Comments on How to Format a Hard Drive With Windows XP

Omg please help! I've just formatted my HDD alright. And the Windows loads up with no problem. And it asks me to do some setting just before finalizing the formatting. But both my keyboard and mouse wouldn't work! I can't press "next" button to go on. What should i do?

Omg please help! I've just formatted my HDD alright. And the Windows loads up with no problem. And it asks me to do some setting just before finalizing the formatting. But both my keyboard and mouse wouldn't work! I can't press "next" button to go on. What should i do?

Many computer models come with a semi automated reinstall of windows. Normally you can check your computer manual and it will explain how. When your computer first boots up there often a key (F2) that you can go into setup. That where the restore function is often started. Always make sure you have any data files backup since these restore function will format your hard drive and all user data will be gone.

when i bring up the box to delete the partion it is grey and not an option for me what do i do now?

I just formatted my computer which came with Windows XP Home Edition. After formatting I installed Windows XP Pro. Now when I turn my computer on, after booting up and loading Windows, all I see is a Black screen as if it is not loading correctly. I have a Nivida Graphics card and have not yet installed my drivers. Could that be the reason it is not wanting to load the Start up screen? (i.e. I'm able to be on the internet now because I used advanced Startup and enabled VGA mode but I can only display is 600x400

if you follow all instructions on "formatting a secondary hard drive" does the original hd return to it's normal max size? do you need a win xp installation cd after completing all the steps? to restore programs? so before formatting, (going through the steps) do you suggest using a dvd+r disc to backup all programs/files?

lot of good info

to baby2girl4: Check your jumper connection settings on your hard disk. If it is the only hard drive you have, set it a master. If it has is a slave set the connectors to master with slave. if it is a slave remove the connectors. the jumper connector settings are at the back of your hard disk.

I'm formatting from the disk, and everything up to and including step 8 work fine. I go to format, and come back 30 minutes later and it is still sitting at 1%. Is this normal, or is there a deeper inlayed problem?

You don't want to format your boot drive from inside Windows, most times windows won't let you but if you change any parameters you may not be able to boot back up. If you are replacing your hard drive, always check the manufacturer's recommendations. There may be some proprietary software that needs to be installed to get the full size when setting up the new drive. If you are formating a USB drive, NTFS is best most of the time but some older systems (Win98 and back) may not work properly with NTFS USB formatted drives. When doing a re-install of WinXP it's always a good idea to format and partition your hard drive during the install. Especially on an older drive as it will check for bad sectors.

PLZ HELP ME ok look first i tried to delete the portion option didntwork then i tried again and the option wasnt there...and i cleaned up my drive some option i found

Everything worked fine for me until Step 4 I only want to format my C: drive but when I right click it, I can't click "delete partition", and there's another unallocated partition. Does that mean I can't format my C: disk?

I followed these instructions exact, but when I did step 4 for deleting any existing partition, I deleted, but I went from an 80GB hard drive to now having a total size of only 31.4GB. WHAT HAPPENED???? Can someone please tell me where I went wrong?

wow... helpfull its work too with vista terima kasih, muchos gracias

formatting taking so long why ?????????

handy tip

Hey thanks getting ready to reformat now. Will let you know how it worked out.guitarman054

@ djjohnny - "You can't delete the partition that you are currently working off of (the boot partition). You may want to use the system cd..."

to 1woodmonger

to 1woodmonger

How do I install XP on a machine with vista I boot up from xp disk .....loading files.......setting up windowsmessage "windows xp cannot locate a fixed drive on machine" I have to close the window vista boots up Toshiba laptop any help or tips would be greatThank You.

How do I install XP on a machine with vista I boot up from xp disk .....loading files.......setting up windowsmessage "windows xp cannot locate a fixed drive on machine" I have to close the window vista boots up Toshiba laptop any help or tips would be greatThank You.

Do anyone every get a response on why the primary partition (C: Drive) would be grey and not allow us to delete it?

Do anyone every get a response on why the primary partition (C: Drive) would be grey and not allow us to delete it?

I have the same problem a 1woodmonger,on 2/24/2009 I've done all the steps to format a second hard drive,everything seems corect and fine, however when I right click on a photo, choose send, my new drive letter doesn't show. In my computer it does show new volume j. I can drag and drop to j, but cant send. Why