Formatting a drive with abad operating system

[scarecrow1]

I need help in formatting a hard drive were i cannot get to the bios, but i have m/e boot disk that gets me to dos. when i put the command in to format the c drive it does not wotk. the hardrive has xp on it and it is illegal and i am wanting to remove it. i have a 486 with 80 gig hard drive custom built computor. any suggestions?

 

[EXCellR8]

Try deleting the partitions on the hard disk and then try to format it.

 

[kimsland]

Try fdisk at the command prompt
This will remove the entire partition(s)

You can also use this:

Delpart http://www.juliatexas.com/delpart/Delpart.exe
I've used it many times for stubborn partitions removal

Here's some info on it: http://mirror.href.com/thestarman/DELpart.htm

Here's a CMOS reset tool: https://www.techspot.com/vb/post633335-4.html

 

[scarecrow1]

got into bios

got into bios. duh...

i tried fdisk and then asks if i want change the partition because the hard drive is large i say yes then i go to a:> here i try format c: /s /v and i get invalid

 

[kimsland]

c: /s

Also confirm in Fdisk that the partition is active

Edit:

I mean after removing all partitions, you need to then create a new one first, then format

Edit2
You need sys.com on the floppy to sys it (copy over command.com and io.sys)
Otherwise just use format c:

 

[scarecrow1]

where can i go to get the files need to create the right boot disc

 

[kimsland]

Now that's the best question!

I'll edit with the links (just refresh in 5

Edit:

Gparted LiveCD http://internode.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/gparted/gparted-live-0.3.7-7.iso (direct link) For partitioning
These are all good bootdisks: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Edit2:

Ubuntu LiveCD may be best for you (it's a free OS) http://releases.ubuntu.com/hardy/ubuntu-8.04.1-desktop-i386.iso (direct link)

 

[scarecrow1]

i tried the fdisk than format c: /s and the reply is format not supported on drive c format terminated. looks like a paper weight to me

 

[kimsland]

I edited above, twice !