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Thread ID: 65059 2006-01-06 00:54:00 Formatting Hard Disc rdee (1809) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
418654 2006-01-06 00:54:00 HI,I have a trial XP PRO which has expired & cannot boot up normally.Does anybody know how to FORMAT my hard disc from SAFE MODE so I can reinstall Windows 98SE.RUN>FDISC does not work.This was just a 'hack' LapTop with nothing worth keeping on-but now needed.Any ideas.Thankyou rdee rdee (1809)
418655 2006-01-06 01:05:00 You should be able to run FDISK from the W98SE boot disk, and then format to FAT again. The partitioning level isn't an XP thing, it's totally generic. Graham L (2)
418656 2006-01-06 01:08:00 windows can't format over itself, you need to use a boot disk. tweak'e (69)
418657 2006-01-06 02:42:00 windows can't format over itself, you need to use a boot disk.

Put in a windows 98 startup disk and format it from dos.

At the dos prompt type:

format c:

where c: is the drive you wish to format, then follow instruction. Or you can go for the easier one, which I think just connect to another XP computer (or windows 2K) then format it there using disk manage tool from start>accessories or just right click on my computer and choose manage. This way is the quicker way to format or you can use partition magic prog.
lightfoot (39)
418658 2006-01-06 02:54:00 yep, exactly. you can't format c: if you have windows running, you got to do it from a boot disk.

BTW free partitioning tools such as randish are very handy for this. its far better than 9x fdisk/format and is far cheaper than partition magic.
tweak'e (69)
418659 2006-01-07 05:10:00 Thankyou folk for the info-I have done the deed.rdee rdee (1809)
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