Formatting a Drive...?

Question

How do you format a hardrive and return it to 'Empty', withOUT getting an error that says...
"You have an OS isntalled on this partition, cannot delete"
Or somthing like that??:(

Answer 1

If you have only one hard drive in your computer then you cannot format it in Windows XP. Formatting your hard drive wiping all the files off of it, including Windows XP. Thats like trying to chop your own head. Not possible.

If you have the Windows XP CD pop it in, restart computer. When the "Press any key to boot from CD" prompt come up, press any key like it says and follow instructions. I wouldnt recommend doing this if you havent done this before unless its necessary and you have no choice. Make sure you have all the proper drivers for your hard ware like sound card, video card, network card etc because hardware need drivers in order for them to work in windows. Good luck

Answer 2

You of route opt to study a lot in the previous you do this... noticeably without restore disk. some pcs have the restore software on yet another partition. if you're efficient at formating C: this can be blown away like airborne dirt and dust in the wind. i might want to advise Googling your workstation make and variety and throw in an more desirable key be conscious or 2, like restore, fix, partition and/or format. many situations you may contact the manufacture and request a restore disk. those are frequently about $20 or so.

Answer 3

ya it is risky just enter the Cd of Win XP in the Cd-ROM then format the drive in which u have the operating system and then install the operating system in the other drive and hence ur earlier drive becomes empty for ur use

Answer 4

It's a bit risky, but have you tried the command line

fdisk c:

???