Giving away computer and need help formatting it

[david_m]

Hey, I am getting a new computer in a few days and I am giving my old one to mi sister and I need to know how to delete and uninstall everything on it and then reinstall windows on it. I was told to do RUN>command>fdisk>enter . Is that correct. How do I work it?

[keylay31]

Well, I'm no expert, and I would get confirmation first, but to format a hard drive, you can right click the drive (in my computer view) and click format. Note: I have no clu what happens when it trys to clear the files you are using... fdisk does work, but you might run into the same problems... do you have the original Windows CD's? You might try popping those in and see what the options it gives you are. If your comp doesnt boot off the hard drive, go into your BIOS and change boot order. Hope this helps.

[Senator]

I'm far, far from an expert... but I think if you're running Pheonix Bios you can format from within bios. View hard drives, highlight, enter, format.

You'd then need your Windows CD to reinstall. Once it's formatted, boot with the Windows CD in.

I'm not sure if you can format from within AmiBios or whatever... but I know it works in Pheonix.

[Murray S.]

Howdy:

Contray to what has been said thus far, you CANNOT fdisk or format a drive that is in use which is what the previous answers will be having you try!!

Follow the next tutorials I am going to link you to.. They say they are for Win98 but it is the same as for ME !!

First of all, you will need a WinME boot floppy.. the download is available from www.bootdisk.com

Fdisk to Remove Partition (http://www.cybertechhelp.com/tutorial/article/how-delete-a-partition-using-fdisk)

Create A Partition with Fdisk (http://www.cybertechhelp.com/tutorial/article/how-to-create-partition-using-fdisk)

Format A Partition (http://www.cybertechhelp.com/tutorial/article/how-to-format-a-partition)

Install Windows (http://www.cybertechhelp.com/tutorial/article/how-to-install-windows)

Murray

[Senator]

Murray, I'm definitely not second-guessing you, I only ask for my own benefit - clearing my own confusion. I was under the impression that when in bios, the hard drive is not in use. I thought bios was stored on the motherboard. So, why is there a conflict to format from within bios?

[Demonstroke]

I would recommend putting in the installer disk for windows and just formatting the whole partition from the windows installer. Easy and fast.

[Murray S.]

Murray, I'm definitely not second-guessing you, I only ask for my own benefit - clearing my own confusion. I was under the impression that when in bios, the hard drive is not in use. I thought bios was stored on the motherboard. So, why is there a conflict to format from within bios?

Because BIOS doesn't have a format or fdisk option.. those are DOS commands and not available in BIOS !!

Murray