# Reinstall OS?



## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

I have a Notebook computer that I want to wipe out the drive then reinstall the OS. How can I do this? It didn't come with a Recovery Disk...Just a OS re-installation Disk. When I go to MY COMPUTER And right click on the drive and click format...it says it can't do it because it has files used my Windows.

Any and all help is appreciated!

John


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## digital223 (Dec 19, 2002)

which version of windows ?
what type of format for your hdd do you use fat or nstf?


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

digital223 said:


> which version of windows ?
> what type of format for your hdd do you use fat or nstf?


Windows ME 
Fat32


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## music_beans (Mar 21, 2003)

Why do you want to reinstall anyway?


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## kwajr (Apr 7, 2004)

insert cd and restart machine


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

music_beans said:


> Why do you want to reinstall anyway?


Because it is full of crap...It was a personal computer, I want to clear it off and use it at work. What Does it matter anyway?


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

kwajr said:


> insert cd and restart machine


That doesn't wipe off the drive though? It still keeps my old files.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Delete the partition, then reinstall.


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

Steve Mehs said:


> Delete the partition, then reinstall.


How? All I see is format.


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## digital223 (Dec 19, 2002)

JohnGfun said:


> Windows ME
> Fat32


I use win98se and xp pro........if win me is similar to win 98, and you don't have a start updisk, you can make one with win me then:

insert the start up disk and re-boot with ctrl, alt del.
look for format hdd or fdisk

some mfgrs of hdd's allow you to download a formatting utility that works in dos.
that may aslo be a solution if you don't have a start up disk.
you can also go to MS there are complete instructions on hoe to format hhd's for all versions of windows
sorry i am not really familiar with win me, but the instructions above may be similar
good luck


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## RandallA (Feb 4, 2005)

You need to create a boot diskette (preferably from Win98). 
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Boot from the diskette and run "fdisk", delete the partition, reboot, create new partition, reboot, and format the hard drive.

Boot from the OS Reinstallation CD and install the OS.


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## digital223 (Dec 19, 2002)

RandallA said:



> You need to create a boot diskette (preferably from Win98).
> http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
> 
> Boot from the diskette and run "fdisk", delete the partition, reboot, create new partition, reboot, and format the hard drive.
> ...


I think a start up [boot disk] can be created in win me by going to win explorer, then insert a floppy disk in the A drive. Then right click A in explorer. click format then click start up disk.....once done, refer to the above post.


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

Did book disk...I went to remove partition I got this message...
"Could Not Change Partitions, because the disk could not be locked."


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## RandallA (Feb 4, 2005)

See if this works:

At the dos prompt, before runing fdisk, type in;

lock c:

and confirm when asked, then run fdisk.

Most likely there was a third party utility to create the boot partition and thus the message.


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## kwajr (Apr 7, 2004)

JohnGfun said:


> That doesn't wipe off the drive though? It still keeps my old files.


so the cd doent have a format partitio option


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

kwajr said:


> so the cd doent have a format partitio option


Nope....Tried it. Just a Win ME Disk.


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

I confirmed...Then it says locking operation failed.


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## cclement (Mar 22, 2004)

What brand is this computer? On some Compaq's and HP's, especially the new HP's, the format and re-install programs are on a separate partition of the hard drive and you run it a startup.


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## Bama Mac (May 12, 2004)

You need to go into the BIOS at start up and disable the HDD from booting up at start up, then reboot with the OS cd. I am not sure which F? key your laptop uses to get into the BIOS. Some use the F2 or F11. The F8 is probably used to boot up in the safe mode.

What's happening is with out your HDD not disabled at start up the laptop is still recognizing the the OS on the HDD and protects it from being deleted. Once you have the HDD disabled and boot from the OS cd during the setup process it will find the partition on the HDD and then it will give you the option to format the existing partition.

If you need any more detailed help please don't hesitate to PM me or email.


Barry


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## RandallA (Feb 4, 2005)

Bama Mac said:


> You need to go into the BIOS at start up and disable the HDD from booting up at start up, then reboot with the OS cd. I am not sure which F? key your laptop uses to get into the BIOS. Some use the F2 or F11. The F8 is probably used to boot up in the safe mode.
> 
> What's happening is with out your HDD not disabled at start up the laptop is still recognizing the the OS on the HDD and protects it from being deleted. Once you have the HDD disabled and boot from the OS cd during the setup process it will find the partition on the HDD and then it will give you the option to format the existing partition.
> 
> ...


That has nothing to do with his problem. He is obviously booting from the diskette because he can run FDISK. So he has the floppy drive to boot first.

I think the previous poster has it right, Dell, Compaq and HP create a small partition for their diagnostic utilities. There is some third party utility preventing you from deleting the partition.

One more thing to try: FDISK /MBR

Can you tell us what brand, model the laptop is? Also, what kind of hard drive?
Go to Control Panel, System, Device Manager, and expand Disk Drives. It should tell you what model the hard drive is. Maybe we can find a utility from the hard drive's manufacturer that will allow you to delete the MBR or write 0's to it.


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## invaliduser88 (Apr 23, 2002)

I'm gearing up for an OS reload myself. The home system has just became too flaky!


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## Bama Mac (May 12, 2004)

RandallA said:


> That has nothing to do with his problem. He is obviously booting from the diskette because he can run FDISK. So he has the floppy drive to boot first.
> 
> I think the previous poster has it right, Dell, Compaq and HP create a small partition for their diagnostic utilities. There is some third party utility preventing you from deleting the partition.
> 
> ...


 You can change the boot sequence of the drives so the CD rom drive boots first and you are able to run the FDISK, but if you do not disable the HDD from booting up at all the existing partition with the OS will still be protected from being deleted, because the HDD did boot the existing OS.

This is why his old files are being saved. With a recovery CD this wouldn't be neccessary. This is just from my experiences of reformatting about 50 HDD over the past several years.


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## RandallA (Feb 4, 2005)

When you boot from a CD or a floppy diskette, the computer will see the hard drive but it won't "protect" any files in the hard drive. The computer is loading the system files from the floppy or CD. Whey you select the device order in the BIOS, all you are doing is telling the computer where to look first for the system files. If it doesn't find them, it moves to the next device.

The question here to the OP is where are your booting from? If you are just hitting F8 or F5 and booting from the HD (going to DOS mode) then yes the partition is being protected because that's where you are booting from. You need to boot from a floppy or a CD and then run FDISK.

Here is a utility that might help you.
http://www.aefdisk.com/

Download the trial version and boot from the floppy. Run "aefdisk /delall" and it will delete the all the partitions. I just tried it on two hard drives and it wipes out the partitions.


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## Bama Mac (May 12, 2004)

Randall

Never used that prog, but I guess both processes will accomplish the same results.


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## RandallA (Feb 4, 2005)

I just found it this morning and it seems to do the trick. I always use the boot disks from Partition Magic 7 and that works very well. Partition Magic can see all types of partitions, NTFS, Linux, FAT, FAT32 and even Netware partitions so I always have them handy.

FDISK is very basic but it should work most of the time.


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## Bama Mac (May 12, 2004)

RandallA said:


> I just found it this morning and it seems to do the trick. I always use the boot disks from Partition Magic 7 and that works very well. Partition Magic can see all types of partitions, NTFS, Linux, FAT, FAT32 and even Netware partitions so I always have them handy.
> 
> FDISK is very basic but it should work most of the time.


 I have always used Partition Magic 8.


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## lee635 (Apr 17, 2002)

I would think twice before wiping that laptop. 

My experience is that they often have proprietary hardware that requires obscure drivers. Also, if you have all the drivers needed, make sure to write down the existing settings. Also, I've had a couple laptops where you had to install the special drivers in a certain order to get the cantankerous old things to work.


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

Ok...It is a Dell Inspiron 8000. I tried to find the maker of the hard drive...but in device manager there is no Disk Drives...The closest thing is Hard Disk Controller.


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

lee635 said:


> I would think twice before wiping that laptop.
> 
> My experience is that they often have proprietary hardware that requires obscure drivers. Also, if you have all the drivers needed, make sure to write down the existing settings. Also, I've had a couple laptops where you had to install the special drivers in a certain order to get the cantankerous old things to work.


I have 2 other disks from dell. Inspiron System Software & Dell-Installed Programs. Those should take care of drivers.


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## RandallA (Feb 4, 2005)

I just got into the Dell support site and they show Hitachi hard drives for Inspiron 8000 laptops.

Try this utility from Hitachi (Drive Fitness Test) and see if it helps:
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

If your HD is Hitachi then it will find it when you run the utility.

You want to erase the bootsector in the utilities menu. That should wipe out the partitions information and allow you to run FDISK to create a new partition and reinstall the OS.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

I reformat my hard drive in my older computer every few months, sometimes weeks or even days, playing around with different MS operating systems, and it’s always been about the same process, from Windows 95/NT 4.0 to Windows 2003 Enterprise Server (that includes ME). I have done this many times with all of Microsoft’s OS’s and it’s always been a painless process. 

Stick in the Windows install disc, when you reboot the computer should automatically boot from the CD, cycle through the blue setup screens, press F8 to accept the license agreement, a scan of the hardware will take place, then you'll get a screen with a list of all your partitions, press D to delete the partition, there will be a warning and press L to confirm the deletion, at this point your hard drive is a paperweight. If you want, eject the Windows CD and reboot your computer. You’ll get a message that says something to the effect of ‘No Operating System Found on This Hard Drive’. The drive is completely empty. Reinsert the disc, go through the installation process. When prompted press C to create a new partition or just hit enter to use the entire hard drive. No need for boot floppies (None of my machines even have floppy drives), no Partition Magic, no playing around in the Fdisk menu, it’s a pretty straight forward process and I have never used anything to create/delete partitions or format drives besides a Windows install CD or the Computer Management Utility in 2K/XP/2K3.


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## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

Steve Mehs said:


> .............Stick in the Windows install disc, when you reboot the computer should automatically boot from the CD, cycle through the blue setup screens, press F8 to accept the license agreement, a scan of the hardware will take place, then you'll get a screen with a list of all your partitions, press D to delete the partition, there will be a warning and press L to confirm the deletion, at this point your hard drive is a paperweight. If you want, eject the Windows CD and reboot your computer. You'll get a message that says something to the effect of 'No Operating System Found on This Hard Drive'. The drive is completely empty..................


Not exactly true. Although the partitions have been deleted the data is still there and can _sometimes_ be recovered with certain utilities.


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## Bama Mac (May 12, 2004)

Steve Mehs said:


> No need for boot floppies (None of my machines even have floppy drives), no Partition Magic, no playing around in the Fdisk menu, it's a pretty straight forward process and I have never used anything to create/delete partitions or format drives besides a Windows install CD or the Computer Management Utility in 2K/XP/2K3.


 Like Steve said, I have never used anything but the Windows install CD to format the HDD.

Only use PM to create partitions after install.


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## RandallA (Feb 4, 2005)

I have run into hard drives that had been partitioned before with some third party utilities. The Windows install CD could not recognize the partitions and will not use the space used by those partition. 
That's when Partition Magic came into play and took care of the problem. I agree, the Windows Install CD should take care of 95% of the hard drives but when I run into problems, PM always takes care of the problem.


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

Thanks for all of your help guys...but I just purchased a Dell Inspiron 700m. I needed something with a little more memory and XP Pro. Great Value for the size!

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_700m?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs


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## cdru (Dec 4, 2003)

I would have held out for the new Dell with the 19" screen coming soon. It won't be so much a laptop as a small easel. Well, OK. A large easel. I have a hard enough time opening a 14" lappy on an airplane seat... I can't imagine what a 19" would be like. I'm sure the passengers on both sides of me would also enjoy the show.


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

cdru said:


> I would have held out for the new Dell with the 19" screen coming soon. It won't be so much a laptop as a small easel. Well, OK. A large easel. I have a hard enough time opening a 14" lappy on an airplane seat... I can't imagine what a 19" would be like. I'm sure the passengers on both sides of me would also enjoy the show.


Well...I decided on the 700m because it was so compact...easy to use on the go, in the car, on a plane, ect.


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## Laverne (Feb 17, 2005)

Damn! Twice in one day to agree w/ Mr. Fun! Y'all watch out, cuz Hell _MUST_ be freezing over! :sure:  :lol: This is the same laptop DH got for work about a month ago (well, FROM work, "work" paid for it ), and _I like it also_! :grin: Yes, the screen is small, but it's _incredibly_ lightweight, and the screen doesn't get dimmer when you pull the power cord. It will also open up farther than 180°. Arguably, I'm not sure when I'd make use of that feature. I also like the white on the sides, it reminds me of an old appliance. (Yes, that's lame.  So sue me! :shrug: )


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## RandallA (Feb 4, 2005)

That is a sweet laptop. We got one last month for one of the users and it's light and small but very powerful laptop. Good buy!


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

Laverne said:


> Damn! Twice in one day to agree w/ Mr. Fun! Y'all watch out, cuz Hell _MUST_ be freezing over! :sure:  :lol: This is the same laptop DH got for work about a month ago (well, FROM work, "work" paid for it ), and _I like it also_! :grin: Yes, the screen is small, but it's _incredibly_ lightweight, and the screen doesn't get dimmer when you pull the power cord. It will also open up farther than 180°. Arguably, I'm not sure when I'd make use of that feature. I also like the white on the sides, it reminds me of an old appliance. (Yes, that's lame.  So sue me! :shrug: )


LOL LOL LOL :hurah: :lol: :hurah:

That IS strange!


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