GRT 0 Posted August 20, 2004 Share Posted August 20, 2004 Well acouple days ago my motherboard died and i took it to the pc shop and they ordered a new one and after they put it in they said my c drive wouldnt work with it. So they gave me a new drive also. They backed up what they could which is important cause i had all my 3Ds MAX scenes ..Ok well after i get the tower all hooked up i looked at what they installed and it looks like they installed all the stuff from the cds. So i said heck..ill just save my important files and reformat. Well i did all that and put the files to a cd, I then put my XP cd in and restarted. I said that i had a xp already on there so i press D to delete it. It then said it was unable to delete it becuase it there were files on that drive that needed to be used to reinstall XP. My question is this..how can i reformat my pc. Also..i dont have another drive just C. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
larocket83 0 Posted August 21, 2004 Share Posted August 21, 2004 sorry I cant help, but I also had that problem when i reformatted quite a while ago. I got my answer on the internet, but I cant remember what I did differently. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GRT 0 Posted August 21, 2004 Author Share Posted August 21, 2004 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Specter 0 Posted August 21, 2004 Share Posted August 21, 2004 (edited) Did you just try to format the existing partitions, or did you try to delete the partitions so that you could make new ones? EDIT: Just out of curiosity, what CD's did they install from? Proprietary CD's, or just an XP CD? Edited August 21, 2004 by PhantmSniper Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dekela 0 Posted August 21, 2004 Share Posted August 21, 2004 (edited) the way i do it is this: insert win start up disk to floopy drive( 95,98) load drivers for cd support type fdixk at command prompt delete all partitons make a new primary dos partition make it active at command prompt, type c:format /s (where c is your hd) insert xp disc and run setup prog. (may need to set bios to boot from cd instead of floppy) sometime a message say's that blah drive is fat32, what do you wish to do select reformatt as ntfs then you should be good to go hope this helps, i can do it, but putting into words is another thing cheers...... REMEMBER...DOING THIS WILL ERASE EVERYTHING ON YOUR HARD DRIVE...BE WARNED Edited August 21, 2004 by dekela Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GRT 0 Posted August 21, 2004 Author Share Posted August 21, 2004 (edited) Did you just try to format the existing partitions, or did you try to delete the partitions so that you could make new ones? EDIT: Just out of curiosity, what CD's did they install from? Proprietary CD's, or just an XP CD? I tried to delete the partition first then make a new one. When i press D to delete it thats when it said it was unable to delete because it needed files that were on the c drive. It was from a XP cd..i think thats the only one cd they gave me that has something to do with XP. dekela: i dont have a floopy drive would it be possible to delete my whole c drive folders. Ive already saved all my files i needed. Edited August 21, 2004 by RR_GRT Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dekela 0 Posted August 21, 2004 Share Posted August 21, 2004 umm...i would say no. you need a boot disc in order to start the installation of windows. maybe wait till someone more experienced answers cheers...... BTW, is it a pre-built system. if it is normally they have a rescue disc with them Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GRT 0 Posted August 21, 2004 Author Share Posted August 21, 2004 argh ..its a gateway..it only came with 1 cd that has something to do with XP(blue "Operating System" cd). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blistr 0 Posted August 22, 2004 Share Posted August 22, 2004 This is the method I use to format C drive on Windows XP. 1. Ensure your PC is set to boot from CD in the BIOS. 2. Boot up PC with Windows XP CD in. 3. Select install Windows XP. 4. Select new installation. 5. Delete the C drive partition and create a new partition. 6. Format C drive and install Windows XP. This method works for me. I did once have a problem trying to format C drive with Windows XP but it was a couple of years ago now and I can't recall the details. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GRT 0 Posted August 22, 2004 Author Share Posted August 22, 2004 This is the method I use to format C drive on Windows XP. 1. Ensure your PC is set to boot from CD in the BIOS. 2. Boot up PC with Windows XP CD in. 3. Select install Windows XP. 4. Select new installation. 5. Delete the C drive partition and create a new partition. 6. Format C drive and install Windows XP. This method works for me. I did once have a problem trying to format C drive with Windows XP but it was a couple of years ago now and I can't recall the details. yea it wont let me do .5. It says its unable to delete the partition because there are files on the drive that are needed to compelet the installation. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blistr 0 Posted August 22, 2004 Share Posted August 22, 2004 I've got a PC here that I need to format so I'll go through the entire process and let you know exactly what I did. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GRT 0 Posted August 22, 2004 Author Share Posted August 22, 2004 ive reformated before just never had this problem Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blistr 0 Posted August 22, 2004 Share Posted August 22, 2004 (edited) I've just formatted and installed Windows XP on another PC and it worked using the method above. I recall when I had the problem formatting C drive on Windows XP there was a hardware change that required the format, the processor IIRC (from Intel to AMD) and trying to format C drive was a real pain in the butt (same issue as yours, cannot format C drive as it is in use by Windows or Windows needs some files to complete the install). I believe I eventually used a third party formatting program to format C drive. I'll do some hunting around... EDIT: Sorry, the third party software was for resizing my partition without losing any information, not for formatting. Edited August 22, 2004 by blistr Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blistr 0 Posted August 22, 2004 Share Posted August 22, 2004 Have you tried using the recovery console to format C drive? This might work. Boot up with the Windows XP CD and select recovery console. At the command prompt type "format C:" (without ""). When you are asked for your administrator password type it in or just press enter if you don't use one. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NightCrawler 137 Posted August 22, 2004 Share Posted August 22, 2004 (edited) I recently had to reformat 2 pc's on both I had to set the cd drive as the only boot device to get it to work properly. Had the same error as you on the first one. Edited August 22, 2004 by NightCrawler Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GRT 0 Posted August 22, 2004 Author Share Posted August 22, 2004 (edited) night how do i set my cd drive has the only bootable one(sorry i dunno alot about this stuff). Edited August 22, 2004 by RR_GRT Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TFO_PAPPY 0 Posted August 23, 2004 Share Posted August 23, 2004 To make your CD as first and or only bootable device you must get into the BIOS. This is done by tapping the Delete key as your machine is running the memory check. Thats the black screen with all the numbers and info that most people don't have a clue to what it is. LMAO. Tapping the Delete key should take you to the BIOS.(Caution: be very careful in this area) You are looking for the Advanced BIOS features, here you will find the First Bootable Device ,2nd,and 3rd. Highlight the first bootable device and change it to your CD, then highlight 2nd boot device and change to none and so on! Exit BIOS saving the changes that you made! Warning: Know exactly what you changed so you could go back and correct it if needed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GRT 0 Posted August 23, 2004 Author Share Posted August 23, 2004 whoa after all this i finally got it done..it was that problem. All i had to do was set my bios to the cd drive and it worked fine..ive got the partition deleted and reformated..THANKS ALOT GUYS..your great Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NightCrawler 137 Posted August 23, 2004 Share Posted August 23, 2004 Good deal. I'm glad I could finally be some help around here. Thanks Pappy for being there with the rest of the answer while I was out playing games yesterday. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Specter 0 Posted August 23, 2004 Share Posted August 23, 2004 umm...i would say no. you need a boot disc in order to start the installation of windows. maybe wait till someone more experienced answers cheers...... BTW, is it a pre-built system. if it is normally they have a rescue disc with them This is incorrect with WinXP. THe CD's are bootable, so you just have to go into your BIOS, and set the CD drive first in the boot order. Put the XP CD in, turn on the PC, and let XP do it's thing. After 3 or 4 minutes, it comes to a screen that allows you to delete and create partitions, and asks you how you want them formatted. Create them, format them, and install XP. The steps you are taking are adding another 15-30 minutes, and alot more play with a utilitity that you don't need to use, and it has been known to be problematic for some folks doing it your way, as 98 ocassionally had trouble dealing with non-DOS partitions. So, knowing this, skip all that boot to floppy crap, and just use the bootable XP CD. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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