how do i format my hard drive without a hard disk?

Question

my computer is a newer one, so it didn't come with a disk drive, i was wondering how i could completely formart my hard drive

i had to install windows three times, and only the one out of three work, because i thought windows had formatted my hard drive while it was re-installing, but the other re-installed xp editions are still there.

i need to format my hard drive

Answer 1

If you want to format a hard drive , first copy the essential files in a CD. Then start fomatting any drive. I can give you a link that deals with hard drive problems. Some hard drive problems can be easily fixed yourself by using easily available tools. I found the info at http://fixit.in useful

Answer 2

To format the disk press F8 as you turn on the computer. You will get a black screen with several choices. Choose Command Prompt. When the C:/ prompt comes up type: format C: It will ask you several times if you really want to do that. After it is done you will have a completely empty disk. The system repair disk only lets you repair a drive that already has Win7 on it (and if you have viruses this disk will have them hiding there waiting for you). You MUST have a Win7 install disk to get it back onto the drive. The Toshiba probably has Win7 in a special section of the drive. You will see that as one of the choices if you press F8 if it exists. You probably have a user guide for that model that describes this. If not good luck finding it on the Toshiba website. I couldn't find it. Now, why do you need to do this? If you have virus's ask a new question and we might be able to help

Answer 3

when re installing windows you are asked do you want to format the partition on your hard drive, you format the partition in ntfs format, this cleans all previous installs from the hard drive

Answer 4

does your pc say press f10 for system recovery when you boot it? if it does press f10 and do a destructivre recovery DO NOT PUT A WINDOWS DISC IN AND FORMAT THE DRIVE

Answer 5

Steps to Clean Install XP
If the above instructions for configuring your system to boot from CD or you have acquired the necessary boot floppy/floppies; you can now boot the computer and follow the on screen prompts.

Have your Product Key available, typical install is around 30 minutes. If setup seems to hang, wait at least 10 minutes + before restarting system. You should experience momentary screen blackouts.



1. Power on the computer. Press the Pause/Break key as soon as you see text on the screen.
[If you currently are running in an OS of any flavor, insert XP CD and restart computer. Skip to #3 if system is configured to boot from CD.]

2. Insert XP CD into CD drive. Press ENTER to resume booting from the XP CD. (BIOS must support booting from CD and boot order must be set so CD boots before hard drive. If computer does not support booting from CD go to 2a for floppy install).
2a. Floppy install: Boot from Win98/Me/Special XP install floppy disk with smartdrv.exe added to the boot disk or the Win XP set of 6 floppy disks.

3. Look for message "booting from CD" usually located at the bottom of the screen. If you have a factory splash screen, press ESC to unload it.
3a. Floppy install: From the A Prompt; A:\type: smartdrv.exe. then press ENTER. If you are using the XP boot floppy setup disks skip to step #5.

4. Press any Key when you see the prompt to 'Press Any Key"
4a. Floppy install: CD to the location of the CD-ROM drive with the XP setup files; CD to the i386 folder where you will type: winnt.exe to start setup.

5. Setup will start copying files, if you need to install any third-party or RAID drivers press F6 at this time. the copying of files can take awhile.

6. Next you will get the option to repair or enter setup, choose to enter setup. Press ENTER.
To see images full size, place mouse cursor over image and click/double click or press the left button and open.

7. Press F8 if you agree to the license.

8. Setup will scan for previous Windows installations

9. If you are using the upgrade version of XP on a computer without any version of Windows currently installed, this is where you will replace the XP CD with your qualifying CD, XP setup will scan the qualifying CD and instruct you to replace it with the XP CD to continue XP setup; otherwise, you will not see this screen. Clean install qualifying media can be any of the following Win NT3.51, 4.0, 2000, Win 95, 98, Me and XP Home when upgrading to XP Pro.

10. Choose the location to install.
10a If this is a clean hard drive, you can choose to create a partition in the un-partitioned space. At this point, you can allow Setup to use all the space or set a size for the partition.
10b If the hard drive or partition has a previous installation of XP you want to remove, choose to delete the partition by pressing "D". You will then be prompted to create a new partition in the empty space. This will remove all data from the deleted space.
If setup returns a message the partition contains the setup files and cannot be deleted use the info from this link: Delete NON-DOS Partition
10c If you intend to use multiple partitions or dual boot, this is where you specify the size of the boot partition and or setup location for XP. If you are planning to dual boot XP, I would create a small 100 meg DOS partition for the first primary partition, then an 8 to 10 gig partition for XP. You can partition and format the remaining space after XP is setup from Disk Manager. If you do not intend to dual boot, you can either use all the un-partitioned space or create an 8 to 10 gig partition for XP and leave the rest free to partition later.

If a fat32 partition larger than 32 gigabyte is desired, the hard drive or partition will need to be created before running XP setup. XP will not create a fat 32 partition larger than 32 gig, but will support one previously created.

11. Choose the file system from this screen. If dual booting and you created the small 100 meg partition, make it a fat partition. NTFS is configured at the optimal file size during the initial setup. See this link for more on NTFS
If you have more that one partition or hard drive on your system, make sure you are formatting the correct partition/drive.

12. This is where you reinsert the XP Pro Upgrade CD if necessary.

13. Press Enter to continue.

14. Setup will show a progress box and reboot when copying files is complete.


http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

Answer 6

first of all u ned to do a full format but first do a backup to cd rom disc then do a reformat then use recovery option and use disc to reload everything...