Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of nudels
nudels

asked on

reformatting harddrive

I would like to reformat my harddrive (1.5)gig.I use w95 OS.Can you give me detailed instructions?I know it is real difficult, but I dont want to mess things up. Thanks, MB
Avatar of gward28
gward28

low or high level format do you want OS from old or do you have
the the win95 OS disk ?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of gikam
gikam

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
First thing you need to do is create (if you already don't have one) a System Startup Disk.  Go to the Control Panel, Add/ Remove Programs, Start Up Disk, Create Start Up Disk.  This will format a single disk with all of the system information that you need to fromat the hard disk. After creating the Start up disk you are ready to format your HD (hard drive).  Restart your computer in MS Dos mode.  Type Fdisk, you will be given 4 options.  If you only have one partition chose the option "Delete Primary DOS Partition".  You will get prompted to confirm your choice.  At this point go for it.  You might play around here for a while trying out all of the options (its good experance and you can't hurt anything now) Reboot your computer with no CD's or disk in any of the drives.  You should get a prompt "No Operating System" this means that you are starting with a fresh HD. Now shut down your system and insert the Start Up Disk that you made or had on hand.  Start up your system.  At the A: prompt type Format.  Your system will utilize the files on the Start Up Disk and format your HD as eighter FAT16 or FAT32 which ever the system was using where you made the Start Up Disk. You will be asked how large a partition to format. Unless you wish to have two or more partitions enter the largest value given, in your case it should be 1.5g. After the format is complete you will be able to boot up from your CD or disk drive and reistall your operating system WIN9X or you can utilize a Restore CD if your computer manufacture provided you with one. Any devices that WIN95 doesn't pick up with its PnP you will have to install yourself.  This whole process is a hour or so event and real easy.  The most important thing is to have a "Good Start Up Disk" from the OS that you are going to reinstall later.

If you have any questions please ask.
rlrowland@earthlink.net
Typing omission: after rebooting your system type Fromat c:
Why do you want to reformat the drive?
got it?
Reformatting the hard drive is a big step. Some questions and considerations before starting.

How are you going to get the OS back on the drive after reformatting? CDROM - You will need a dos bootable disk with
the CDrom drivers. Floppy - You will need a dos bootable disk
with utilities. ZIP/JAZ/Laplink - You will need a Dos bootable disk with utilities and the appropriate driver disk.

Follow above directions for a Dos bootable disk. Disk should
also have Fdisk, Format, Chkdsk and Scandisk from directory
c:\Windows\Command from Win95/Win98 OS.

Boot computer with Dos Bootable Disk.
Run Fdisk to remove old partitions.
(Note: Compaq computers have a mandatory Non-dos partition that
should not be erased)
Reboot computer.
Re-run fdisk and make a new partition, max size.
Reboot
Run format, FORMAT C: /U /S
This will format the drive and make put system drives on it.

If you are re-installing windows, easiest is to,
Make a directory C:\Windows\Options\Cabs
Copy all Windows cabs from cdrom/floppies to this directory
Run setup from this directory.