I have Windows XP Professional installed on my computer. I have some issues with my hard drive and want to reformat it. Each time I go to reformat it, I get an error message saying I can't dismount the drive and in order to force a dismount I should enter Y. However, when I do that, it then it says it's unable to lock the drive. How do I uninstall XP so I can format the hard drive and then reinstall a new copy?
2006-09-21 05:03:06 · 6 answers · asked by nummber69 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Software
you got me stumped babe, never heard that dismount issue before. Did you try the microsoft site, seems like it would be easy enough to search for the solution......yeah it would require lots of reading but you can do it.
2006-09-21 05:05:43 · answer #1 · answered by WitchTwo 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Before you make that decision, you need to be certain at least that reinstalling the OS will resolve the hard drive issue. If the issue is physical, reinstallin the OS will NOT help you. The dismount message appeared because you right clicked on the drive and select format, however you are using the drive you are attempting to format so windows displayed the message. A mounted drive in windows is any active hard drive, but the error occurs if you try to format the the drive hosting windows while in Windows. If you believe it will help, you may want to boot with your OS CD in the drive and follow the steps to complete the re-install. if there are corruption of your hard drive make sure you delete the existing installation of Windows and format then continue install. It takes longer, but it will install a completely clean OS.
I would love to hear how you worked out. drop me a line
2006-09-21 12:42:31 · answer #2 · answered by sharptech101 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You don't ever actually uninstall XP, you just run the Windows setup from scratch which will automatically reformat your hard drive (thus wiping XP and everthing else off it) then install Windows fresh. Just put the XP CD in your CD drive then reboot the machine and the installer should automatically start running.
2006-09-21 12:11:43 · answer #3 · answered by Bamba 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Boot from your CD. You may have to enable the CD-Rom as your first boot device by going into BIOS. When you boot off the Windows XP disc you will see a message at the top of your screen "Press any key to boot from CD". Just tap any key. The option you want is to INSTALL XP. It will then tell you an instance exists. Follow the prompts to Delete your primary partition. Once that's done you'll proceed and get a prompt as to what format you wish. Choose NTFS. The rest is a piece of cake.
2006-09-21 12:12:22 · answer #4 · answered by Cambion Chadeauwaulker 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Do you have some sort drive protection software installed as I have never seen such an error before?
Are you trying to reformat first in which case you could try just rebooting with the cd in the xp disc in the drive and letting xp installer delete and recreate your partitions for you.
2006-09-21 12:10:01 · answer #5 · answered by doyler78 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You must be trying to run the install while Windows is running. Put the WIndows CD into the CD drive and restart the system. As long as the CD ROM drive the first active device it will run the CD. Follow the prompts to either repair your version of Windows or do a clean install.
2006-09-21 12:35:15 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋