10 replies to this topic

[joebee1966]

hi,can anyone tell me how to formatt an hard drive on a laptop.thankyou

[Matty.N]

hi,can anyone tell me how to formatt an hard drive on a laptop.thankyou

what kind of format?

erase O/S or all files/data/apps etc

[joebee1966]

a complete format to remove o/s and all files

[Jimmy_mac]

guessing your planning to put windows back on it?

If so just pop the windows disk in and boot from that, there will be an option to format first before your begin installing

[Magz]

If you are putting Windows on it, it's best to delete the partition and make a new one before formatting it. That way you can be double sure that you're starting from a clean state.

This link explans that part:

Clean Install Windows XP - Delete the Existing Windows XP Partition

And the full install method can be found here:

Clean Install Windows XP - How to Perform a Clean Installation of Windows XP - Part 1 of 4

[nails]

you will have to boot from the OS disk and then format the drive, you cannot boot from a drive and format it as windows has exclusive access.

[Liverpool2008]

i would make sure you have a backup ( factory setting when you 1st bought your laptop ) that will erase the drive for you and install windows to the factory laptop settings straight away

if you wipe it all clean you will loose the factory settings aswell .. be carefull ..

[todd1970]

A few people have told me about this app Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser. Low Level Format. never used it before though.

Usually just put in XP disc F11 it boot from cd-rom blah blah blah.

[Liverpool2008]

A few people have told me about this app Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser. Low Level Format. never used it before though.

Usually just put in XP disc F11 it boot from cd-rom blah blah blah.

i use kill disk on my laptop and its ace ... i use a USB flash to bootup as no floppy drive on it ...

[jaybee]

Are you just wanting to recover your laptop?

If you are it is likely to have a recovery partion, so you can bring it back to factory setting.

If you format, you could lose your recovery partion.

[lukeym]

u can use the windows disk or you can use a disk called hirens
you could probley download it has many things on it but u can boot from it and it gives u options on erasing the hdd and is reliable i use that