How do you format a hard drive (win xp pro sp2)?

Question

I need to for mat my hard drive and don't remember how.
My OS is win xp pro sp2.
What do i need to do?
My floppy drive don't work if i need to make a bootdisk i need to know how to do it w/o a floppy drive.
Please help!!!

Answer 1

Put the XP CD in the drive and boot from it. Go through the steps to install the operating system. You will be asked to format the C: drive or leave it.

Reference step 10 in http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

You can also use a tool like Darik's Boot and Nuke (dban) - which is available as a bootable CD. It will thoroughly wipe you hard drive making it virtually impossible to recover any data that was once on it. see: http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Lastly, if you don't know how to CORRECTLY burn an ISO image, reference the instructions for your particular burning software here:
http://iso.snoekonline.com/iso.htm

Answer 2

Put xp cd in and boot from that as others have told you, but remember this when it asks you to delete all folders do it and also when it asks you if you want to repair windows say no you want to chose the complete recovery... this erases all that is on the hard drive... which is what a format does... and it will make your pc as when it was new... you must send any files that you want to keep to a cd first, whereas all on the hard drive will be lost...if you do not have a xp cd then call the pc company that you have and tell them your pc numbers, make, and model, and let them know that you need the cd... this is around $ 15 us dollars or so...

Answer 3

Format is easy Just pop in the Windows XP disk and tell it to do a fresh install. It will ask you what your Partitions are Delete all Partitions then format as NTFS and that's it Once it is done it will be formatted and if you do not what to load XP than it will be blank.

Here is Microsoft's How To page
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348

Answer 4

that's been over a three hundred and sixty 5 days when you consider that I put in my secondary stress, yet your new stress must have comprise a CD that, even as used, will run a software that enables you to and XP understand it, map it and format it. persist including your instructions that got here with the stress. if you receive the stress 2d-hand, then attempt to apply the 'upload new hardware wizard'. strong success.

Answer 5

Right Click on My Computer from yur desk, select Manage, then Disk Management. Select the drive you wish to format, Right Click and select Format.

Answer 6

use either a boot cd or boot disk. If you have a win xp install set, boot from the win xp boot cd. It will walk you through the rest.