Formatting Help?

Question

I have a compaq hard drive, and i want to restore the WHOLE thing so that there is nothing on it.....how do I do it? I don't have any of the disks that the computer came with.....so what can i do?

Answer 1

Quick question for you, when you say you want to restore the whole thing.. do you want the computer completely empty (ie turning on the machine will get you to a error message talking about inserting a system disk, cause the hard drive is 100% empty, not even windows) or do you want to erase all the data and personal information you have added to the computer?

Answer 1: If you don't want anything on the computer, including windows, download a program called killdisk. www.killdisk.com, and download the iso version for ease, or you could also download the floppy disk version, if the computer has a floppy drive(its a little program that will allow you to create a cd-rom), make the cd-rom, put it into the computer you want to erase, the system will boot from the cd or floppy, and then you can choose the option to erase everything)

Answer 2: like the answer before me, to restore the system to the way it was when you removed it from the box, you can try the f10 on bootup to enter a restore process. If that fails, boot the computer, and check for an option to make restore cd's, as many compaq computers these days get sold without the restore cd's, and it is up to the user to create them using a program on the computer. Usually would be in the start menu, under something like compaq utilities, and create restore media, or something similar to that.

Hope it helps.. worst case scenario, you can order the restore kit from compaq, usually 30-40 dollars @ 1-800-841-2761 (its a older number, they may give you another number to call)

Answer 2

newer compaq computers come with an f10 fearure you tap the f10 key as the pc starts up and it takes you to a recovery partition on the hard drive just do the advanced recovery

Answer 3

Personally, I would go for a Windows Repair before I would go through formatting and reinstalling everything. If you are interested, here is information on repair:

WindowsXP Repair Explained
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/options_to_use_when_a_system_will_not_start.mspx?mfr=true

WindowsXP Repair Tools
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm#How%20to%20Repair%20Windows%20XP%20by%20Installing%20Over%20top%20of%20Existing%20Setup:

http://www.download-download-this.com/4.html?OVRAW=Windows%20Installer%20corrupted&OVKEY=window%20installer&OVMTC=advanced

Fix and/or Repair Windows
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_install.htm
http://www.onsitechicago.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=23&nav=0

How to Perform a clean WindowsXP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Answer 4

Ummmmmm buy windows first.