What exactly is formatting and why is it necessary?
Formatting is the method of whipping your hard drive clean of previously
installed / stored data. Do not think that the data is completely
removed when formatting, because in fact its not. But, we do not need to
cover this. When you format, you do lose everything that was
previously installed, so if you have important documents, back them
up!.
There are various reasons that formatting is necessary. Some may be
because your computer is lagging horribly and sound and such just start
failing, you have to run all sorts of tools to tweak it and ran
diagnostics, but it’s just not cutting it. You want it back to
stock performance and everything to work correctly, so you just say
screw it and reformat it. Various viruses and worms can wreak havoc and
are not able to be rid of unless you format your pc. Sometimes
it’s necessary to completely delete the partition and re-create
it, then format. As stated previously, there are methods that the more
advanced users may do to dig up past data, usually just file names, but
that is more then enough to tell what was previously on your hard drive
disk.
What is required for formatting?
I will show you some of the tools that you should have when
reformatting. This may vary, depending on what file system you have and
what operating systems been previously installed.
- Win9X Boot Disk
This is used to boot up your PC into DOS for various formatting
operations. The situations call for different measures. Sometimes a boot
disk is a must.
- Restore CD
A restore cd comes with your new computers. They have the factory
settings, drivers, OS and everything you need for your PC to be put to
its factory settings. Some users may have lost this or never got one, so
I will cover some optional solutions.
- Windows Operating System ( OS )
You may have bought or even burnt a copy of a windows operating system.
This does not mean that your computer will install 100% complete
without any problems, this is simply the basic foundation for a newly
installed OS. You may be required to supply drivers and such. Read
later on about this.
What if I do not have a restore or windows operating system cd?
If you are lacking everything that you need, please do not try to
reformat. With that being said, let me tell you what should be done if
you are supplied with efficient tools necessary for a reinstall. If you
do not have a restore cd, but you have a copy of the Windows OS, then
there are various steps you should take for a successful install. First,
determine your PC brand, which could be Hewlett Packard, Gateway,
E-Machine etc. Once you have figured this out, simply determine the
model. I know that Compaq and HP have an auto-detection system to
determine the settings for you, if you have this type of machine, others
might too just make sure to check there official web site and look for
Downloads or Support. With a manufactured pc you should be able to
give them a call and request a new restore cd, depending on how old the
computer is.
If you can not figure out your model and make try using the msinfo32
(start—> run—> msinfo32) or a utility called Sisoft Sandra Pro to
detect your model and make for you. This is also handy if you have a
custom built pc which has no restore cds created for it. Use Sisoft to
determine all of your hardware settings and the type that’s installed,
and then use it on
http://www.google.com
to search for the drivers you need. You must search for drivers that
are designed for the exact operating system you are installing or they
will be incompatible! Mainly, with an older computer, if you are
installing Windows 95/98/ME then you SHOULD download all drivers ahead
of time. If you have Windows XP and are installing it on an older system
then the Plug and Play should pickup most of the settings for you, so
needing drivers downloaded ahead of time would not be needed. If the
drivers are something like video driver then you should download updated
ones from the default manufacturer because MS only supplies you with
the lowest quality drivers possible.
I have everything I need, what next?
Now, you must determine the operating system that is currently
installed. If it is Windows XP then there are more steps that must be
taken in order to format successfully from DOS. If you are on Windows
95/98/ME then the steps are a lot less struggling. If you wish to remove
the partition completely and reformat it and previously had Win9X then
do so, just follow the steps that are required for reformatting an XP
system from DOS.
FIRST STEP FOR BOTH XP & 9X:
Determine if your copy of the restore/windows cd is bootable, or your
computer is setup to boot from CD at startup. Simply place the CD in the
CD-Rom, reboot your computer and see if it tries to read the cd before
starting windows. If, instead it reads something like the A: drive
first, then you must change the boot-up sequence to CD-Rom first. This
method varies by the type of motherboard you have. To enter your BIOS to
change the settings use either F1 or Del. These are the two mostly
used ways of entering, if that’s not doing it, it should say what key
to press to enter bios setup. Look for the option Boot, they should be
presented like Floppy Disk; Removable Devices, CD-Rom, Hard Drive etc.
If its an older motherboard, they are identified totally different, you
will have to look up the sequences online. Once you have changed these
and place CD-Rom at the top by usually using the + and - keys on the
number pad to your right, save the settings and reboot. If it does not
pickup the CD-Rom and ask you for various operations, then the CD is not
bootable, which is where a boot disk comes in. If the CD is not
bootable, make sure to set the boot first priority to Removable Devices
or Floppy Disk.
Any asterisk that is provided means the steps are used in conjunction with each other.
Restore CD’s
1) Place the Restore CD into the CD-Rom once you have determined that its bootable
2) You will be given a list of various options for restoring. Make sure
you choose something like Clean Restore, they should provide
descriptions of each.
3) Just follow the required steps for installation, its all self-explanatory with a restore CD.
4) If the Restore CD does not provide any means of a clean install, just
a over ride of the current windows install, follow the below methods
up to format it.
Booting From a Floppy **
1) Grab yourself a bootable floppy disk at
http://www.bootdisk.com designed for Win9X. Any will work just as long as it provides access to DOS and CD-Rom activity.
2) Provide a 1.44MB floppy disk that is not needed and install the boot disk files to it.
3) Place the floppy disk in the floppy drive and restart.
4) Once its reading the floppy a menu will come up and ask if you wish
to boot with CD-Rom support, choose the option to boot into this mode.
Windows 9X Non-Bootable CD(**)
1) You will be given a command line interface, depending on what your
default drive letter is, it would look something like C:>, if its
A:> simply type in C: and hit enter.
2) Simply issue the command format C: where C: would be the default
letter of the drive. It will ask you for confirmation, just type Y.
3) The formatting phase will start, it could take a while depending on the size of the hard drive.
4) Once finished, it will prompt you for a volume name, which simply is
what the hard drives label will be, its not necessary but you may enter
something if you wish.
5) Now, you will be dropped back into a C:> prompt. Enter in the Win9X CD to the CD-Rom.
6) You must now drop into the CD-Rom drive to issue commands from it. To
do this simply type in D: or whatever drive letter has been assigned
to the CD-Rom
7) Once it shows up as D:> type in Setup and the setup phase will
initialize, just follow the simple steps and you will make it.
Windows 9X Bootable CD
If the CD is bootable, then you will be given similar options that a
floppy boot disk would provide. Make sure to startup into DOS with
CD-Rom support. Do not startup from hard drive or this will just load
your current OS. Just use the above methods once you have chose to
startup into DOS. Then follow the required steps provided when you are
in the command prompt.
NOTE: Be sure that you have the correct drivers for your machines
specifications or you will come across a lot of driver problems.
Windows 2K/XP Non-Bootable CD w/ Win9X Boot Disk (**)
1) Once you have got the DOS prompt in front of you issue the fdisk command
2) You will be asked “Do you wish to enable large disk support?” type in
Y. This simply allocated all the possible space for large sized hard
drives.
3) We must determine the type of file system you have. Choose the option “Display partition information”
4) Look under the tab labeled “Type” if it is FAT32 then it will be a DOS partition, if its NTFS then its a Non-DOS partition.
5) Hit Esc to go back to the first options
- If it was NTFS choose the option “Delete Non- DOS Partition” which is option 3.
- If it was FAT32 choose “Delete Primary DOS Partition” which is option 1
5) Next you will be asked to enter the number of the partition, which is
will probably be 1, unless you have two hdd installed. If you are not
sure which one is which, the default selected partition will be the one
your windows is installed on, so choose that one.
6) It will ask you for the volume label, if there is even one entered, them type it in as it should be typed.
7) Now, it will ask you if you are sure you want to delete this partition, type Yes.
8) It will now tell you that the partition has been deleted, hit Esc to continue.
9) You have the list of options at your view again. Choose “Create DOS Partition or Logical Drive”.
10) Now choose “Create Primary Dos Partition”
11) It will now ask you if you wish to enable the full size of the HDD for that partition and make it active, choose Yes.
12) It will create the partition, it might take a little while, but not
long. Once this is done, it will ask you to restart your computer.
13) Restart with the boot disk inserted, get back into DOS Prompt and now type in format C:
14) Once its done formatting and you have optionally entered a volume name, enter the Win2k/XP CD into the CD-Rom.
15) Browse to the assigned CD-Rom drive letter by simply typing D: where D would be the drive letter
16) Now type in the following: “cd i386” and it should drop you into something like D:/I386
17) Now type in “winnt” and the setup phase should startup, just follow the required steps.
Windows 2K/XP Bootable CD
1) When you startup with the CD entered, it should say “Press any key to boot from cd” or similar.
2) It will load all the necessary files to give you a graphical users
interface for the setup, instead of a DOS based environment.
3) It will ask you if you wish to install Windows XP to press Enter, so do so.
4) Now comes the license agreement, simply press F8 to move on.
5) You will see your partitions, choose the one you wish to install 2K/XP to then press Enter
NOTE: If you wish to delete the current partition and recreate it, then
simply press D, Enter, then L to the next given screens then choose
this as the partition you wish to format and install.
6) Now you will get a list of options to to format the file system. Choose “Format the partition using the NTFS file system”
7) Now it will format and copy the required files to startup the setup
once you reboot. A warning will popup telling you its about to reboot.
8) Let it reboot and do not press any keys and wait for it to reboot,
the Windows XP logo will show up and then initiate the rest of the setup
You should print this out so you may refer to it when needed.
2.In the new window click Advanced System settings.
3.Go to the Remote tab,and check 
4.Click OK 3 times to finish the setting
Then input the ip address or hostname of the computer you want to connect to,click connect then input the username and password.Now you have connected to this remote desktop,good lucks!
