they sent me and want to charge me for another. So If I borrow one can I still put in the correct product code number or do I have to try and switch out the cd sometime during installation?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I think you can just enter the correct product code number, no need to swap out the CD.

Hi Bob, Recently had pc worked on to remove viruses and now it is time to reformat. Will I lose any of my documents including pictures, audio and video files by carrying out this procedure? I'm already aware that I'll be loading most of my programs again.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes! If you reformat, you will lose EVERYTHING on the hard drive. Avoid reformatting if you're sure the viruses are all gone. Or make a backup, reformat, and reload all your docs, pics, etc.

Hi Bob, my sons Toshiba Tecra is driving us crazy as it doesn't want to do much of anything especially go on the net.We want to use the recovery disk provided with it to reformat the HD. After we do that will it know its got a battery ,CD drive etc? We've removed all the stuff we want to keep to an external HD.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The recovery disk should bring it back to "factory new" condition, as far as the contents of the HD. You should have no problem with it recognizing the hardware.

Hi Bob, I keep seeing the blue screen of death on my windows xp PC. A process called 'update.exe' has been running at nearly 100% and every time it causes a fatal system error. As soon as I try to do a virus or spyware scan i get the blue screen. What are my options I am thinking its time to reformat. Also when windows try to do its error reporting the error report cannot be transmitted however I can still surf the web. I am stuck on this one.

EDITOR'S NOTE: There is a known virus with that name. I suggest you try using X-RayPC to nuke it. See http://www.askbobrankin.com/should_i_buy_antispyware_or_antivirus_software.html