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Topic: format hard drive? |
Mickey Lawson
From:
Cleveland, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 11 Apr 2006 11:57 am |
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| I have two hard drives. Drive D has windows XP installed, and all programs are being loaded to D-drive. Drive C is the original, smaller drive; and has windows 98 installed (it's confusing). When I boot up, it gives the option of selecting XP or 98. How can I format (or clear off) windows 98 from drive C? When I boot on drive D, and go to my computer, right click on drive C, it won't complete the format of drive C?? Anyone know how to force a format of drive C?? Thanks. |
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Ray Minich
From:
Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra
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Posted 11 Apr 2006 1:03 pm
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Here's one way...
Assumes familiarity with tickling the OS.
Disconnect the D drive from the ribbon cable.
Set your bios to boot from the floppy (A) first.
Create a "clean boot floppy" from Win98, put the "format" program on it. This is done by creating a startup disk, then modifying it's contents appropriately.
Boot the PC from the floppy and step on the HDD with the format program from the floppy. |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 11 Apr 2006 1:30 pm
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You can format the Win98 drive from within the Windows Explorer. Just right click on the drive letter and select Format.
You will probably have to clear the "dual boot" in Windows XP. This looks like an easy way to do it, but I've never tried it. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1645209,00.asp |
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Wayne Carver
From:
Martinez, Georgia, USA
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Posted 13 Apr 2006 6:10 pm
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Like Ray said disconnect the D drive. That way there is no chance of messing it up.
What I was wondering is after you format the c drive , which should be easy from a win98 boot disk, how could you make your XP "D" drive the "C" drive? I guess if it was the only one installed it would be the c drive or maybe if it was on the end of the ribbon cable or the way the hard drive jumpers were configured. |
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Mickey Lawson
From:
Cleveland, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 16 Apr 2006 11:18 pm
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| Apparently there is a path on the XP-drive-D, to where Win98 was on the C-drive. Was abel to delete all of Win98 from, and format the C-drive, but still get the selection window for both drives when I boot up. If I select win on C-drive, says path needs configuring or components missing, (if I select XP on D-drive computer boots ok). Jack, I tried the PC-magazine solution for two o/s on one drive, and ended up formating the XP-drive (had to reload router, virus protection, etc. (tried to load Symantic System Works for the third time-said I had exceeded number of uses) duh. After accidentally formating the XP-drive D, selection window remains; must be in the bios--but I can't find anything else to change. (Wouldn't boot up when I disconnected C-drive, had reset D-drive to master then cable select). Guess I'll live with it for awhile. Thanks everyone. [This message was edited by Mickey Lawson on 17 April 2006 at 12:25 AM.] [This message was edited by Mickey Lawson on 17 April 2006 at 12:33 AM.] |
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