reformatting harddrive

[CompuGeek247]

Hi i want to reformat my hardrive. I want it to be totally empty and not have any files in it. Like the harddrive just came from the store. How do i go about doing this though. Because my operating system is on it and i want it gone. So how do i delete my hardrive when im not in windows mode?

plz any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thank you

 

[Rick]

Look no further than this very site....

https://www.techspot.com/tweaks/windows_install/index.shtml

 

[CompuGeek247]

thank you!

you have saved me alot of hours of turmoil

 

[agissi]

Boot into MS-DOS,

format C:

Cheers

 

[negroplasty]

I don't see how giving him a command is going to help ---agissi---, he first needs to have the command present. And booting into DOS will have his primary partition selected if I remember correctly. You will need to make a Windows ME or Windows 98 boot disk and add the format.exe command to it as it is not there by default, at least on the ME boot disk. So then all you will need to type once in DOS will be:
A: (replace A with floppy drive letter, default is A)
format C: (replace C with the letter of the drive you wish to format, default is C if it is primary and sole partition)

BTW, I did not have time to read the page that Rick gave you the link to. So if I have repeated any information that is on that page, my apologies for wasting your time. Good luck CompuGeek247 :grinthumb !

 

[dani_17]

Quick note...

When installin Windows 2000 or XP, you will be asked in which partition you want to install the OS and if you want to leave the file system intact or format it as FAT32 or NTFS.

 

[Tarkus]

If you want to completely wipe the drive including the partition tables you'll need to get a Win98 Boot Disk image, (available on the web but scan for viruses first!) Extract to floppy, Boot from floppy and use fdisk to delete/create partitions and then use Format.

 

[Rick]

Originally posted by Tarkus
If you want to completely wipe the drive including the partition tables you'll need to get a Win98 Boot Disk image, (available on the web but scan for viruses first!) Extract to floppy, Boot from floppy and use fdisk to delete/create partitions and then use Format.

The Winodws 2000/XP setup ALSO includes this option, both in textual GUI and command line form.