Hard Drive Reformat with Win2000, HELP!
I have decided to reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows 2000 clean. I have backed up all my files. I don't know quite how to proceed. The Windows 2000 boot disks created off the CD are meant for use with installing Win2k AFTER the reformat and F-disk.
I have decided to reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows 2000 clean. I have backed up all my files. I don't know quite how to proceed.
The Windows 2000 boot disks created off the CD are meant for use with installing Win2k AFTER the reformat and F-disk.
As far as I know, Win2000 doesn't allow you to create a normal boot disk. My hard drive uses the NTFS File system, so I can't boot to DOS and do the reformat. I tried making a boot disk using my other Win98 machine, and this allows me to boot, but I cannot access C:\ in order to reformat it ("Invalid drive specification"). F-disk displays partition info correctly, but I thought you have to reformat the hard drive before running F-disk to delete a partition. If anyone can help, please do. I'm at my wits' end.
- Xavier211
The Windows 2000 boot disks created off the CD are meant for use with installing Win2k AFTER the reformat and F-disk.
As far as I know, Win2000 doesn't allow you to create a normal boot disk. My hard drive uses the NTFS File system, so I can't boot to DOS and do the reformat. I tried making a boot disk using my other Win98 machine, and this allows me to boot, but I cannot access C:\ in order to reformat it ("Invalid drive specification"). F-disk displays partition info correctly, but I thought you have to reformat the hard drive before running F-disk to delete a partition. If anyone can help, please do. I'm at my wits' end.
- Xavier211
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Responses to this topic
Boot off your Windows 2000 CD and delete your C: drive and then doing a clean reformat within the Windows 2000 installation menu.
Or you could boot off the Windows 98 disk and fdisk the C: drive and remove the NTFS and put FAT32 back again (this will allow you to see the drive again but it will lose everything in that drive) Why did you use NTFS filesystem? If you're running games stick with FAT32. NTFS is meant for really really secure mode and protection. Unless you have a constant attack on your PC
------------------
Supermicro P6DBE Rev 3.0 Motherboard
Dual Intel Pentium III 850
512 MEGS of ECC RAM
Sound Blaster Live!
Adaptec 29160 SCSI Card
GeForce 2 GTS 64MB
IBM DMVS18N Ultra 160 Hard Drive
Seagate Cheetah X-15 ST318451LW Ultra 160 SCSI Hard Drive
Razer Boom Slang 2000 (USB)
Roland Sound Canvis SC-55
3COM 3CR990-TX-97 with 3XP Processor 10/100 PCI Network Interface Card
Plextor Plexwriter 12/4/32
Pioneer 10X DVD-ROM
Sony GDM-F500R Monitor
Or you could boot off the Windows 98 disk and fdisk the C: drive and remove the NTFS and put FAT32 back again (this will allow you to see the drive again but it will lose everything in that drive) Why did you use NTFS filesystem? If you're running games stick with FAT32. NTFS is meant for really really secure mode and protection. Unless you have a constant attack on your PC
------------------
Supermicro P6DBE Rev 3.0 Motherboard
Dual Intel Pentium III 850
512 MEGS of ECC RAM
Sound Blaster Live!
Adaptec 29160 SCSI Card
GeForce 2 GTS 64MB
IBM DMVS18N Ultra 160 Hard Drive
Seagate Cheetah X-15 ST318451LW Ultra 160 SCSI Hard Drive
Razer Boom Slang 2000 (USB)
Roland Sound Canvis SC-55
3COM 3CR990-TX-97 with 3XP Processor 10/100 PCI Network Interface Card
Plextor Plexwriter 12/4/32
Pioneer 10X DVD-ROM
Sony GDM-F500R Monitor
Quote:<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by MarksmanX:
Boot off your Windows 2000 CD and delete your C: drive and then doing a clean reformat within the Windows 2000 installation menu.
Or you could boot off the Windows 98 disk and fdisk the C: drive and remove the NTFS and put FAT32 back again (this will allow you to see the drive again but it will lose everything in that drive) Why did you use NTFS filesystem? If you're running games stick with FAT32. NTFS is meant for really really secure mode and protection. Unless you have a constant attack on your PC
</font>
How would I do this? Boot off the CD? By going to BIOS and changing boot sequence?
As for the second method, do you mean I should delete the NTFS partition?
Boot off your Windows 2000 CD and delete your C: drive and then doing a clean reformat within the Windows 2000 installation menu.
Or you could boot off the Windows 98 disk and fdisk the C: drive and remove the NTFS and put FAT32 back again (this will allow you to see the drive again but it will lose everything in that drive) Why did you use NTFS filesystem? If you're running games stick with FAT32. NTFS is meant for really really secure mode and protection. Unless you have a constant attack on your PC
</font>
How would I do this? Boot off the CD? By going to BIOS and changing boot sequence?
As for the second method, do you mean I should delete the NTFS partition?
Quote:<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Xavier211:
How would I do this? Boot off the CD? By going to BIOS and changing boot sequence?
As for the second method, do you mean I should delete the NTFS partition?</font>
First makesure you have the latest bios for your motherboard. If you need to flash your bios don't forget to reset the motherboard with. Once you have reseted the motherboard adjust your bios setting accordingly. If you're new to bios settings and don't know what you're doing don't update your bios and totally skip this part.
Second go into your bios settings and select boot from ATAPI CD-ROM. Insert the Windows 2000 CD in the drive. Save and reboot. Once the boot sequence is done it will prompt you to press enter to boot from CD or it will boot to your secondary device (SCSI or EIDE Hard Drive). You should be in that blue installation screen at this point if you agreed to boot off from the CD. It will ask you to repair Windows 2000 or a freshinstall. You want a freshinstall . It will show you what Hard Drives are available for you to install Windows 2000 in. At this point you have the option to delete the drive and do a fresh format. Do you select C: drive press the D key it will delete everything in the drive. You will have to do a conformation that you want to do this by pressing the L key. Once the drive is erased highlight that empty drive and install Windows 2000. It will prompt you that you need to format that drive to NTFS or FAT32. Choose what you want. Than a format will being and you can go watch TV for an hour or so. When you return you should be at the enter the CD KEY screen. I have SCSI drives and I have had no problems in doing this
But, if Windows 2000 doesn't allow you to delete the C: drive for some odd reason you have to FDISK it. Boot off the Windows 98 bootdisk and remove the C: partion and install the FAT32 file format. You will have to format the C: drive and than you will be able to install Windows 2000 again.
If you can't boot off the CD than you can copy the file to your drive after your format. The folder you need to copy is the i386 folder. Type Winnt or Winnt32 and it will start the installation process. If you have any trouble reply to this message
------------------
Supermicro P6DBE Rev 3.0 Motherboard
Dual Intel Pentium III 850
512 MEGS of ECC RAM
Sound Blaster Live!
Adaptec 29160 SCSI Card
GeForce 2 GTS 64MB
IBM DMVS18N Ultra 160 Hard Drive
Seagate Cheetah X-15 ST318451LW Ultra 160 SCSI Hard Drive
Razer Boom Slang 2000 (USB)
Roland Sound Canvis SC-55
3COM 3CR990-TX-97 with 3XP Processor 10/100 PCI Network Interface Card
Plextor Plexwriter 12/4/32
Pioneer 10X DVD-ROM
Sony GDM-F500R Monitor
How would I do this? Boot off the CD? By going to BIOS and changing boot sequence?
As for the second method, do you mean I should delete the NTFS partition?</font>
First makesure you have the latest bios for your motherboard. If you need to flash your bios don't forget to reset the motherboard with. Once you have reseted the motherboard adjust your bios setting accordingly. If you're new to bios settings and don't know what you're doing don't update your bios and totally skip this part.
Second go into your bios settings and select boot from ATAPI CD-ROM. Insert the Windows 2000 CD in the drive. Save and reboot. Once the boot sequence is done it will prompt you to press enter to boot from CD or it will boot to your secondary device (SCSI or EIDE Hard Drive). You should be in that blue installation screen at this point if you agreed to boot off from the CD. It will ask you to repair Windows 2000 or a freshinstall. You want a freshinstall . It will show you what Hard Drives are available for you to install Windows 2000 in. At this point you have the option to delete the drive and do a fresh format. Do you select C: drive press the D key it will delete everything in the drive. You will have to do a conformation that you want to do this by pressing the L key. Once the drive is erased highlight that empty drive and install Windows 2000. It will prompt you that you need to format that drive to NTFS or FAT32. Choose what you want. Than a format will being and you can go watch TV for an hour or so. When you return you should be at the enter the CD KEY screen. I have SCSI drives and I have had no problems in doing this
But, if Windows 2000 doesn't allow you to delete the C: drive for some odd reason you have to FDISK it. Boot off the Windows 98 bootdisk and remove the C: partion and install the FAT32 file format. You will have to format the C: drive and than you will be able to install Windows 2000 again.
If you can't boot off the CD than you can copy the file to your drive after your format. The folder you need to copy is the i386 folder. Type Winnt or Winnt32 and it will start the installation process. If you have any trouble reply to this message
------------------
Supermicro P6DBE Rev 3.0 Motherboard
Dual Intel Pentium III 850
512 MEGS of ECC RAM
Sound Blaster Live!
Adaptec 29160 SCSI Card
GeForce 2 GTS 64MB
IBM DMVS18N Ultra 160 Hard Drive
Seagate Cheetah X-15 ST318451LW Ultra 160 SCSI Hard Drive
Razer Boom Slang 2000 (USB)
Roland Sound Canvis SC-55
3COM 3CR990-TX-97 with 3XP Processor 10/100 PCI Network Interface Card
Plextor Plexwriter 12/4/32
Pioneer 10X DVD-ROM
Sony GDM-F500R Monitor
Quote:<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Xavier211:
As for the second method, do you mean I should delete the NTFS partition?</font>
If Windows 2000 cannot delete NTFS partion than yes. But it shouldn't do that But you have to do a FAT32 first and than convert it to NTFS after if you REALLY want NTFS that is
As for the second method, do you mean I should delete the NTFS partition?</font>
If Windows 2000 cannot delete NTFS partion than yes. But it shouldn't do that But you have to do a FAT32 first and than convert it to NTFS after if you REALLY want NTFS that is
