Hello everybody, I want to format the hard disk of my system.

Please can anyone help me to how to go about it? I won't mind loosing all former documents.

If there is a software I can use tell me and if I can download it on the web. Thanks.

The link below will solve the problem but be careful. Be sure of what you intend to do.

http://www.freewebs.com/corpsjames/FormatPartition.html

Good luck

Why do you want to do this? Did you hard disk stop working?

I've tryed to install a new OS yet instead of removing all old files, i find them somewhere on the HD, it has use major part of the HD so i think formating the HD and installing a new OS will help or do you think there is another way out of this, i use the system for my personal use and am not connected to the web,

1. Did you partition the Hard Disk before?

2. Are you on NTFS or FAT32?

ogbon:

Hello everybody,
i want to format the hard disk of my system, please can anyone help me to how to go about it, i wont mind loosing all former documents. If there is a software i can use tell me and if i can download it on the web. Thanks

When u open my computer just right click on ur hard disk nd select format -Simple

I partitioned it
and
It is NFTS

You may need any of this in future.

I will put that of NTFS in bold. Just scroll till you get there, Okay?


Using FDISK
1. Basically FDISK creates partitions (kind of like rooms), on your hard drive.

2. You can have one large partition or divide it into multiple partitions, each eventually being assigned their own drive letter.
3. There are several different ways you may need to run FDISK and hopefully the following instructions covers most of them.
4. If you need to create a Windows98 boot disk with the necessary files, you can download a Win98 floppy with many extras that are not normally included.

5. Boot with the Win98 boot disk
6. Run FDISK
7. The following instructions all assume that FDISK is running
8. Select Y for large hard disk support. This is what allows for FAT32 partitions


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Partitioning a New Drive
(Single Large Partition)
1. Select 1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive
2. Select 1. Create Primary DOS Partition

3. Select Y (the default) to use the maximum available size for a Primary DOS Partition and to make the partition active.
4. Reboot with the floppy
5. Format the drive


,

Partitioning a New Drive
(Multiple Partitions)
Creating a Smaller Primary DOS Partition and Making it Active
1. Select 1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive

2. Select 1. Create Primary DOS Partition
3. Select N to use the maximum available size for a Primary DOS Partition and to make the partition active.

4. Enter the partition size for Primary DOS Partition. The full size of the drive will be shown.
5. Press Enter and the Primary DOS Partition will be created
6. Press Esc
7. There will be a warning that no partitions are set active. You need to do this in order to boot from the primary partition
8. Select 2. Set active partition
9. Enter 1 for the partition you want to make active
10. Press Esc to continue


Making the Extended DOS Partitions and Logical DOS Drives
1. Select 1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive
2. Select 2. Create Extended DOS Partition
3. Typically you can use the rest of the hard drive size which will be shown and press the Enter key
4. Press Esc to continue
5. You will be prompted to create logical drives in the Extended Partition. This is where you divide up the extended partition into multiple drives. For now I'll just assume one extra drive letter of D:
6. Use the full remaining size for the logical drive size
7. Press Esc to continue
8. Reboot with the floppy and Format the C: and D: Partitions


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Deleting a Single Partition

If there is just a single partition that needs to be deleted,
The follow steps detail the process
1. Select 3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive
2. Select 1. Delete Primary DOS Partition
3. Enter 1 for the primary partition to delete
4. Enter in the Volume Label (if there is one)
5. Enter Y for Are you sure
This now brings you back to a hard drive that has no partitions


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Deleting Multiple Partitions
If there are multiple partitions on the hard drive and you want to remove them all, here are some general steps to follow
Basically you first need to delete the Logical Drives, then the Extended Partition, then the Primary Partition
Deleting the Logical DOS Drives
1. Select 3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive

2. Select 3. Delete Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition
3. Enter in the drive letter of the one you want to delete

4. Enter in the Volume Label (if there is one)
5. Enter Y for Are you sure
6. Repeat this until all the logical drives are deleted
7. Press Esc until you are back to the main menu
8. Once you are satisfied that everything is working the way you want, you can delete the old directories.


Deleting the Extended DOS Partition
1. Select 3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive

2. Select 2. Delete Extended DOS Partition
3. Enter Y to continue
Deleting the Primary Partition
1. Select 3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive
2. Select 1. Delete Primary DOS Partition
3. Enter 1 for the primary partition to delete
4. Enter in the Volume Label (if there is one)
5. Enter Y for Are you sure
This now brings you back to a hard drive that has no partitions


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Deleting an NTFS Partition
1. Select Y for treating NTFS partitions as large
2. Select 3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive
3. Select 4. Delete Non-DOS Partition
4. Enter 1 for the primary partition to delete
5. Enter in the number of the Non-DOS Partition, It should show as Type NTFS in the list above.
6. Press the Enter key
7. Enter Y for Do you with to continue
8. Press the Esc key to bring you back to the main FDISK screen.

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Fixing the Master Boot Record
The first sector of a hard disk is called the Master Boot Record.
This contains the partition information for the hard drive and which partition is bootable
Occasionally the Master Boot Record can be corrupted by viruses.
Another problem are 3rd party partitioning utilities that can write a Master Boot Record that can't be used by an NT based operating system.
Fortunately is easy to repair

1. Boot with a DOS floppy disk
2. Run FDISK /MBR

Ciao

Pls how do i get FDISK

Wait a minute What kinda Windows are you using?

Go to the last past of my reply you will see


1 & 2

It seem as if you don't know much about what I am explaining. For an opportunity to see a physical explanation get a specialist and learn from him.

I am kind of occupied, with my  problems this days I would have asked you to bring it over to ma destination. That's if you're in Lagos.

The OS I am using is XPproffesional. I really appreciate ur concern

I think you should get someone with more experience to help you out. You need not lose all your old files.

you can't see an NTFS partition with a win98 boot disk.

Ogbon,
i presume you have a winXP bootable cd ??
move ur files to your secondary partition(if you already have a secondary partition), which would be any other drive letter other than c:

if you don't have a secondary partition, you'll have to creat one. means, u'll need an external storage device to back up ur data - when installing windows, u'll have to delete the old partition and create a new one, snd probably split ur hard drive in two.

run your winXP cd, boot from it, follow instructions and do a format on the the c: partition.

if you don't understand any of what we are saying here, i suggest you seek assistance from a professional.

hayprof:


When u open my computer just right click on your hard disk nd select format -Simple

na wa for you o !

Lmao

kitaun:

Lmao

lol, u laughing?

thanks everybody i've done it, i really appreciate you guys despite you made fun of me i was just stressed because i used know what to do but that night i got furstrated with the system but now am glad and very soon i'll get another on but i have done the formatting.
thanks
lol

you are welcome bro