VERY URGENT need to format

[MorseLady]

Due to a house move last year and a near nervous breakdown I have not worked on a computer for over a year and I have forgotten much of the stuff I learned and of course failed my MCP exams.

I need to format my husband's C drive to do a clean install of XP Home as I messed it up last night and the so called recovery disk put another very flawed copy of XP on the same drive alongside the original copy with a dual boot function on startup. I want to format, my husband's instructions are to format as he has let all sorts of nasty trojans and things on his computer only format will erase as NAV will not clean it up and yes he does has a Firewall as I put Norton on for him.

I have tried using floppies and setting the BIOS to boot from floppy but I cannot seem to get the A prompt and when I do get it the command "format c:" does not work but I have used this procedure with XP and 2000 in the past with Advent and HP machines. This one is Evesham and wonder if that is the problem?

H E L P PLEASE! I'm going ballistic! Please explain things clearly as I cannot grasp complicated explanations at the moment.

[street1]

Golly,Sorry about all your personal problems.Hope all goes well.
EDIT:
http://www.evesham.com/info/article.asp?e=E6166337-7327-44DE-BDE8-15F6FA723952

Above site would still have your computer hard drive prepared for a boot with the Windows XP CD and a fresh install.

http://www.evesham.com/info/article.asp?e=C3D6B895-A425-4986-9BD4-93B16D855898

Active killdisk formats your drive back as to new.It will make a floppy disk to format your drive.It's a hard drive and partition eraser utility.

http://www.killdisk.com/

The file you download from killdisk is-Download Bootable Disk Creator for Free Version of killdisk(USB Flash and Floppy}.

[MorseLady]

Thanks but your link pointed to Windows 98 and I cannot find a link to XP on that site.

I do not want to use stuff like Killdisk, I merely asked how I format the c partition using the DOS command format c: which for some reason does not work although I can access other DOS commands using the floppy from A drive.

[John_K]

MorseLady, your WindowsXP disk or recovery disk should give you the option to format or even delete partitions. Have you tried to boot from the CD?

[MorseLady]

John I booted from the so called recovery CD which gave me no options unlike previous computers it just went straight into a windows install and put a very poor copy of XP on c drive alongside the old one so now qwhen you boot you get asked which OS you want.

I was hoping to have the option to reformat the c partition. I have tried the cmd prompt from Windows but of course you cannot delate a partition or OS in use.

The only other partition on this PC is a data partition.

My husband is getting angry at me as he seems to think because I have done MCP courses I know it all but I failed my exams and have memory problems due to stress.

I should be able to put any boot floppy in and type format c: at the A pronpt, this worked on previous compouters. I can get FDISK but irt gives me no format options.

Angie

[John_K]

If you can get into fdisk, you can delete the partition. That would force your recovery CD into recreating and formatting a new one. I would much prefer having XP create and format its own partition than having XP use a FAT32 or FAT partition created by a DOS disk. One small bit of warning. Lots of OEMs have a diagnostic partition alongside the main partition containing utilities, drivers, even the WindowsXP setup. I usually see no adverse effects in killing this but I am not familiar with Evesham and how they do things.

[Ferrit]

Restore cd's are set to do just that.
Restore the computer back to what it was originally when you first got it.
The fact that it has put a second install on the harddrive suyggests it may be a flawed restore cd.
I would try another matching XP cd and boot to it and then do a format from there.
Just be sure it matches as in home or pro

[MorseLady]

Hello Ferrit,

The XP CD for my machine is XP Pro but I might have an old pre SP1 copy of Home knocking about.

On the HP and EI/Advent computers the restore CD did the lot for you, especially the HP, from format to configuration. The CDs that Evesham provide seem to be bog standard Windows OS discs and nothing else and all the drivers come on separate discs and that in bcludes video and m/bd drivers

I seem to be stuffing up everything I do because as well as not being able to fix his computer I have messed up his mobile phone because I took it to the shop (the Link) to be put on the same network, Virgin, as I am to save cross network charges and now he has lost all his contacts and the clock and blames me.

I will never do anything again for him, he can pay in future. I am no good anymore,

[MorseLady]

I cannot get anywhere. The machine will not let me format anyway and I have tried 3 XP discs all the same go straight into instal no options. I can get lots of DOS commands to work at the A prompt from a floppy but CD and FORMAT C: do not work get bad filename or similar. Have driven down to town and borrowed a DOS book from the library but I am typing the right commands.

I will just have to take it to the shop but I am so ashamed because they know I was doing MCP/MCSA and I will have to admit to them that I cannot even format a drive and do a clean instal of windows on this machine and yet I have done it many times on other machines with XP home and pro, Server 2000 and Server 2003. I am desperate please advise further thanks and just wonder as this machine is very noisy and sometimes keeps shutting down and coming on again whilst trying to boot it's not me at all? But I am not going to pay one pound a minute to talk to Evesham! The on-site warranty is up and cannot use return to base because we lost the boxes when the moving men who unpacked because we moved under a council scheme for elderly and disabled took all the rubbish away and took our own boxes with theirs. Evesham specify must have box for return to base and anyway I cannot make out their so called support website. My mind is goingf over this and the more I try the more hard it gets, it was the same with my MCP exams, the more I tried the lower my score on test preps and actual exams. I am burnt out!

ADDED LATER

I have told my husband that I need a break from this problem whilst I think it out and seek advice and would he mind carrying on using my spare XP computer for a week or so and I will put thius in the cupboard for now and go back to my own clean and very well run XP Pro computer and carry on watching this forum for any advice. My husband has agreed to wait.

[Ferrit]

Morse Lady you just need to step back and take 5 thats all.
Sometimes we get in a loop with the machines we are trying to fix and cannot seem to get out of it
Put in a pre SP XP cd and boot to the cd .
The first screen is allways
Do you want to setup windows now or do a repair from the consul
Chose Setup windows now.
Second screen is Read the agreement and press F8 to agree
Third screen after it searches for harddrives finding harddrive and displaying some options.
1 option is do a repair install.
2 option is Delete the partition
That is the one you want. Kill the partitions completely to start and then make a new parttion.
Now I think i have it all right but you can view this poage and print it and it is correct
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

1 note sometimes we use reset instead of shutoff and we get stuck in a loop so be aware of turning it off cold and starting from scratch which may help

[CCT]

Failing that last working (assume maybe some terrible virus stopping you from getting a decent reinstall from cd/dvd):

Put a floppy in your GOOD comp a: drive

Format a: /s

Download the Kill Disk zip file you were advised from here:

http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

to the formatted a: drive and

download and read the instructions (pretty basic anyway but why not)

On the OLD comp, set boot priority to 1st = a:


insert the floppy, and boot

Kill that HD

Then start fresh with the XP install

Might work-


Be well - everything has a time and reason; the thing is, try to use reason every time!

:)

[MorseLady]

Before we go any further I did a Norton scan and a trojan called entry.dll has been detected and Norton cannot repair it, is this the problem? I accepted Norton advice to quarantine the virus.

[geeksRus]

try the link below ML:
Clicky (http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/format_XP.htm)

[mduren]

ok ..... first the reason your floppy may have not worked is because it may not have the format command on it...not all boot disks do....try going to www.bootdisk.com and get a new bootdisk...another thought..can you identify the hard drive, who makes it? you may be able to go to the manufactors web site and download software that will format the drive i.e http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.8db0c3d6932ced37294198b091346068/?channelpath=%2Fen_us%2FSupport%2FSoftware+Downloa ds%2FView+By+Category%2FDesktop+Storage%2FDiamondM ax+Family

[xpuser357]

You also can download the utility of the harddrive Manufacturer and write zero`s to your harddrive for a fresh like new harddrive. then place your windows cd and boot from CDrom.

[futuretech]

http://www.nerdlabs.org/bootdisks/

This is a link to download bootdisks that comes from a link inside the link given by
GeeksRus (if that makes any sense)

[MorseLady]

Not having the right boot disk makes sense as the ones I tried were all made on previous XP xomputers and one is the W98 CD ROM support boot floppy. I tried everything from Boot Magic discs to Norton rescue discs but as I said non of them have been made for our Evesham computers.

I put my husband's computer in the garage last night because it was getting me down and I am using my own at the moment. I am a bit stressed at the moment and have a migraine so will leave it until after Wednesday(visit by his sister who I dislike) then I will get it out and take on board all the good advice on here. In the meantime I will make those new floppies.

Thanks everyone.

[MorseLady]

I had another go today and the specific problem is that whatever boot disc I use and I made a new one today and I did make sure it has the format command but if I type FORMAT C: it always comes back with INVALID DRIVE SPECIFICATION. I tried it on my own XP Pro machine and got exactly the same message yet I did this many times on other machines with XP ie HP and Advent/EI and these machines were partitioned too.
Before we go any further SPECIFIC QUESTION Why can't I get FORMAT C: ? Is it the AMI BIOS ?

[Ferrit]

OK Moreselady
This is what I see happening. The computers giving that error are NTFS file system.
Computers up to windows had Fat32 which the format command worked on
Now in both windows 2000 and windows XP there was an option to use Fat32 so likely the ones you did this on had Fat32 partitions On this bootdisk you have you can use fdisk and remove the partitions.
That is one option but if you have a XP cd and the computer is set to boot to the cd and does then the options to remove partitions will be there as well as the option to format using Fat32 and NTFS

[MorseLady]

Thanks Ferrit but what I don't understand is that on two other computers where I am running a partition with XP Home on NTFS I was always able to insert almost any boot floppy, type FORMAT C: and get to format - hey I wonder do I have to change to C drive first by using the CD command? My old computers, one with XP as system OS and one with ME as system OS and XP dualo boot, both have recovery discs but Evesham, only supply the bog standard OEM Windows disc with separate discs for MBD, Video card, sound card, another disc with other drivers and discs for Works and applications.

I have borrowed a DOS book from the library because I have forgotten all I did know and still cannot understand but such was the extent of this near breakdown I had as a result of moving after 32 years in the same house I have lost a lot of knowledge and this includes my ability to paint or play music not just IT.

[Archer]

Thanks Ferrit but what I don't understand is that on two other computers where I am running a partition with XP Home on NTFS I was always able to insert almost any boot floppy, type FORMAT C: and get to format - .

Be cautious here these systems may have a fat/fat32 partition on them i.e. for a recovery partition so this being the only one visable as DOS applications like FORMAT cant see NTFS partitions,would be nominated as "C" by the format command.To read/write to an NTFS partition in DOS you would need a third party application such as NTFSDOS or use a tool such as Partition Magic.

I cannot get anywhere. The machine will not let me format anyway and I have tried 3 XP discs all the same go straight into instal no options

Part of the install process is the making and/or deletion of partitions are you not getting this far into the install or does it simply not show up?

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/5792/install3vl8.th.png (http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=install3vl8.png)

[MorseLady]

The disc supplied by Evesham goes straight into install without asking me what I want whether I boot from it or start it from Windows and so far it has put another very corrupted copy of Windows on drive C alongside but hidden from the original instal and also a part instal ie when I boot I get a boot screen to choose between two versions of windows XP or the part instal all on drive C.

The more agitated my husband is getting over it (he is slightly senile due to illness two cardiac arrests and medication) the more I cannot get on with it and get agitated myself. I feel like throwing it on the skip! will be driving past there later too!

There is a hardware problem now too it seems because it won't boot unless I pick it up and put it down a few times. When you switch it on it starts up with a dreadful hum(been noisy for ages but my husband is deaf and could not hear it)closes down, starts up again all on its own etc etc etc until I pick it up a few times and shake it gently or put it down firmly. It is still under warranty but this does not cover the hard drive I suspect is faulty and I am not going to open it up. Also it has a trojan which Norton cannot get rid of.

Any clues there?

Off out shopping CUL and thanks.

[NooNoo]

I have a sneaking suspicion you have Go Back on that drive... can you check?

[jitBob]

You probably have a hidden partition. Have you tried booting from the hard drive's manufacturer's utility disk and doing a zero out of the disk? I suspect that you will get nowhere until you remove that hidden partition.

[Archer]

Despite the corruption problems Id suggest you get the hardware looked at if its under warrenty it does sound like this is compunding the matter somewhat and making life harder for you to do the reinstall.

If it is the harddrive you can test for this using the drive manufacturers diagnostic tool supplied as freeware on their website that runs from a floppy disk.
The site below has links to the major players
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

[CCT]

This is a great article - read through it and save the URL - it will refresh your memory on many issues.

http://www.techrescue.net/guides/prepdrv8.asp

[MorseLady]

DONE IT!

Thank you Atodini for the email and setting out step by step what I needed to do and as soon as I started I saw where I went wrong before and then it all came back and it was a doddle from then on. I chose the slow NTFS format as you advised and listened to Mozart.

I have yet to instal the drivers and BTW I found the chipset drivers on a floppy and the rest are on CDs but I will leave that till later as I have an MCP exam at 2pm and it's now 2.30am. I connected the computer to my wireless router so I could use the broadband to post this.

Funny thing I think doing this has helped me focus on my MCP exam which is the XP Pro one.

Thanks Atodini and everyone!

Angie

[MorseLady]

No wonder I had problems with formatting and reinstalling Windows on my husband's computer because I failed my MCP exam miserably ie similar mark as before 474 but my worst section was Installing with only about 125 percent right and my best was the hardware and driver bit about 80 percent, surprise as I thought this was my weak point.

I never went to any XP courses and now wish I had done the Server 2003 exam as I did go on the course two years ago but run out of voucher entitlement now so that's it unless the College allow me to join a course in September when I get more vouchers.

I am a dunce let's face it and without you folk helping me I would not have got my husband's computer up and running again.

Well at leasst I did do the City and Guilds Level three Server 2000 a few years ago and got a certificate but it's not MCP is it.

[Atodini]

Angie,

Commiserations....:sad:

Don't be too hard on yourself - at least you're going for it, unlike most people!:thumbs:

Just bear in mind the old Frank Sinatra song....

Once there was a silly old ram,
Thought he'd punch a hole in a dam,
No one could make that ram, scram,
He kept buttin that dam.

Cause he had high hopes, he had high hopes,
He had high apple pie, in the sky hopes.

So any time your feelin' bad,
'stead of feelin sad,
Just remember that ram.
Oops there goes a billion kilowatt dam!

You'll get there, honest.:kiss:

Back to your husband's machine, I think that the floppy you have might be for a RAID or similar driver rather than the actual chipset driver as these are normally supplied on the driver CD. Won't do any harm to install it though.

John

[Ferrit]

MorseLady all i have to say is
BEEN THERE DONE THAT
Dont stress

[MorseLady]

Hello John and Ferrit,

I have had an email from the MCT whose courses I was once on saying that there is no longer Government funding for Microsoft and CISCO Academy courses at North Herts College and all candidates have to pay their own course fees plus materials and exams, whereas before it was all free for concessions. It would cost me over £300 per component and it also applies to all other IT courses such as webmaster and CISCO. So that's the end of the dream............ :sad: but at 65 I am hardly looking for an IT or any career now. I will forget about exams and courses and just enjoy being a geek :cool: and maybe find time to get my amateur radio station back on the air, we moved 15 months ago so I had to close it down.

I have not resumed work on my husband's computer yet as I have been feeling sad and restless all evening so I got the Ground Force DVD out and we had a good laugh.

I will have a look on the CD to see what drivers are on there and noted what you say about the floppy John and thanks. I think I can set up the machine without further problems.

In my previous post I said 125 percent right in the Installation questions I meant 25 percent. I have obviously forgotten a lot about installation or I would not have had the problems which led to this thread

Thanks again for all the help and advice.