How to Go to MS-DOS in Win XP and Format a Laptop Drive

Format your hard drive in DOS.

The Microsoft DOS language has low-level commands used to format and partition your hard drive. You can format your hard drive in the Windows XP command line utility. After you install a new hard drive, it first needs formatting so the Windows XP operating system can use the hard drive space. The Windows command line is a DOS prompt that allows you to use the "format" command to format the hard drive.

Instructions

1. Click the Windows "Start" button and select "Run." Type "cmd" into the text box and press "Enter." This opens the Windows command prompt.

2. Type "format /?" and press "Enter." This displays all the options for the format command. The most common is the "/s" option, because it copies the necessary DOS boot files so you can boot the drive to DOS.

3. Type "format drive_letter:" into the command prompt. Replace "drive_letter" with the hard drive letter you want to format. Press the "Y" key to confirm that you want to format the drive. It may take several minutes for the drive to format, depending on the size of the hard drive partition.

References

• Computer Hope: Microsoft DOS Format Command