Format Hard Drive

[julieann]

I have an old desktop computer with Windows 95 and Works. I have the original software disks for both programs. I wish to format the hard drive. Can anyone tell me how to do this?

[bluedolphin]

OK from memory....When you are shutting down the machine you are given the option to reboot in dos mode. Click on this and the machine will start again showing you the dos prompt C: Now you type format C: It should like this C:formatC: and press enter. There should be a warning displayed saying that if you continue all contents on the dirve will be erased. Type in Y if you want to continue. AS I said above this is from memory. WHen you start to load win95 have a spare blank floppy handy coz it will ask you for it during installation to make a boot disk from it (so that you will be able to start the program with this disk in the future if somehting goes pearshaped). Keep the boot disk in a safe place cos it is a life saver.

[j2buttonsw]

Create a startup floppy disk (start-settings-control panel- add/remove programs the 3rd tab is startup disk) then boot from it. At the A: prompt type format c:

[bluedolphin]

OOPs forgot to add. When the formatting has been completed switch of the computer. Then insert the win95 disc into the floppy and switch on. The computer will search the A: drive (floppy) and start to read from the Win 95 disc. Then all you have to do is to follow the onscreen directions.

[julieann]

My win 95 disk is a CD does that make a difference? Is it then easy to reload all the original software? Thanks for all the help so far by the way.

[bluedolphin]

If your win 95 is on cd then you will need to use a startup disc. Before you format the drive create a start up disc. You will need a blank floppy for this. How to created a start up disc is shown above by j2buttonsw posting. You will need this because it will direct the computer to look for the cd rom on your machine when the machines starts. If you dont have a startup disc the computer wont know that there is cdrom attached. So to recheck before you format the hard drive make sure you have those 2 floppy discs. The start up disc and the boot disc ( I have a sneaking memory that they contain the same things) but in any case just have the two. Installing the oringal software shouldn't be a problem.

[j2buttonsw]

I think the Windows 95 startup disk does not have CD ROM support (correct me if I am wrong) but the CD is bootable. Adjust the BIOS so you boot from a CD, boot from the Windows 95 disc then follow the installation instructions. If you can't make the PC boot from the CD, try making a startup disk from a Windows 98/98SE/Me machine then selecting CD support from the menu. Boot from the floppy, put the Windows 95 CD in the CDROM then at the A: prompt type setup The classic way of installing Windows 95 is copying the Win95 directory from the CD to the hard drive then running the setup from C:\win95\setup.exe Whatever way, you must have a valid CD Key and also all the driver CDs for the mainboard/video card/modem/sound card etc Once there are no errors in the device manager you can install the applications. BTW, why not over-install Windows 95 and save yourself a lot of trouble? Or better still, install Windows 2000!

[TheheftyGeorge]

Put the drive into your ***!