When reformating? (help)

[thavo]

When you reformat your hard drive, Do you use the slash S, like c:format/s ? I read some place here if you use the /s then you will not be able to load windows 98. Also does anyone know where I can purchase a quick restore cd for a Compaq 5204. Daughter lost her's so we are stuck in the mud. Thanks

[RedBeard]

Accually you will need to have a boot disk, then from the A:\promt you will do a fdisk /mbr, then a fdisk, from there you reboot the system and at the C:\promt change to the A:format C:/s this will fromat the HD so that you can install your OS.

[Student^2]

Originally posted by RedBeard:
<STRONG>Accually you will need to have a boot disk, then from the A:\promt you will do a fdisk /mbr, then a fdisk, from there you reboot the system and at the C:\promt change to the A:format C:/s this will fromat the HD so that you can install your OS.</STRONG>

uh, no. If you do it in that order, you WON'T be able to boot from the c: drive.
Before you format or fdisk anything, please make sure you have an OS to install. You mentioned you lost your recovery CD, do you have another version of Windows?
If you can find the recovery CD, you should be able to boot from it and it will re-install everything for you.

[Sly]

[list=1]Clean Install None Booting CD-Rom[*]Backup all important data and make sure you have a Windows boot disk and code key.[*]Boot computer with boot disk, At the A: promt type "fdisk", answers yes to all. Reboot after completion (power off)....[*]After Rebooting, select boot with CD-Rom support. Type "format C: /S" to format and make your hard drive bootable. Name the drive if you want to..[*]Type "MD C:\Win98. Makes a dir. on the C Drive[*]Insert your Windows CD and type "X:" (where X is your cd-rom drive)[*]Type cd win9x (this will put you in the win9x dir.)[*]Now type copy "*.* C:\win9x" (this copies all Files from the cd win9x dir. to the hard drive win9x dir.)[*]After all files are copy to H/D shut down and restart from hard drive..[*]Type "cd win9x" once there type "setup" ..[*]Follow the on screen instructions...[/list=a]

Where as "Win9X = Win95 or Win98 Some adjustments may need to be done for your machine.....

[thavo]

Thanks so much for the correct procedure. Great site! I did find on the Compaq site that the restore disk is available but won't know for sure untill Monday. If not then Will have to do the format.
1 last question. Will a OEM copy of windows 98 from another computer(mine, different brand) install ok after the reformat? Thanks in advance.

[Sly]

In a word, Yes...... <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0">

[thavo]

This hard drive came from the factory as 4 gigs and was split in 2 partitions C and D. I would like to have only 1 partition when I reformat and have a 4 gig C: drive. Do I have to delete the partitition with a command before I format or does the format command, format the whole drive? If so, what is this procedure? Thanks

[RyanS09]

If you format you will keep your partition information, just lose everything saved on the drive. You will have to use fdisk or some compatible program to combine into 1 drive. If your a newbie, i would recommend just loading windows onto the C: drive then using a program like partition magic to combine them. It offers a GUI that makes it very easy to combine, edit, delete and resize partitions. You wont lose your OS or anything installed by going this route either. For information on doing it the harder way with fdisk, check out

http://www.computing.net/howto/advanced/fdisk/

If your going to do that, do it before you install windows though.

hth
-Ryan

[Sly]

Originally posted by TulsaKid:
<STRONG>This hard drive came from the factory as 4 gigs and was split in 2 partitions C and D. I would like to have only 1 partition when I reformat and have a 4 gig C: drive. Do I have to delete the partitition with a command before I format or does the format command, format the whole drive? If so, what is this procedure? Thanks</STRONG>

• Use a boot disk, Win98 or one of the disks from this site.
• At the A: promt type "fdisk /MBR" (this only takes a secound)
• than type "fdisk" answer yes to the next question (do you want large disk support),
• choose #4 display partitions information,
• choose #2 (if there are only two partitions), after it displays hit Esc. to go back to the menu,
• choose #3 delete partition or Logical Dos Drive, go up the list from there #4 up to #1, this will delete all partitions from the hard drive..
• Reboot machine (cold boot), At the A: promt type fdisk answer yes, and choose #1 , use 100% of the drive.
• Reboot and format C: /S ...C drive is now bootable,

Install O/S
I know I have forgotten something, But these are the basics.. <IMG SRC="smilies/tongue.gif" border="0">