How can I reformat a old computer?
I have a old Bright Star computer with a 533T-AT motherboard and a Socket 7. the hard drive is out of space and want to put a new hard drive in. Right now it has windows xp on the system and I want to put that same os back on. But it wont bbot up into the disk.
Britt Thompson
You can use a utility like Acronis or Ghost to clone the old drive to a new drive. Ghost has a floppy disc creation utility that will be useful.
Is the CD set as the first boot device? When you say it won't boot up into the disk, does that mean it does not see the drive? If so, is it a SATA drive?
If yes, then you need to press F6 when you are prompted to have it install the SATA drivers from either a floppy or USB stick. Otherwise, you need to go into BIOS and set the "Compatability Mode" to Legacy/IDE. If it is too old, chances are that it may not have that option and you may need to do a BIOS update first.
If yes, then you need to press F6 when you are prompted to have it install the SATA drivers from either a floppy or USB stick. Otherwise, you need to go into BIOS and set the "Compatability Mode" to Legacy/IDE. If it is too old, chances are that it may not have that option and you may need to do a BIOS update first.
It sounds like you need to change the boot settings in BIOS.
When it is first starting up - look for something that says "Press --- to enter setup" It's usually Press Delete, or Press F2. or F1. But there are other keys it may ask for too.
When it gets into BIOS (let us know if you have trouble getting there) look for an option similar to "Boot Sequence" or "Boot Order" and make sure your CD drive is at the top of the list.
Then restart and try again
When it is first starting up - look for something that says "Press --- to enter setup" It's usually Press Delete, or Press F2. or F1. But there are other keys it may ask for too.
When it gets into BIOS (let us know if you have trouble getting there) look for an option similar to "Boot Sequence" or "Boot Order" and make sure your CD drive is at the top of the list.
Then restart and try again
Or use a Win98 boot floppy to boot ur machine. you can get it from Bootdisk.com.
ASKER
I set the cdrom to boot up first and then on restart it comes up with reading memory - ok. Detecting IDE Primary Master - ....(press F4 to skip) I have waited and also pushed f4 but nothing happens. It doesnt freeze up because i can go into setup by hitting the delete key and it goes right in
If it doesn't pass that part then it's not finding your hard drive... you say it was working before, right? (Booting into Windows)
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
Create a free account to see this answer
Signing up is free and takes 30 seconds. No credit card required.
Do you have both hard drives installed at this time? Sounds like there's a chance you have the jumper settings wrong on the drives. Most hard drives include jumper instructions on the label of the drive. You can either set both drives to cable select and let the system choose which is first or set one to MASTER and the other to SLAVE.
If you're just getting ready to install the OS on the new drive you'll want to take the old one out while you do it to prevent confusion during the install and the possibility of the new install taking the wrong drive letter with the presence of the old drive. After you install your os you can hook up the old drive and transfer your data.
If you're just getting ready to install the OS on the new drive you'll want to take the old one out while you do it to prevent confusion during the install and the possibility of the new install taking the wrong drive letter with the presence of the old drive. After you install your os you can hook up the old drive and transfer your data.
Thank you much. : )