Reformat hard drive

micknor · 06-26-2008, 02:49 AM

How do I clear off and reformat a Dell laptop please?

craigwatanabe · 06-26-2008, 02:58 AM

Basically you want to clear that hard drive of everything?

If so you'll need a 3.5" bootable diskette and reboot your laptop with the disk installed, then at the A:/ prompt type in "Format c:/" to initialize a format of the C: in DOS.

Do you know anyone that has a computer running Windows 98? You can make a bootable diskette that way.

You can also make on thru XP however I have never been able to make one from XP that will work.

**simpswr** · 06-26-2008, 05:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by micknor

How do I clear off and reformat a Dell laptop please?

and welcome to the Forum

First, be sure that you do not have a Restoration partition on your laptop . . if you do, you press cntl + F11 ti initiate it. It will restore the laptop to the state it was shipped.

For more, see this

If not, there is not need for a separate boot disc . . you can format early in the reinstallation process . . boot from the Dell Reinstallation CD,

You can get a reinstallation guide specific to your Dell here
http://support.dell.com/support/topi...n&s=dhs&~ck=mn

This is a great guide for reinstalling on a Dell: http://www.djdenham.com/Install%20Procedures.htm

This is a site that walks you thru a simulated XP installation:
http://www.echoproject.net/en/software/catalog.html

These are good guides to reinstalling XP . . you might want to print one for reference during the install.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...p_sg_clean.asp
http://www.socrtwo.info/cleanxpinstall.htm
http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_home_..._-_graphic.htm

06-26-2008, 02:49 AM	#1 (permalink)
micknor Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 1 OS: XP2	Reformat hard drive How do I clear off and reformat a Dell laptop please?

06-26-2008, 02:58 AM	#2 (permalink)
craigwatanabe Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 262 OS: xp	Re: Reformat hard drive Basically you want to clear that hard drive of everything? If so you'll need a 3.5" bootable diskette and reboot your laptop with the disk installed, then at the A:/ prompt type in "Format c:/" to initialize a format of the C: in DOS. Do you know anyone that has a computer running Windows 98? You can make a bootable diskette that way. You can also make on thru XP however I have never been able to make one from XP that will work. __________________ A computer is only as powerful as it's user so build wisely.